A pupil of Xenocrates, he believed that philosophy should be practiced rather than just studied, and he placed the highest good in living according to nature.

Polemon immediately tore off his garland and remained an attentive listener, and from that day he adopted a modest and restrained course of life, and continued to frequent the school.

[8] He esteemed the object of philosophy to be to exercise people in things and deeds, not in dialectic speculations;[9] his character was grave and severe;[8] and he took pride in displaying the mastery which he had acquired over emotions of every sort.

[6] According to Diogenes Laërtius, Polemon wrote several treatises, of which none were extant when the Suda was compiled.

There is, however, a quotation made by Clement of Alexandria, either from Polemon or from another philosopher of the same name, "in Concerning the Life in Accordance with Nature" (Greek: ἐν τοῖς περὶ τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν βίου),[10] and another passage,[11] upon happiness, which agrees precisely with the statement of Cicero,[12] that Polemon placed the summum bonum (highest good) in living according to the laws of nature.