The Pre-Socratics
The Ionians
Thales of
"They think that Homer
also, like Thales, made water principle and birth of all things through
learning from the Egyptians." (70:Plutarch)
"In the sixth year of
the war, which they [the Medes and the Lydians] had
carried on with equal fortunes, an engagement took place in which it turned out
that when the battle was in progress the day suddenly became night. This
alteration of the day Thales the Milesian foretold to
the Ionians, setting as its limit this year in which the change actually
occurred." (76:Herodotus)
"Some think he was the
first to study the heavenly bodies and to foretell eclipses of the sun and
solstices, as Eudemus says in his history of
astronomy. . . ." (77:Diogenes Laertius)
"He is said to have left
nothing in tfie form of writings except the so-called
Nautical Starguide." (83:Simplicius)
Anaximander of
"Anaximander, son of Praxiades, of Miletus, philosopher: he said that the
principle (arche) and element (stoicheion) is the Indefinite (apeiron),
not distinguishing air or water or anything else ... he was the first to
discover a gnomon [a vertical
rod or any set-square whose shadow indicates the sun's direction and height],
and he set one up on the sundials in Sparta... to mark solstices and equinoxes;
and he also constructed hour-indicators. He first drew an outline of earth and
sea, but he also constructed a celestial globe." (96:Diogenes
Laertius)
"Of those who say that it
is one, moving, and infinite, Anaximander ... said that the principle (arche) and element (stoicheion)
of all existing things was the apeiron [indefinite
or infinite] being the first to introduce this name for the material principle.
He says that it is neither water nor any of the so-called elements, but some
other apeiron nature, from which come
into being all the heavens and the worlds in them. And the
source for coming-to-be for existing things is that into which destruction,
too, happens `according to necessity; for they pay penalty and retribution to
each other for their injustice according to the assessment of time', as he
describes it in these rather poetical terms. (103:Theophrastus's
account according to Simplicius) alternatively,
according to Hyppolytus:
"Now
Anaximander ... said that the principle and element of existing things was the apeiron, being the first to use this name for
the material principle. (In
addition to this he said that motion was eternal, in which it results that the
heavens come into being.) ... he said that the
material principle of existing things was some nature coming under the heading
of the apeiron, from which comes into
being the heavens and the world in them. This nature is eternal and unageing, and it also surrounds all the worlds. He talks of
Time as though coming-to-be and existence and destruction were limited. (103:Hyppolytus)
"It is clear that
[Anaximander], seeing the changing of the four elements [earth, air, fire,
water] into each other, thought it right to make none of these the substratum,
but something else beside these; and he produces coming-to-be not through the
alteration of the element, but by the separation off of the opposites through
the eternal motion." (121:Simplicius)
Anaximenes of
"Anaximenes,
son of Eurystratus, of
"Anaximenes
... said that infinite air was the principle from which the things that are
becoming, and that are and that shall be, and gods and things divine, all come into
being, and the rest from its products. The form of air is of this kind:
whenever it is most equable it is invisible to sight, but is revealed by the
cold and the hot and the damp and by movement. It is always in motion: for
things that change do not change unless there be
movement. Through becoming denser or finer, it has different appearances; for
when it is dissolved into what is finer it becomes fire, while winds, again,
are air that is becoming condensed, and cloud is produced from air by felting. When
it is condensed still more, water is produced; with a further degree of
condensation water is produced; with a further degree of condensation earth is
produced, and when condensed as far as possible, stones. The result is that the
most influential components of generation are opposites, hot and cold. (144:Hippolytus)
"[H]e says that when the
air felts, there first of all comes into being the earth, quite flat therefore
it accordingly rides on the air; and sun and moon and the remaining heavenly
bodies have their source of generation from earth. At least he declares the sun
to be earth, but that through the rapid moption it
obtains heat in great sufficiency." (151:Ps.-Plutarch)
"Anaximenes
