The First Philosophers of Greece

Part 1

Transcriber’s Note: In the original, parts of this book were printed with the Greek text on one page with critical notes below, and the English translation on the facing page. This is not practical to reproduce in an e-text, so the Greek is given first, followed by the critical notes, followed by the translation.

THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

AN EDITION AND TRANSLATION OF THE REMAINING FRAGMENTS OF THE PRE-SOKRATIC PHILOSOPHERS, TOGETHER WITH A TRANSLATION OF THE MORE IMPORTANT ACCOUNTS OF THEIR OPINIONS CONTAINED IN THE EARLY EPITOMES OF THEIR WORKS

BY ARTHUR FAIRBANKS

LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO. LTD. PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD 1898

(The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved)

PREFACE

The Hegelian School, and in particular Zeller, have shown us the place of the earlier thinkers in the history of Greek thought, and the importance of a knowledge of their work for all who wish to understand Plato and Aristotle. Since Zeller’s monumental work, several writers (e.g. Benn, Greek Philosophers, vol. i. London 1888; Tannery, Science hellène, Paris 1887; Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, London 1892) have traced for us the history of this development, but the student who desires to go behind these accounts and examine the evidence for himself still finds the material difficult of access. This material consists of numerous short fragments preserved by later writers, and of accounts of the opinions of these thinkers given mainly by Aristotle and by the Greek doxographists (i.e. students of early thought who made epitomes of the opinions of the masters). The Greek text of the doxographists is now accessible to students in the admirable critical edition of H. Diels (Berlin 1879). The Greek text of the fragments has been published in numerous short monographs, most of which are not readily accessible to the student to-day; it is contained with a vast deal of other matter in Mullach’s Fragmenta Graecorum Philosophorum (Paris 1883-1888, vol. i.-iii.), but the text is in many places so carelessly constructed that it does not serve the purposes of the scholar.

In the present work it has been my plan to prepare for the student a Greek text of the fragments of these early philosophers which shall represent as accurately as possible the results of recent scholarship, and to add such critical notes as may be necessary to enable the scholar to see on what basis the text rests. From this text I have prepared a translation of the fragments into English, and along with this a translation of the important passages bearing on these early thinkers in Plato and Aristotle, and in the Greek doxographists as collected by Diels, in order that the student of early Greek thought might have before him in compact form practically all the materials on which the history of this thought is to be based. It has been difficult, especially in the case of Herakleitos and the Pythagoreans, to draw the line between material to be inserted, and that to be omitted; but, in order to keep the volume within moderate limits, my principle has been to insert only the passages from Plato and Aristotle and from the doxographists.

The Greek text of Herakleitos is based on the edition of Bywater; that of Xenophanes on the edition of the Greek lyric poets by Hiller-Bergk; that of Parmenides on the edition of Karsten; and that of Empedokles on the edition of Stein. I have not hesitated, however, to differ from these authorities in minor details, indicating in the notes the basis for the text which I have given.

For a brief discussion of the relative value of the sources of these fragments the student is referred to the Appendix.

My thanks are due to several friends for their kind assistance, in particular to Professor C. L. Brownson and Professor G. D. Lord, who have read much of the book in proof, and have given me many valuable suggestions. Nor can I pass over without mention the debt which all workers in this field owe to Hermann Diels. It is my great regret that his edition of Parmenides’ Lehrgedicht failed to reach me until most of the present work was already printed. Nevertheless there is scarcely a page of the whole book which is not based on the foundation which he has laid.

ARTHUR FAIRBANKS.

YALE UNIVERSITY: November 1897.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. IONIC SCHOOL: THALES 1

II. IONIC SCHOOL: ANAXIMANDROS 10

III. IONIC SCHOOL: ANAXIMENES 20

IV. HERAKLEITOS 28

V. ELEATIC SCHOOL: XENOPHANES 68

VI. ELEATIC SCHOOL: PARMENIDES 91

VII. ELEATIC SCHOOL: ZENO 119

VIII. ELEATIC SCHOOL: MELISSOS 129

IX. PYTHAGORAS AND THE PYTHAGOREANS 142

X. EMPEDOKLES 174

XI. ANAXAGORAS 253

Part 2

APPENDIX 263

INDEXES 289

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

Dox. = Diels, Doxographi Graeci, Berlin 1879.

