ah eal ony eh ες
ΛΗ
ue a) Perr i's ἢ ἐμ ίενφο
ΜῊ" ἢ is HAS Cotta dat seamen Cele,
Faget ἄμε α ore Pps pte i irony, nae te 2
lenges BRL) Rag , aM
OYE WKS Cet Sd UT asda ; δ
Tes AVILA keaklash e é "
yf vehe 1 ke
fo,
Ue pais,
Ty dere:
“ἃ ΣΟΥ,
Af vty
Voth ΟΣ e447
Mee
piss meee
δος ΡῈ υνὸν ας, ἀν, κῇ
peg
ES a γεν ὦ 7 MPSS Stare ἐς
1 ls heheh Ane, WA x Lae
oe
4 tide Lawl gbel ας 4Ὁ
geis Ὁ Dated Le ᾿ -
f ΔΑ ys th, Festive Tay d "- ᾿ τῇ she — Fleer nm, -
Ed it ie Pik, Sine bo he ; Σ a |
4 φεότ: peas , spel es tae ; ; , Pr : - oz aks ἂρ
: t } Ἂν 4 ἔνα A -- 5 Ξ Σ ered hme ora
+ - ὑπ δῷ oe SEES eM oA att Ae afte te PRO κι + FOB ing <a le
ere wig? ἘΣ ect pe ae Ea eT a PE a «
ΡΣ ᾿
ty Sicha laogaee
atmos oy
So da hte ε F -
© LOR Wh ὸ
i. ΝΟ ἮΝ
ce WANE Pt
1 ht ΣΉ
ΠΗ ΡΥ ἫΝ
> ian ἐς στὸ ¢
ey fees oe! )
aC Uk eC Cees aT |
ve Vege well) DAES 0h kel Regen,
BHF Hho γον οὐ τ ge
Lé γ ν ff FE dep τ
ὧν (ἀξ =
eee
“amt
int a
ele -᾿ “a “ὁ παν:
Sane
nil PY OP at be “4... oe 4 ne
bettie heme
{πὶ
ὑπ νυ Sees 4
Lt eae ae ᾿ δ
Beck lh ESI GAS pe φάγον bate dae ma
co typ Pew, sere
f ἥ shies ties es
ghd rv i
“wor
ee
yi 4 "
46 PR Cen mart tee pe
υ AGT ong,
‘ ε
lod vee ὦ ὑδεν sf
ear ah Dye Pie wees
Si see ica
99 oh “Ὁ
ee RTS
«| 286).8 + AGN ΛΑΟΊΞΒ G3dWVIS SV ING
ΘΙΌΡ anp oj 101d sADP p apoW aq AoW ς96.08.99: ρυὺ sjOMauUAaY
4S9Q οι! 5.10) Oy SyOOg Bui Burg Ag pabsoyra aq AoW sudo} YyuoW-9 SOre-Zr9 θυ ον Aq pameauas aq ADwW sudo} YjuOW- |
ὙΕΤῸΣ of z| 1 dold3d NVOT ~
yh al
;
ἀ --
"a5
te
j the Internet Archiv ,
vith funding from
soft Corporation
ν ᾿
Ἢ
ω» 2 4
iat
2%
a?
ar
a 5 Γ
fl
“-KARLY REEK PHILOSOPHY:
By
JOHN BURNET, M.A., LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNITED COLLEGE OF ST. SALVATOR AND ST. LEONARD, ST. ANDREWS
> ae... ° F? » > | > ~
Pace te bane Ὁ ea Ὁ
a3 > ΕΝ e e °o Φ
gh Sig Ot ee? eo i om 79
e,° 9 933333 > >
Περὶ μὲν τῶν ὄντων τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐσκόπουν, τὰ δ᾽ ὄντα ὑπέλαβον εἶναι τὰ αἰσθητὰ pdovov.—ARISTOTLE.
Second Edition
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
] 1908
First Edition published April 1892.
Preface to the Second Edition
IT has been no easy task to revise this volume in such
a way as to make it more worthy of the favour with
which it has been received. Most of it has had to be
rewritten in the light of certain discoveries made since
the publication of the first edition, Shove all, that of
the extracts from Menon’s Ἰατρικά, which have furnished,
as I believe, a clue to the history of Pythagoreanism.