says that the stars are implanted like nails in a crystalline; but some say
they are fiery leaves like paintings." (157:Aetius)
"Anaximenes
says that sun is flat like a leaf." (158:Aetius)
"As our soul, [Anaximenes] says, being air holds us together and controls
us, so does wind (or breath) and air enclose the whole
world." (163:Aetius)
Xenophanes of
"Our Eleatic tribe,
beginning from Xenophanes and even before, explains in its myths that what we
call all things are actually one." (166:Plato)
"For Parmenides seems to
fasten on that which is one in definition, Melissus
on that which is one in material; therefore the former says that it is limited,
the latter that it is unlimited. But Xenophanes, the first of these to
postulate a unity (for Parmenides is said to have been his pupil), made nothing
clear ...." (167:Aristotle)
"Homer and Hesiod have
attributed to the gods everything that is a shame and reproach among men,
stealing and committing adultery and deceiving each other." (169:Sextus-Fr. 11)
"But mortals consider
that the gods are born, and that they have clothes and speech and bodies like
their own." (170:Clement-Fr. 14)
"The Ethiopians say that
their gods are snub-nosed and black, the Thracians that theirs have light blue
eyes and red hair." (171:Clement-Fr. 16)
"But if cattle and
horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their hands and do the
works that men can do, horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and
cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as each had
themselves." (172:Clement-Fr. 15)
"One
god, greatest among gods and men, in no way similar to mortals either in body
or in thought." (173:Clement-Fr. 23)
"[A]lways
He remains in the same place, moving not at all; nor is it fitting for Him to
go to different places at different times, but without toil He shakes all
things by the thought of His mind." (174:Simplicius-Fr.
26+25)
"All of Him sees, all
thinks and all hears." (175:Sextus-Fr. 24)
"The sun comes into
being from little pieces of fire that are collected, and the earth is infinite
and enclosed neither by air or by the heaven. There
are innumerable suns and moons, and all things are made of earth." (178:Hippolytus)
"He says that the sun
and the stars come from clouds." (179:Ps.Plutarch)
"
Xenophanes says that the sun is
made from ignited clouds. Theophrastus in the Physical Philosophers wrote that it is made of little
pieces of fire collected together from the moist exhalation, and themselves
collecting together the sun." (180:Aetius)
Herakleitos of Ephesus (540-480 B.C.?)
"[Herakleitos]
grew up to be exceptionally haughty and supercilious, as is clear also from his
book, in which he says: `Learning of many things does not teach intelligence;
if so it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hekataeus.' . . . Finally he became a misanthrope, withdrew
from the world, and lived in the mountains feeding on grasses and plants."
(193: Diogenes Laertius)
"Of the Logos which is
as I describe it men always prove to be uncomprehending, both before they have
heard it and when once they have heard it. For although all things happen
according to this Logos men are like people of no experience, even when they
experience such words and deeds as I explain, when I distinguish each thing
according to its constitution and declare how it is; but the rest of men fail
to notice what they do after they wake up just as they forget what they do when
asleep." (197:Sextus)
"Therefore it is
necessary to follow the common; but although the Logos is common the many live
as though they had a private understanding," (198:Sextus-Fr.
2)
“If you do not hope you will
not find the unhoped-for, since it is hard to be found and the way is all but
impassable.” (Fr.18, Voegelin, NSP, 68-9)
“Through lack of faith (apistie) the
divine (?) escapes being known.” (Fr. 86, Voegelin,
NSP, 69)
"Listening not to me but
to the Logos it is wise to agree that all things are one." (199:Hippolytus-Fr. 50)
“The invisible harmony is
better (or “greater” or “more powerful” than the visible.” (210:Hippolytus-Fr. 54 Vö)
"The things of which
there is hearing and seeing and perception, these do I prefer." (200:Hippolytus-Fr. 55)
"Evil witnesses are eyes
and ears for men, if they have souls (psychas) that
do not understand their language." (201:Sextus-Fr.
107)
"Sea is the most pure
and most polluted water; for fishes it is drinkable and salutary, but for men
it is undrinkable and deleterious." (202:Hippolytus-Fr.
61)
"The way up and down is one
and the same." (203:Hippolytus-Fr. 60)
"Disease makes health
pleasant and good, hunger satiety, weariness rest." (204:Stobaeus-Fr.
