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THE PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
by Eduard Zeller, Sarah Frances Alleyne (Translator), Evelyn Abbott (Translator)
Eduard Zeller
THE PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
by Eduard Zeller, Sarah Frances Alleyne (Translator), Evelyn Abbott (Translator)
Eduard Zeller
1.49
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Overview
Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original hardcover edition for your reading pleasure. (Worth every penny!)
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Introductory: Course of its Development.
The first attempt among the Greeks at a scientific explanation of the world was made by Thales the Milesian, who was followed by his countrymen Anaximander and Anaximenes, and later by Diogenes of Apollonia and other representatives of the ancient Ionian school. Through the Ionians, Pythagoras and Xenophanes, these endeavours were transplanted to Lower Italy and carried on with such independent inquiry that from each of them there arose a new school. These three most ancient schools, whose origin dates from the sixth century before Christ, agree only herein, that in regard to the causes of things which science has to point out, they think primarily of their substantial causes—i.e. that from which they arose, and in which, according to their essential nature, they consist; but they do not as yet definitely face the problem of explaining origin, decay, and change as such, and of discovering the universal cause of these phenomena. Thus the ancient Ionian philosophers inquire of what matter the world was formed and in what way the world arose from it. The Pythagoreans seek the essence of which things consist in number, and derive their existence and qualities from the fixed and numerically determined regularity of phenomena. The Eleatic philosophy, starting from the unity of the world, through Parmenides recognises its essence in Being as such; and by unconditionally excluding all Non-being from the conception of Being, declares the multiplicity of things and motion to be unthinkable.
A new departure of natural philosophical inquiry begins with Heracleitus. In asserting that in the ceaseless change of matter and the combinations of matter there is nothing permanent except the law of this change, he proposed to his successors the problem of explaining this phenomenon itself, of stating the reason of change and motion. Empedocles, Leucippus, and Anaxagoras attempted this by reducing all Becoming and all change to the combination and separation of underived, imperishable, and in themselves unchangeable material substances, and thereby deriving Becoming itself from one original Being, which differed indeed from the Being of Parmenides in respect of its multiplicity and divisibility but had otherwise the same essential qualities. These primitive substances are conceived by Empedocles as qualitatively distinguished from each other, limited as to number, and divisible to infinity; by Leucippus as homogeneous in quality, unlimited in number, and indivisible; by Anaxagoras as different in quality, unlimited in number, and divisible to infinity. In order to explain motion, on which all combination and division of substances is based, Empedocles annexes moving forces to the elements in a mythical form; Leucippus and Democritus remove the atoms into empty space; lastly, Anaxagoras takes refuge in the world-forming Spirit.
Here the standpoint hitherto occupied by physics is in point of fact transcended; it was abandoned in principle by the Sophistic doctrine. This denies all possibility of knowledge, restricts philosophy to the questions of practical life, and even deprives practical life of any universally valid rule. Thus it brings about the Socratic reform of philosophy; in part directly. and in part indirectly, inasmuch as it rendered that reform a necessity through the one-sided and doubtful character of its own results.
***
Contents:
Introductory: Course of its Development
I. The Three Earliest Schools.
A. The Ancient Ionians.
Thales.
Anaximander.
Anaximenes.
Later adherents of the ancient Ionian School: Diogenes
B. The Pythagoreans.
Pythagoras and his School.
The Pythagorean System: Number, and the Elements of Number.
The Pythagorean Physics.
Religious and Ethical Doctrines of the Pythagoreans.
Pythagoreanism in Combination with other Doctrines.
C. The Eleatics.
Xenophanes.
Parmenides.
Zeno and Melissus.
II. The Physicists Of The Fifth Century B.C.
Heracleitus.
Ernpedocles.
The Atomistic School.
Anaxagoras.
III. The Sophists.
Origin and Character of Sophisticism.
The Sophistical Scepticism and Eristic.
The Sophistic Ethics and Rhetoric.
***
Introductory: Course of its Development.
The first attempt among the Greeks at a scientific explanation of the world was made by Thales the Milesian, who was followed by his countrymen Anaximander and Anaximenes, and later by Diogenes of Apollonia and other representatives of the ancient Ionian school. Through the Ionians, Pythagoras and Xenophanes, these endeavours were transplanted to Lower Italy and carried on with such independent inquiry that from each of them there arose a new school. These three most ancient schools, whose origin dates from the sixth century before Christ, agree only herein, that in regard to the causes of things which science has to point out, they think primarily of their substantial causes—i.e. that from which they arose, and in which, according to their essential nature, they consist; but they do not as yet definitely face the problem of explaining origin, decay, and change as such, and of discovering the universal cause of these phenomena. Thus the ancient Ionian philosophers inquire of what matter the world was formed and in what way the world arose from it. The Pythagoreans seek the essence of which things consist in number, and derive their existence and qualities from the fixed and numerically determined regularity of phenomena. The Eleatic philosophy, starting from the unity of the world, through Parmenides recognises its essence in Being as such; and by unconditionally excluding all Non-being from the conception of Being, declares the multiplicity of things and motion to be unthinkable.
A new departure of natural philosophical inquiry begins with Heracleitus. In asserting that in the ceaseless change of matter and the combinations of matter there is nothing permanent except the law of this change, he proposed to his successors the problem of explaining this phenomenon itself, of stating the reason of change and motion. Empedocles, Leucippus, and Anaxagoras attempted this by reducing all Becoming and all change to the combination and separation of underived, imperishable, and in themselves unchangeable material substances, and thereby deriving Becoming itself from one original Being, which differed indeed from the Being of Parmenides in respect of its multiplicity and divisibility but had otherwise the same essential qualities. These primitive substances are conceived by Empedocles as qualitatively distinguished from each other, limited as to number, and divisible to infinity; by Leucippus as homogeneous in quality, unlimited in number, and indivisible; by Anaxagoras as different in quality, unlimited in number, and divisible to infinity. In order to explain motion, on which all combination and division of substances is based, Empedocles annexes moving forces to the elements in a mythical form; Leucippus and Democritus remove the atoms into empty space; lastly, Anaxagoras takes refuge in the world-forming Spirit.
Here the standpoint hitherto occupied by physics is in point of fact transcended; it was abandoned in principle by the Sophistic doctrine. This denies all possibility of knowledge, restricts philosophy to the questions of practical life, and even deprives practical life of any universally valid rule. Thus it brings about the Socratic reform of philosophy; in part directly. and in part indirectly, inasmuch as it rendered that reform a necessity through the one-sided and doubtful character of its own results.
***
Contents:
Introductory: Course of its Development
I. The Three Earliest Schools.
A. The Ancient Ionians.
Thales.
Anaximander.
Anaximenes.
Later adherents of the ancient Ionian School: Diogenes
B. The Pythagoreans.
Pythagoras and his School.
The Pythagorean System: Number, and the Elements of Number.
The Pythagorean Physics.
Religious and Ethical Doctrines of the Pythagoreans.
Pythagoreanism in Combination with other Doctrines.
C. The Eleatics.
Xenophanes.
Parmenides.
Zeno and Melissus.
II. The Physicists Of The Fifth Century B.C.
Heracleitus.
Ernpedocles.
The Atomistic School.
Anaxagoras.
III. The Sophists.
Origin and Character of Sophisticism.
The Sophistical Scepticism and Eristic.
The Sophistic Ethics and Rhetoric.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940012706973 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | OGB |
| Publication date: | 11/28/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 256 KB |
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