“Pre-Socratics” is a term in the historical and philosophical science of the New Age, denoting a heterogeneous group of philosophers of archaic Greece of the 6th-5th centuries BC, as well as the immediate successors of these philosophers, who belonged to the 4th century BC and were not affected by the action of the new, classical (“Socratic”) philosophical tradition.
The philosophy of the “pre-Socratics” developed both in the east of Hellas – in the Ionian cities of Asia Minor, and in its western part – in the Greek colonies of Southern Italy and Sicily (the so-called “Magna Graecia”). The eastern, “Ionian” tradition is characterized by empiricism, a kind of naturalism, an exceptional interest in the diversity and specificity of the material world, and the secondary nature of anthropological and ethical issues. This branch of the “pre-Socratic” philosophical tradition includes,
for example, the Milesian school, Heraclitus and Anaxagoras. The Western, “Italian” branch of “pre-Socratic” philosophy is characterized above all by a specific interest in the formal and numerical components of the world of things, logicism, reliance on the arguments of reason and intellect, the assertion of ontological and theoretical-cognitive problems as fundamental for philosophical science. The Pythagoreans, the Eleatic school and Empedocles belong primarily to this branch of “pre-Socratic” philosophy.
The focus of the entire philosophy of the “pre-Socratics” is the cosmos (Greek κόσμος – “world order”), “world” – in the sense of a structurally organized and ordered integrity of things. The cosmos is not eternal and occurs in time, literally “has a beginning”, being born into the world from the disorder (chaos) preceding it. As a becoming, an occurred being, the cosmos in the teachings of the “pre-Socratics” is simultaneously taken in two considerations: cosmological (reflecting the structure and integrity of the universe in statics) and cosmogonic (representing the world structure in its dynamics). At the junction of these two disciplines, the central theme of “pre-Socratic” philosophical thought arises – “nature” (Greek φύσις) – in the sense of the essence, character, inner essence of all things, which is also the generative principle of their being. The fundamental problem of early Greek philosophy was the problem of finding the basis of existence, i.e. something unchanging, stable, constant, which serves as the source or substrate of all things, but is as if hidden under the outer shell of the changing world of phenomena. That is why Aristotle would later call all of Socrates’ predecessors “physiodogoi”, i.e. literally “interpreters of nature”. Another characteristic feature of “pre-Socratic” (pre-Platonic) philosophy is the lack of a clear distinction between the “material” and the “ideal”. Man and the social sphere are not singled out as independent topics for reflection in the teachings of the “pre-Socratics”: the cosmos, society and the individual are subject to the action of the same laws. The most important of these laws, the “law of justice”, was formulated by Anaximander of Miletus (6th century BC): “And from where existing things come, there also their destruction goes according to their fatal debt, for they bear punishment and pay each other a penalty for impiety, according to the order of time” (Anaximander, fr. 1). It is no coincidence that the natural philosophical content of Anaximander’s text is presented in the language of civil law relations. For the most part, the “pre-Socratics” were always directly connected with the life of their native polis (city-state) and acted as statesmen (Thales, Pythagoras, Empedocles), founders of colonies (Anaximander), legislators (Parmenides), naval commanders (Melissus), etc.
The most ancient Greek scientific and philosophical school is the school that was formed in Miletus, the largest trade, craft and cultural center of Ionia, on the western coast of the Asia Minor peninsula in the 6th century BC. The Milesian school (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes) was predominantly natural science and aimed to describe and explain the universe in its evolutionary dynamics: from the origin of the Earth and celestial bodies to the appearance of living beings. The very birth of the cosmos was thought to occur spontaneously (arbitrarily) from a single principle of matter – eternal and infinite in space. The gods of the popular religion were identified by the Milesians with “countless worlds” (Anaximander), the elements and luminaries (Anaximenes); the universal nature of physical laws was affirmed; the traditional division of the heavenly (“divine”) and the earthly (“human”) was called into question for the first time. The history of European mathematics (geometry), physics, geography, meteorology, astronomy and biology begins with the Milesian school.
According to the philosophical doctrine of Thales of Miletus (c. 640 – c. 546 BC), “everything came from water” (i.e. water is the origin of everything that exists), “the earth floats on water like a piece of wood” (Thales used this to explain the nature of earthquakes), and “everything in the world is animated” (or “full of gods”) – in particular, according to the ancients, Thales attributed the soul to a magnet that attracts iron. “To be,” according to Thales, means “to live”; everything that exists lives; life presupposes breathing and nutrition; the first function is performed by the soul, while the second is performed by water (the original substance of all existing things, amorphous and fluid). Tradition depicts Thales as a merchant and entrepreneur, an inventor and engineer, a wise politician and diplomat, a mathematician and astronomer. According to one legend, Thales was the first to predict a total solar eclipse (May 28, 585 BC).