111)
"And as the same thing
there exists in us living and dead and the waking and the sleeping and the
young and the old: for these things having changed round are those,
and those having changed round are these." (205:Plutarch-Fr.
88)
"God is day night,
winter summer, war peace, satiety hunger (all the opposites, this is the
meaning); he undergoes alteration in the way that fire, when it is mixed with
spices, is named according to the scent of each of them." (207:Hippolytus-Fr. 67).
"Human disposition does
not have true judgment, but divine disposition does." (208:Origen-Fr. 78)
"To god all things are
beautiful and good and just, but men have supposed some things to be unjust,
others just." (209:Porphyrius-Fr. 102)
"An unapparent
connection is stronger than an apparent one." (210:Hippolytus-Fr.
54)
"The real constitution
of things is accustomed to hiding itself." (211:Themistius-Fr.
123)
"War is the father of
all and king of all, and some he shows as gods, others as men; some he makes
slaves, others free." (215:Hippolytus-Fr. 53)
"This world order (the
same of all) did none of the gods or men make, but it always was and is and
shall be; an everlasting fire, kindling in measures and going out in
measures." (220:Clement-Fr. 30)
"All things are an equal
exchange for fire and fire for all things, as goods are for gold and gold for
goods." (222:Plutarch-Fr. 90)
"Sun will not overstep
his measures; otherwise the Erinyes, ministers of
Justice, will find him out." (229:Plutarch-Fr.
94)
"The wise [Wisdom] is
one thing, to be acquainted with true judgment, how all things are steered
through all." (230:Diogenes Laertius-Fr.
41)
"One thing, the only
truly wise, does and does consent to be called by the name of Zeus." (231:Clement-Fr. 32)
"A dry soul is wisest
and best." (233:Stobaeus-Fr. 118)
"You would not find out
the boundaries of soul, even by traveling along every path; so deep a measure
does it have." (235:Diogenes Laertius-Fr.
45)
"I searched out [into]
myself." (249:Plutarch-Fr. 101)
"Immortal
mortals, mortal immortals, living their death and dying their life." (Hippolytus: 242 Fr. 62) "Man's character is his
daimon." (250:Stobaeus-Fr.
119)
The Italians
Pythagoras of
"He emigrated to Croton
in
"Empedocles too bears
witness to this, writing of [Pythagoras]: 'And there was among them a man of
rare knowledge, most skilled in all manner of wise works, a man who had won the
utmost wealth of wisdom; for whensoever he strained
with all his mind, he easily saw everything of all the things that are, in ten,
yea, twenty lifetimes of men.'" (263:Porphyrius)
"Pythagoras wrote
nothing, nor did Socrates nor Arcesilaus nor Carneades." (267:Plutarch)
"What he said to his
associates, nobody can say for certain; for silence with them was of no
ordinary kind." (265:Porphyrius)
"Nonetheless the
following became universally known: first that [Pythagoras] maintains that the
soul is immortal; next, that it changes into other kinds of living things; also
that events recur in certain cycles, and that nothing is ever absolutely new;
and finally, that all living things should be regarded as akin. Pythagoras
seems to have been the first to bring these beliefs into
"So Pythagoras turned
geometrical philosophy into a form of liberal education by seeking its first
principles in a higher realm of reality . . . ." (277:Proclus)
"Ten is the very nature
of number. All Greeks and all barbarians alike count
up to ten, and having reached ten revert again to the unit. And again,
Pythagoras maintains, the power of the number ten lies in the number four, the
tetrad. This is the reason: if one starts at the unit and adds the successive
numbers up to four, one will make up the number ten; and if one exceeds the
tetrad, one will exceed ten too. If, that is, one takes the unit, adds two,
then three and then four, one will make up the number ten. So that number by
the unit resides in the number ten, but potentially in the number four. And so
the Pythagoreans used to invoke the tetrad as their utmost binding oath: 'Nay,
by him that gave to our generation the tetractys,
which contains the fount and root of eternal nature.'" (281:Proclus)
Alcmaeon of Croton (late 6th-early 5th)
“Of those who think
perception is of unlike to unlike Alcmaeon first
defined the difference between man and animals. For man, he says, differs from other
animals in that ‘he only understands [phronein],
while the rest perceive [aisthanetai] but do not
understand,’ thought and perception being different, not, as Empedocles maintains, the same. Thereafter he discusses each of the
senses severally . . . . Collectively he maintains that the senses are somehow
connected with the brain; and so they are incapacitated when it moves or
changes its position; for it stops the passages through which sensations come.”