I trust that all other obligations are duly acknowledged
in the proper place.
It did not seem worth while to eliminate all traces
of a certain youthful assurance which marked the first
edition. I should not write now as I wrote at the age
of twenty-five; but I still feel that the main con-
tentions of the book were sound, so I have not tried
to amend the style. The references to Zeller and
“Ritter and Preller” are adapted throughout to the
latest editions. The Aristotelian commentators are
referred to by the pages and verses of the Berlin
Academy edition, and Stobaeus by those of Wachsmuth.
J. B.
St. ANDREws, 1908.
Preface to the First Edition
No apology is needed for the appearance of a work
dealing with Early Greek Philosophy. The want of
one has long been felt; for there are few branches of
philology in which more progress has been made in
the last twenty years, and the results of that progress
have not yet been made accessible to the English
reader. My original intention was simply to report
these results; but I soon found that I was obliged to
dissent from some of them, and it seemed best to say
so distinctly. Very likely I am wrong in most of
these cases, but my mistakes may be of use in calling
attention to unobserved points. In any case, I hope
~ no one will think I have been wanting in the respect
due to the great authority of Zeller, who was the first
to recall the history of philosophy from the extrava-
gances into which it had wandered earlier in the century.
I am glad to find that all my divergences from his
account have only led me a little further in the path
that he struck out.
I am very sensible of the imperfect execution of
some parts of this work; but the subject has become
so large, and the number of authorities whose testimony
must be weighed is so great, that it is not easy for any
viii EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY
one writer to be equally at home in all parts of the | field.
I have consulted the student’s convenience by giving references to the seventh edition of Ritter and Preller (ed. Schultess) throughout. The references to Zeller are to the fourth German edition, from which the English translation was made. I have been able to make some use also of the recently published fifth edition (1892), and all references to it are distinguished by the symbol Z®. I can only wish that it had appeared in time for me to incorporate its results more thoroughly.
I have to thank many friends for advice and sugges-
tions, and, above all, Mr. Harold H. Joachim, Fellow of
Merton College, who read most of the work before it
went to press, J. Β. Ν᾿.
OXFORD, 1892.
Contents
CHAPTER I Vow MILESIAN SCHOOL
Chapter Ii
Science and Religion
Chapter Iii
&_herakleitos._of Ephesos
CHAPTER IV SCOTS AEN OF ELEA-.
ia CHAPTER V ‘EMPEDOKLES OF AKRAGAS . , ,
Chapter Vi
“Ee OF KLAZOMENAI
γι Pythagoreans
Chapter Vii
x EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY
Chapter Viii
Pages
~ THE YOUNGER ELEATICS ; ; Ἢ : . 357-379
CHAPTER Ix
“LEUKIPPOS OF MILETOS : : : : . 380-404
CHAPTER X
ECLECTICISM AND REACTION . : ; ; . 405-418
APPENDIX
THE SOURCES ; : : ; : ς - 419-426
INDEX es τὺ ᾿ : ; ; + 427-433
Abbreviations
Arch. Archiv fiir Geschichte der Philosophie. Berlin, 1888-1908.
BEARE. Greek Theories of Elementary Cognition, by John I. Beare. Oxford, 1906.
DIELS Dox. Doxographi graeci. Hermannus Diels, Berlin, 1879.
DIELS Vors. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, von Hermann Diels, Zweite Auflage, Erster Band. Berlin, 1906.
GOMPERZ. Greek Thinkers, by Theodor Gomperz, Authorised (English) Edition, vol. i. London, 1901.
JACOBY. Afpollodors Chronik, von Felix Jacoby (Philol. Unters. Heft xvi.). Berlin, 1902.
Roi Historia Philosophiae Graecae, H. Ritter et L. Preller. Editio octava, quam curavit Eduardus Wellmann.
Gotha, 1898. |
ZELLER. Die Philosophie der Griechen, dargestellt von Dr. Eduard Zeller. Erster Theil, Fiinfte Auflage. Leipzig, 1892.
sult Ἶ —_—
oy ee ν
= ΕΝ
=a a eRe?