Aet. = Aetii de placitis reliquiae. } Hipp. Phil. = Hippolyti philosophumena. } Included in Epi. = Epiphanii varia excerpta. } Diels, Dox. Herm. = Hermiae irrisio gentilium philosophorum. }

Simp. Phys. = Simplicii in Aristotelis physicorum libros quattuor priores edidit H. Diels, Berlin 1882.

Simp. Cael. = Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle’s De caelo.

For other abbreviations, see list of authors in the Index of sources.

THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE

THALES.

According to Aristotle the founder of the Ionic physical philosophy, and therefore the founder of Greek philosophy, was Thales of Miletos. According to Diogenes Laertios, Thales was born in the first year of the thirty-fifth Olympiad (640 B.C.), and his death occurred in the fifty-eighth Olympiad (548-545 B.C.). He attained note as a scientific thinker and was regarded as the founder of Greek philosophy because he discarded mythical explanations of things, and asserted that a physical element, water, was the first principle of all things. There are various stories of his travels, and in connection with accounts of his travels in Egypt he is credited with introducing into Greece the knowledge of geometry. Tradition also claims that he was a statesman, and as a practical thinker he is classed as one of the seven wise men. A work entitled ‘Nautical Astronomy’ was ascribed to him, but it was recognised as spurious even in antiquity.

Literature: F. Decker, De Thalete Milesio, Diss. Halle, 1865; Krische, Forsch. auf d. Gebiet d. alt. Phil. i. pp. 34-42; V. also Acta Phil. iv. Lips. 1875, pp. 328-330; Revue Philos. Mar. 1880; Archiv f. d. Geschichte d. Phil. ii. 165, 515.

(a) PASSAGES RELATING TO THALES IN PLATO AND IN ARISTOTLE.

Plato, de Legg. x. 899 B. And as for all the stars and the moon and the years and the months and all the seasons, can we hold any other opinion about them than this same one—that inasmuch as soul or souls appear to be the cause of all these things, and good souls the cause of every excellence, we are to call them gods, whether they order the whole heavens as living beings in bodies, or whether they accomplish this in some other form and manner? Is there any one who acknowledges this, and yet holds that all things are not full of gods?

Arist. Met. i. 3; 983 b 6. Most of the early students of philosophy thought that first principles in the form of matter, and only these, are the sources of all things; for that of which all things consist, the antecedent from which they have sprung, and into which they are finally resolved (in so far as being underlies them and is changed with their changes), this they say is the element and first principle of things. 983 b 18. As to the quantity and form of this first principle, there is a difference of opinion; but Thales, the founder of this sort of philosophy, says that it is water (accordingly he declares that the earth rests on water), getting the idea, I suppose, because he saw that the nourishment of all beings is moist, and that warmth itself is generated from moisture and persists in it (for that from which all things spring is the first principle of them); and getting the idea also from the fact that the germs of all beings are of a moist nature, while water is the first principle of the nature of what is moist. And there are some who think that the ancients, and they who lived long before the present generation, and the first students of the gods, had a similar idea in regard to nature; for in their poems Okeanos and Tethys were the parents of generation, and that by which the gods swore was water,—the poets themselves called it Styx; for that which is most ancient is most highly esteemed, and that which is most highly esteemed is an object to swear by. Whether there is any such ancient and early opinion concerning nature would be an obscure question; but Thales is said to have expressed this opinion in regard to the first cause.

Arist. de Coelo ii. 13; 294 a 28. Some say that the earth rests on water. We have ascertained that the oldest statement of this character is the one accredited to Thales the Milesian, to the effect that it rests on water, floating like a piece of wood or something else of that sort.

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