(284:Theophrastus)
“Alcmaeon
maintains that the bond of health is the ‘equal balance’ of the powers, moist
and dry, cold and hot, bitter and sweet, and the rest, while the ‘supremacy of
one of them is the cause of disease . . . . Health on the other hand is the
proportionate admixture of the qualities.” (286:Aetius)
“Alcmaeon
also seems to have held much the same
view about the soul as these others; for he says that it is immporal
owing to its similarity to the immortal; and it has this quality because it is
always in motion; for everything divine is in continual motion—the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the whole heavens.” (287:Aristotle)
Parmenides of Elea (515/510-? B.C.?)
"Parmenides set his own
state in order with such admirable laws that the government yearly swears its
citizens to abide by the laws of Parmenides." (341:Plutarch)
"The steeds that carry
me took me as far as my heart could desire, when once they had brought me and
set me on the renowned way of the goddess, who leads the man who knows through
every town. On that way I was conveyed; for on it did the wise steeds convey
me, drawing my chariot, and maidens led the way. And the axle blazing in the
socket—for it was urged round by well-turned wheels at each end—was making the
holes in the naves sing, while the daughters of the Sun, hastening to convey me
into the light, threw back the veils from off their faces and left the abode of
night. There are the gates of the ways of Night and Day, fitted above with a
lintel and below with a threshold of stone. They themselves, high in the air,
are closed by mighty doors, and avenging Justice controls the double bolts. Her
did the maidens entreat with gentle words and cunningly persuade to unfasten
without demur the bolted bar from the gates. Then, when the doors were thrown
back, they disclosed a wide opening, when their brazen posts fitted with rivets
and nails swung in turn on their hinges. Straight through them, on the broad
way, did the maidens guide the horses and car. And the
goddess greeted me kindly, and took my right hand in hers, and spake to me these words: 'Welcome, o youth, that comest to my abode on the car that bears thee, tended by
immortal charioteers. It is no ill chance, but right and justice,
that has sent thee forth to travel on this way. Far indeed does it lie
from the beaten track of men. Meet it is that thou shouldst learn all things, as well the unshaken heart of
well-rounded truth, as the opinions of mortals in which is no true belief at
all. Yet nonetheless shalt thou learn these things also—how the things that
seem, as they all pass through everything, must gain the semblance of
being.'" (342:Sextus-Fr. 1; also in #3 below)
"Come now, and I will
tell thee—and do thou hearken and carry my word away—the only ways of enquiry
that can be thought of: the one way, that it is and cannot not-be, is the path of Persuasion, for it attends
upon Truth; the other, that it is-not
and needs must not-be, that I tell thee is a path altogether unthinkable. For
thou couldst not know that which is-not (that is impossible) nor utter it; for
the same thing can be thought as can be." (344:Proclus-Fr.2)
"That which can be
spoken and thought needs must be; for it is possible for it, but not for
nothing, to be; that is what I bid thee ponder. This is the first way of
enquiry from which I hold thee back, and then from that way also on which
mortals wander knowing nothing, two-headed; for helplessness guides the
wandering thought in their breasts; they are carried along, deaf and blind at
once, altogether dazed—hordes devoid of judgment, who are persuaded that to be
and to be-not are the same, yet not the same, and for whom the path of all
things is backward-turning." (345:Simplicius-Fr.6)
"For never shall this be
proved, that things that are not are; but do thou hold back thy thought from
this way of enquiry, nor let custom, born of much experience, force thee to let
wander along this road thy aimless eye, thy echoing ear or thy tongue; but do
thou judge by reason the strife encompassed proof that I have spoken."