According to another, he was the first of the Greeks to prove geometric theorems. As reported by ancient authors, he proved the following propositions: 1) a circle is divided in half by its diameter; 2) in an isosceles triangle, the angles at the base are equal; 3) when two straight lines intersect, the vertical angles formed by them are equal and, finally, 4) two triangles are equal if two angles and one side of one of them are equal to two angles and the corresponding side of the other. Thales was also the first to inscribe a right triangle in a circle.
Anaximander (c. 610 – c. 540 BC) was the second representative of the Milesian school of philosophy. The ancients called him the “student”, “comrade” and “relative” of Thales. Anaximander set out his teachings in his work “On Nature”, which can be considered the first scientific work in the history of Greek philosophy written in prose (Thales wrote nothing). Unlike his predecessor, Anaximander believed that the source of all things was not water, but some eternal and boundless (Greek – “infinite”, “limitless”) principle, a middle ground between air and fire, which he called “divine”, and which, according to him, “governs everything”. Anaximander imagined the emergence of the cosmos as follows. In the depths of the original boundless origin, there first appears a kind of “embryo” of the future world order, in which the moist and cold “core” is surrounded by a fiery “shell.” Under the influence of the heat of this “shell,” the moist “core” gradually dries out, and the vapors released from it inflate the “shell,” which, bursting, disintegrates into a series of “rings” (or “rims”). As a result of these processes, the formation of a dense Earth occurs, having the shape of a cylinder (“truncated column”), the height of which is equal to a third of the diameter of the base. It is significant that this cylinder has no support and rests motionless in the center of the cosmic sphere. The stars, the Moon, and the Sun (in this order) are located from the center of the “core” at distances equal to 9, 18, and 27 Earth radii; these luminaries are openings in dark air tubes surrounding the rotating fiery rings. Living creatures, according to Anaximander, originated in the damp mud that once covered the Earth. When the Earth began to dry out, the moisture accumulated in depressions that formed the seas, and some animals emerged from the water onto dry land. Among them were fish-like creatures, from which the “first people” later emerged.
Anaximander considered the emergence and development of the world to be a periodically repeating process: after certain intervals of time, due to the complete drying out of the damp and cold world “core”, the cosmos is again absorbed by the boundless principle surrounding it (“eternal and ageless nature”). At the same time, Anaximander recognized the simultaneous coexistence of an innumerable multitude of worlds (cosmoses) – structurally organized parts of a single protocosmic substance. According to ancient authors, Anaximander was the first of the Greeks to construct a sundial (the so-called “gnomon”) and draw a geographic map of the Earth on a copper tablet, on which the entire “oikumene” (Greek οικουμένη – literally “inhabited territory”) was divided into approximately two equal parts – Europe and Asia.
The last representative of the Milesian philosophical school was Anaximenes (c. 585-528/525 BC). Ancient authors called him “the disciple and successor” of Anaximander. According to Anaximenes, all things come from air (Greek: άήρ) – either through its rarefaction due to heating, or through condensation, leading to cooling. Air vapors (fog, etc.), rising upward and rarefying, turn into fiery heavenly bodies. On the contrary, solid substances (earth, stones, etc.) are nothing more than condensed and solidified air. Air is in constant motion and change. All things, according to Anaximenes, are one or another modification of air. The earth is a condensation of air and is located in the center of the cosmic hemisphere; it has a “table-like shape” (i.e., a trapezoid) and rests on air masses supporting it from below. The sun, in the words of Anaximenes, is “flat as a sheet,” and the stars are “driven” into the “icy” firmament like nails. The planets are flaming “leaves” floating in the air. When too much air accumulates in one place, rain is “squeezed” out of it. Winds, arising from the mixture of water and air, “fly like birds.” The firmament moves around the earth like “a cap turning around the head.” The sun and the moon never set behind the horizon, but fly above the earth, hiding alternately behind its northern, “raised” part.
The Pythagoreans, the disciples and followers of Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – c. 497 BC) , interpreted the “nature of things” differently. Pythagoras, the son of Mnesarchus, a skilled stonecutter, was born on the island of Samos c. 570 BC. In his youth, Pythagoras listened to Anaximander of Miletus and studied with Pherecydes of Syros, who, according to Cicero, “was the first to say that the souls of men are immortal” (Cicero. Tusculan Discourses, I, 16, 38). According to legend, he also visited Egypt and Babylon, where he became acquainted with mathematics and astronomy. C. 532, having fled from the tyranny of Polycrates of Samos, Pythagoras arrived in the city of Croton (Southern Italy), where he created a religious and philosophical brotherhood with a strict charter and community of property. Pythagoras’ authority as a sage and teacher was so great that after several years, power in Croton and many other cities in Southern Italy and Sicily passed into the hands of Pythagoras’ disciples – the Pythagoreans. Subsequently, as a result of an uprising that engulfed the entire country, the Pythagorean Union was destroyed, its members were killed, and Pythagoras himself fled to Metapontum, where he died around 497 BC.
