Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd Ed. Volume 1

CHAPTER I.

Speculative Philosophy in Greece, before and in the time of Sokrates.

Change in the political condition of Greece during the life of Plato 1

Early Greek mind, satisfied with the belief in polytheistic personal agents, as the real producing causes of phenomena 2

Belief in such agency continued among the general public, even after the various sects of philosophy had arisen 3

Thales, the first Greek who propounded the hypothesis of physical agency in place of personal. Water, the primordial substance, or [Greek: a)rchê/] 4

Anaximander--laid down as [Greek: a)rchê/] the Infinite or Indeterminate--generation of the elements out of it, by evolution of latent, fundamental contraries--astronomical and geological doctrines ib.

Anaximenes--adopted Air as [Greek: a)rchê/]--rise of substances out of it, by condensation and rarefaction 7

Pythagoras--his life and career--Pythagorean brotherhood--great political influence which it acquired among the Greco-Italian cities--incurred great enmity, and was violently put down 8

The Pythagoreans continue as a recluse sect, without political power 9

Doctrine of the Pythagoreans--Number the Essence of Things ib.

The Monas--[Greek: a)rchê/], or principle of Number--geometrical conception of number--symbolical attributes of the first ten numbers, especially of the Dekad 11

Pythagorean Kosmos and Astronomy--geometrical and harmonic laws guiding the movements of the cosmical bodies 12

Music of the Spheres 14

Pythagorean list of fundamental Contraries--Ten opposing pairs ib.

Eleatic philosophy--Xenophanes 16

His censures upon the received Theogony and religious rites ib.

His doctrine of Pankosmism; or Pantheism--the whole Kosmos is Ens Unum or God--[Greek: E(\n kai\ Pan]. Non-Ens inadmissible 17

Scepticism of Xenophanes--complaint of philosophy as unsatisfactory 18

His conjectures on physics and astronomy ib.

Parmenides continues the doctrine of Xenophanes--Ens Parmenideum, self-existent, eternal, unchangeable, extended--Non-Ens, an unmeaning phrase 19

He recognises a region of opinion, phenomenal and relative, apart from Ens 20

Parmenidean ontology--stands completely apart from phenomenology 21

Parmenidean phenomenology--relative and variable 23

Parmenides recognises no truth, but more or less of probability, in phenomenal explanations.--His physical and astronomical conjectures 24

Herakleitus--his obscure style, impressive metaphors, confident and contemptuous dogmatism 26

Doctrine of Herakleitus--perpetual process of generation and destruction--everything flows, nothing stands--transition of the elements into each other backwards and forwards 27

Variety of metaphors employed by Herakleitus, signifying the same general doctrine 28

Nothing permanent except the law of process and implication of contraries--the transmutative force. Fixity of particulars is an illusion for the most part: so far as it exists, it is a sin against the order of Nature 29

Illustrations by which Herakleitus symbolized his perpetual force, destroying and generating 30

Water--Intermediate between Fire (Air) and Earth 31

Sun and Stars--not solid bodies, but meteoric aggregations dissipated and renewed--Eclipses--[Greek: e)kpu/rôsis], or destruction of the Kosmos by fire 32

His doctrines respecting the human soul and human knowledge. All wisdom resided in the Universal Reason--individual Reason is worthless 34

By Universal Reason, he did not mean the Reason of most men as it is, but as it ought to be 35

Herakleitus at the opposite pole from Parmenides 37

Empedokles--his doctrine of the four elements and two moving or restraining forces ib.

Construction of the Kosmos from these elements and forces--action and counteraction of love and enmity. The Kosmos alternately made and unmade 38

Empedoklean predestined cycle of things--complete empire of Love Sphærus--Empire of Enmity--disengagement or separation of the elements--astronomy and meteorology 39

Formation of the Earth, of Gods, men, animals, and plants 41

Physiology of Empedokles--Procreation--Respiration--movement of the blood 43

Doctrine of effluvia and pores--explanation of perceptions--intercommunication of the elements with the sentient subject--like acting upon like 44

Sense of vision 45

Senses of hearing, smell, taste 46

Empedokles declared that justice absolutely forbade the killing of anything that had life. His belief in the metempsychosis. Sufferings of life, are an expiation for wrong done during an antecedent life. Pretensions to magical power 46

Complaint of Empedokles on the impossibility of finding out truth 47

Theory of Anaxagoras denied--generation and destruction--recognised only mixture and severance of pre-existing kinds of matter 48

Homoeomeries--small particles of diverse kinds of matter, all mixed together ib.