(346:Plato-Fr.7)
"One way only is left to
be spoken of, that it is; and on this way are full many signs that what is is
uncreated and imperishable, for it is entire, immovable and without end. It was not in the past, nor shall it be, since it is now, all at once, one, continuous;
for what creation wilt thou seek for it? How and whence did it grow? Nor shall
I allow thee to say or to think, 'from that which is not'; for it is not to be
said or thought that it is not. And what need would have driven it on to grow,
starting from nothing, at a later time rather than an earlier? Thus it must
completely be or be not. Nor will the force of true belief allow that, beside
what is, there could also arise anything from what is not; wherefore Justice looseth not her fetters to allow it to come into being or
perish, but holdeth it fast; the decision on these
matters rests here: it is or it is
not. But it has surely been decided, as it must be, to leave alone the one way
as unthinkable and nameless (for it is no true way), and that the other is real
and true. How could what is thereafter perish? And how could it come into being? For if it came into being, it is not, nor if it is going to be in
the future. So coming into beling is
extinguished and perishing unimaginable." (347:Simplicius-Fr.8)
Zeno of Elea (490/485-???)
Fr. 3: "If there is a
plurality, things must be just as many as there are, no more and no less. And
if they are just as many as they are, they must be limited. If there is a
plurality, the things that are are infinite
[unlimited]; for there will always be other things between the things that are,
and yet others between those others. And so the things that are are infinite." (Simplicius:
366)
"Zeno's arguments about
motion, which cause such trouble to those who try to solve the problems that they
present, are four in number." (Aristotle 239b9: 369)
"The first asserts the
non-existence of motion on the ground that that which is in locomotion must
arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal . . . ."
(Aristotle 239b11: 370)
"The second is the
so-called Achilles, and it amounts to this, that in a race the quickest runner
can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point
whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead."
(Aristotle 239b14: 373)
"Zeno's problem—that 'if
Place is something, it must be in something—is not difficult to solve."
(Aristotle210b22: 377)
Melissus of
Pupil of Parmenides; wrote
book About nature or reality.
“Since then it did not come
into being [ούκ έγένετο],
it is now, always was and always will be, without either beginning or end, but
infinite [άπειρόν].
For if it had come into being, it would have a beginning (for it would at some
time have come into being) and an end (for it would at some time have stopped
coming into being); but since it neither began nor ended, it always was and
always shall be, without either beginning or end; for it is not possible for
anything to exist for ever unless it all exists.” (381: Simplicius,
Fr. 2)
“But just as it exists for
ever, so too it must for ever be infinite in magnitude.” (382: Simp.,
Fr. 3)
“Nothing that has a beginning
and an end is either eternal or infinite.” (383: Simp., Fr. 4)
“If it were not one, it would
be bounded by something else.” (384: simp., Fr. 5)
“For if it
were (infinite), it would be one; for if it were two, the two could not be
infinite, but would be limited by one another.” (385: Simp., Fr. 6)
“For he made it clear that he
means that what exists [το όν] is incorporeal [άσώματον]
when he wrote: ‘If it is, it must be one; and being one, it must have no body.
If it were to have bulk, it would have parts and be no longer one.’” (391: Simp.,
Fr. 9)
“This argument, then, is the greates proof that it is one alone; but the following are
proofs of it also. If there were a plurality [πολλά],
things would have to be of the same kind as I say that the one is. For if there
is earth and water, and air and fire, and iron and gold, and if one thing is
living and another dead, and if things are black and while and all that men say
they really are—if that is so, and if we see and hear aright, each one of these
must be such as we first decided, and they cannot be changed or altered, but
each must be always just as it is. But, as it is, we say that we see and hear
and understand aright, and yet we believe that what is warm becomes cold, and
what is cold war; that what is hard turns soft, and what is soft hard; that
what is living dies, and that things are born from what lives not, and that all
those things are changed, and that what they were and what they are now are in
no way alike. . . . Now these things do not agree with one another. We said
that there were many things that were eternal and had forms and strength of
their own, and yet we fancy that they all suffer alteration, and that they
change from what we see each time. It is clear, then, that we did not see
aright after all, nor are we right in believing that all these things are many.