ΕἸ’, SS SS ἐμόσαν»
3 ‘
; B
Ps
νι fi :
I, IT was not till the primitive view of the world The cosmo- and the customary rules of life had broken down, that ph es the Greeks began to feel the needs which philosophies ok of nature and of conduct seek to satisfy. Nor were those needs felt all at once. The traditional maxims 4 of conduct were not seriously questioned till the old view of nature had passed away ; and, for this reason, the earliest philosophers busied themselves mainly with speculations about the world around them. In due season, Logic was called into being to meet a fresh want. The pursuit of cosmological inquiry beyond a certain point inevitably brought to light a wide diver- gence between science and common sense, which was itself a problem that demanded solution, and moreover constrained philosophers to study the means of defending their paradoxes against the prejudices of the unscientific many. Later still, the prevailing interest in logical matters raised the question of the origin and validity of knowledge ; while, about the same time, the break- down of traditional morality gave rise to Ethics. The
period which precedes the rise of Logic and Ethics has ὃ f } a I
‘The primitive view of the
world.
~ ss 4
ἴ c ἕἔ ec t é
{ t : εξ y)
: tec - “ εὐ ες ce Pe re Rm |
iy: GS BARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY
thus a distinctive character of its own, and may fitly be treated apart.’
II. Even in the earliest times of which we have any record, the primitive view of the world is fast passing
away. We are left to gather what manner of thing it was from the stray glimpses we get of it here and there in the older literature, to which it forms a sort of sombre background, and from the many strange myths and stranger rites that lived on, as if to bear witness of it to later times, not only in out-of-the-way parts of Hellas, but even in the “mysteries” of the more cultivated states. So far as we can see, it must have been essen- tially a thing of shreds and patches, ready to fall in pieces as soon as stirred by the fresh breeze of a larger experience and a more fearless curiosity. The only explanation of the world it could offer was a wild tale of the origin of things. Such a story as that of Ouranos, Gaia, and Kronos belongs plainly, as Mr. Lang has shown in Custom and Myth, to the same level of thought as the Maori tale of Papa and Rangi;
while in its details the Greek myth is, if anything, the
more savage of the two.
We must not allow ourselves to be misled by meta- phors about “the childhood of the race,” though even these, if properly understood, are suggestive enough. Our ideas of the true state of a child’s mind are apt to be coloured by that theory of antenatal existence which has — found, perhaps, its highest expression in Wordsworth’s
? It will be observed that Demokritos falls outside the period thus limited. The common practice of treating this younger contemporary of Sokrates along with the ‘‘ pre-Socratic, philosophers” obscures the true course of historical development. Demokritos comes after Protagoras, and his theory is already conditioned by the epistemological problem.
(See Brochard, ‘‘ Protagoras et Démocrite,” Arch. ii. p. 368.) He has alsoa regular theory of conduct (E. Meyer, Gesch. des Alterth. iv. § 514 n.).
Introduction 3
Ode on the Intimations of Immortality. We transfer these ideas to the race generally, and are thus led to think of the men who made and repeated myths as simple, innocent creatures who were somehow nearer than we are to the beginning of things, and so, perhaps, saw with a clearer vision. A truer view of what a child’s thoughts really are will help to put us on the right track. Left to themselves, children are often tormented by vague terrors of surrounding objects which they fear to confide to any one. Their games are based upon an animistic theory of things, and they are great believers in luck and in the lot. They are devotees, too, of that “ cult of odds and ends” which is fetishism ; and the unsightly old dolls which they often cherish more fondly than the choicest products of the toy-shop, remind us forcibly of the ungainly stocks and stones which Pausanias found in the Holy of Holies of many a stately Greek temple. At Sparta the Tyndaridai were a couple of boards, while the old image of Hera at Samos was a roughly-hewn log.)
On the other hand, we must remember that, even
in the earliest times of which we have any record, the
world was already very old. Those Greeks who first
tried to understand nature were not at all in the
position of men setting out on a hitherto untrodden
path, There was already in the field a tolerably
consistent view of the world, though no doubt it was
rather implied and assumed in ritual and myth than
distinctly realised as such. The early thinkers did a
far greater thing than merely to make a beginning.
By turning their backs on the savage view of things,
1 See E. Meyer, Gesch. des Alterth. ii. § 64; Menzies, History of Religion, pp. 272-276.
Traces of the
>rimitive
_ view in early
᾿ς iterature.