First condition of things all--the primordial varieties of matter were huddled together in confusion. [Greek: Nou=s] or reason, distinct from all of them, supervened and acted upon this confused mass, setting the constituent particles in movement 49

Movement of rotation in the mass, originated by [Greek: Nou=s] on a small scale, but gradually extending itself. Like particles congregate together--distinguishable aggregates are formed 50

Nothing (except [Greek: Nou=s]) can be entirely pure or unmixed; but other things may be comparatively pure. Flesh, Bone, &c., are purer than Air or Earth 51

Theory of Anaxagoras, compared with that of Empedokles 52

Suggested partly by the phenomena of of animal nutrition 53

Chaos common to both Empedokles and Anaxagoras: moving agency, different in one from the other theory 54

Plato and Aristotle blame Anaxagoras for deserting his own theory 56

Astronomy and physics of Anaxagoras 57

His geology, meteorology, physiology 58

The doctrines of Anaxagoras were regarded as offensive and impious 59

Diogenes of Apollonia recognises one primordial element 60

Air was the primordial, universal element 61

Air possessed numerous and diverse properties; was eminently modifiable ib.

Physiology of Diogenes--his description of the veins in the human body 62

Kosmology and Meteorology 64

Leukippus and Demokritus--Atomic theory 65

Long life, varied travels, and numerous compositions, of Demokritus ib.

Relation between the theory of Demokritus and that of Parmenides 66

Demokritean theory--Atoms Plena and Vacua--Ens and Non-Ens 67

Primordial atoms differed only in magnitude, figure, position, and arrangement--they had no qualities, but their movements and combinations generated qualities 69

Combination of atoms--generating different qualities in the compound 70

All atoms essentially separate from each other 71

All properties of objects, except weight and hardness, were phenomenal and relative to the observer. Sensation could give no knowledge of the real and absolute ib.

Reason alone gave true and real knowledge, but very little of it was attainable 72

No separate force required to set the atoms in motion--they moved by an inherent force of their own. Like atoms naturally tend towards like. Rotatory motion, the capital fact of the Kosmos 72

Researches of Demokritus on zoology and animal generation 75

His account of mind--he identified it with heat or fire, diffused throughout animals, plants, and nature generally. Mental particles intermingled throughout all frame with corporeal particles ib.

Different mental aptitudes attached to different parts of the body 76

Explanation of different sensations and perceptions. Colours 77

Vision caused by the outflow of effluvia or images from objects. Hearing 78

Difference of tastes--how explained ib.

Thought or intelligence--was produced by influx of atoms from without 79

Sensation, obscure knowledge relative to the sentient: Thought, genuine knowledge--absolute, or object per se 80

Idola or images were thrown off from objects, which determined the tone of thoughts, feelings, dreams, divinations, &c. 81

Universality of Demokritus--his ethical views 82

CHAPTER II.

General Remarks on the Earlier Philosophers--Growth of Dialectic--Zeno and Gorgias.

Variety of sects and theories--multiplicity of individual authorities is the characteristic of Greek philosophy 84

These early theorists are not known from their own writings, which have been lost. Importance of the information of Aristotle about them 85

Abundance of speculative genius and invention--a memorable fact in the Hellenic mind 86

Difficulties which a Grecian philosopher had to overcome--prevalent view of Nature, established, impressive, and misleading ib.

Views of the Ionic philosophers--compared with the more recent abstractions of Plato and Aristotle 87

Parmenides and Pythagoras--more nearly akin to Plato and Aristotle 89

Advantage derived from this variety of constructive imagination among the Greeks 90

All these theories were found in circulation by Sokrates, Zeno, Plato, and the dialecticians. Importance of the scrutiny of negative Dialectic 91

The early theorists were studied, along with Plato and Aristotle, in the third and second centuries B.C. 92

Negative attribute common to all the early theorists--little or no dialectic 93

Zeno of Elea--Melissus ib.

Zeno's Dialectic--he refuted the opponents of Parmenides, by showing that their assumptions led to contradictions and absurdities 93

Consequences of their assumption of Entia Plura Discontinua. Reductiones ad absurdum 94

Each thing must exist in its own place--Grain of millet not sonorous 95

Zenonian arguments in regard to motion 97

General purpose and result of the Zenonian Dialectic. Nothing is knowable except the relative 98

Mistake of supposing Zeno's reductiones ad absurdum of an opponent's doctrine, to be contradictions of data generalized from experience 99

Zenonian Dialectic--Platonic Parmenides 100

Views of historians of philosophy, respecting Zeno 101

Absolute and relative--the first, unknowable ib.

Zeno did not deny motion, as a fact, phenomenal and relative 102

Gorgias the Leontine--did not admit the Absolute, even as conceived by Parmenides 103

His reasonings against the Absolute, either as Ens or Entia ib.

Ens, incogitable and unknowable 104

Ens, even if granted to be knowable, is still incommunicable to others ib.

Zeno and Gorgias--contrasted with the earlier Grecian philosophers 105

New character of Grecian philosophy--antithesis of affirmative and negative--proof and disproof ib.

CHAPTER III.. Other Companions of Sokrates.

Other Companions of Sokrates.

Influence exercised by Sokrates over his companions 110

Names of those companions 111

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