They would not change if they were real [άληθη],
but each thing would be just what we believed it to be; for nothing is stronger
than true reality. But if it has changed, what is has passed away and what is
not has come into being. So then, if there were a plurality, things would have
to be of just the same nature as the one [το
εν]. (After Burnet” (392: Simp.,
Fr. 8)
The Post-Parmenideans
Empedocles of Acragas (492-432 B.C.)
"Fools—for they have no
far-reaching thoughts—who fancy that that which formerly was not can come into
being or that anything can perish and be utterly destroyed. For coming into
being from that which in no way is is inconceivable,
and it is impossible and uneard-of that that which is
should be destroyed. For it will ever be there wherever one may keep pushing
it." (414:Plutarch-Fr.12)
"And no part of the
whole is either empty or over-full" (416:Aristotle-Fr.14)
"But come, consider with
all they powers how each thing is manifest, neither holding sight in greater trust
as compared with hearing, nor loud-sounding hearing above the clear evidence of
thy tongue, nor withhold thy trust from any of the other limbs, wheresoever there is a path for understanding, but think on
each thing in the way by which it is manifest." (421:Sextus-Fr.3)
"A double tale will I
tell: at one time it grew to be one only from many, at another it divided again
to be many from one. There is a double coming into being of mortal things and a
double passing away. One is brought about, and again destroyed, by the coming
together of all things, the other grows up and is scattered as things are agin divided. And these things never cease from continual
shifting, at one time all coming together, through Love, into one, at another
each borne apart from the others through Strife. (So, insofar as they have
learned to grow into one from many) and again, when the one is sundered, are
once more many, thus far they come into being and they have no lasting life;
but insofar as they never cease from continual interchange of places, thus far
are they ever changeless in the cycle." (423:Simplicius-Fr.17)
"Empedocles holds that aither was the first to be separated off, next fire, and
after that earth. From the earth, as it was excessively constricted by the
force of the rotation, sprang water. From water air came by evaporation. The
heavens arose from aither, the sun from the fire,
while terrestrial things were compressed from the other elements." (433:Aetius)
"For it is not our
blood, [Empedocles] says, nor the blending of our breath that produced the
essential principle of soul; rather from these ingredients the body is moulded, which is earth-born and mortal. Since the sould has come hither from elsewhere, he euphemistically
calls birth a sojourn abroad—the most comforting of all names; but in truth the
soul is a fugitive and a wanderer, banished by the decrees and laws of the
gods." (486:Plutarch)
Leukippos of
“Leucippus postulated atoms
and void, and in this respect Democritos resembled
him, though in other respects he was more productive.” (548:Cicero)
“Leucippus of Elea or
“Leucippus and his associate
Democritus hold that the elements are the full and the void; they call them
being [] and non-being [] respectively.
Being is full and solid, not-being is void and
rare. Since the void exists no less than body, it follows that not-being exists no less than being. The two together are the material
causes of existing things.(554: Aristotle)
“Democritus . . . calls space
by these names—‘the void’ [κενω],
‘nothing’ [ουδενι], and
‘the infinite’ [απειρον],
while each individual atom he calls ‘hing’ [i.e.
‘nothing’ without ‘not’], the ‘compact’ and ‘being’. He thinks that they are so
small as to elude our senses, but they have all sorts of forms and shapes and
differences in size. So he is already enabled from them, as from elements, to
create aggregation bulks that are perceptible to sight and other senses.” (555:
Aristotle)(bracketed portion in original)
“They (sc. Leucippus,
Democritus, Epicurus) said that the first principles were infinite in number,
and thought they were indivisible atoms and impassable owing to their
compactness and without any void between them; divisibility comes about because
of the void in compound bodies . . . .” (556: Simplicius)
(Almost all of the materials
above are taken from the first edition of Kirk and Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers (
1. http://friesian.com/greek.htm
2. http://research.haifa.ac.il/~mluz/Access/PhilLect8.html
3. http://www.stationhill.org/artists/CS/parmenides-project/poemtrans.htm translations