Miracles were told about Pythagoras. A white eagle flew down to him from the sky and allowed itself to be stroked. While fording the Siris River, he said, “Hello, Siris!” And everyone heard the river rustle in response, “Hello, Pythagoras!” He was seen at the same hour in Croton and Metapontum, although there was a week’s journey between these cities. They said that he was the son of Apollo or Hermes, that he had a golden thigh, that he remembered his past incarnations. According to legend, training in the Pythagorean Union lasted fifteen years. The first five years, students could only remain silent. The second five years, students could only hear the teacher’s speech, but not see him. And only the last five years could students talk to Pythagoras face to face. The Pythagoreans tried not to call Pythagoras by name, preferring to refer to him as “That very man” or “Himself.” Pythagoras did not write anything, but like the “seven wise men”, he repeatedly gave oral instructions, though mysterious and in need of deciphering – acousmas (Greek άκουσμα – “oral saying”), for example: “What has fallen, do not pick up” – before death do not cling to life; “Do not step over the scales” – observe the measure in everything; “Do not break bread in two” – do not destroy friendship; “Do not walk on the beaten path” – do not indulge the desires of the crowd. It was Pythagoras, according to legend, who was the author of the words “cosmos” and “philosophy”.
From the point of view of the Pythagoreans, the cosmos and things are not just matter and substance, but a substance with a certain structure, subject to proportionality and numerical relationships. Pythagoras claimed that “everything is number”, i.e. a reasonable combination of quantities that make up pairs of opposites: limit and limitless; odd and even; unity and plurality; right and left; male and female; light and darkness; good and evil, etc. “Limit” denoted regularity, perfection, formation, order and cosmos. “Boundless” – disorder, formlessness, incompleteness, imperfection and emptiness. The geometric expression of the idea of the limit was the sphere, the arithmetic – one – therefore, according to the teachings of the Pythagoreans, the cosmos is one and spherical and at the same time located in a limitless empty space. They thought of the emergence of the universe as filling a point (the “divine unit”) with space (matter, two, and emptiness), as a result of which the point acquired volume and extension. The numerical structure of the cosmos determined the nature of the relationship between things and the nature of each individual thing. Everything that happens in the world is governed by certain mathematical relationships; the task of the philosopher is to reveal these relationships. The impetus for this way of thinking was some patterns in the field of musical acoustics, the discovery of which was attributed to Pythagoras himself. In particular, it was established that when two strings vibrate simultaneously, a harmonic sound is obtained only if the lengths of both strings are related to each other as prime numbers – 1:2 (octave), 2:3 (fifth), and 3:4 (fourth). This discovery served as an impetus for the search for similar relationships in other areas, for example, in geometry and astronomy.
The individual mathematical developments of the Pythagoreans include: 1) the theory of proportions: according to the testimony of the ancients, the early Pythagoreans were familiar with arithmetic, geometric and harmonic proportions; 2) the theory of even and odd numbers, namely the following provisions: the sum of even numbers will be even, the sum of an even number of odd numbers will be even, the sum of an odd number of odd numbers will be odd, an even number minus an even number is even, an even number minus an odd number is odd, etc. 3) the theory of “friendly” and “perfect” numbers: the former are those in which the sum of the divisors of one is equal to the other (for example, the number 284 is equal to the sum of the divisors of 220, namely: 1 + 2 + 4 + 5 + 10 + 11 + 20 + 22 + 44 + 55 + 110 = 284, and vice versa), the latter are numbers equal to the sum of their divisors (6 = 1 + 2 + 3 and 28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14); 4) proofs of a number of geometric theorems, including the famous “Pythagorean theorem”: the square constructed on the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares constructed on its legs; 5) construction of five regular polyhedra: pyramid, cube, dodecahedron, octahedron and icosahedron; 6) the discovery of irrationality (or, in geometric terms, the discovery of the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square with its side), i.e., such relationships that are not expressed by whole numbers: later (in modern times) this discovery led to the creation of geometric algebra.
The Pythagoreans also did much in the field of astronomy. They were the first to express the idea of the sphericity of the Earth (Pythagoras) and established the so-called correct order of the planets, arranging them in the following sequence: Earth, Moon, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. According to the teachings of the Pythagoreans Hicetas and Ecphantus (late 5th – early 4th centuries BC), the Earth is not at rest, but slowly moves or, more precisely, rotates (“spins”) around its own axis. From the point of view of
According to Philolaus of Croton (c. 470 – after 399 BC), at the center of the Universe there is a certain “middle fire”, around which ten celestial bodies move: Anti-Earth, Earth, Moon, Sun, planets and “sphere of fixed stars”, i.e. the firmament. The existence of Anti-Earth, invisible to man, was supposed to explain the nature of celestial eclipses, according to Philolaus. He asserted: “Everything that is knowable has a number, for without it nothing can be thought or known” (Philolaus, fr. 4). Philolaus symbolically designated three-dimensional quantity with the number “4” (point – line – plane – body), the quality of a thing and color with the number “5”, the animation of the body, according to Philolaus, with “6”, intelligence and health with “7”, love and friendship with “8”. A special place in his philosophical system was occupied by the number “10” (“decade”), which expressed the utmost completeness and perfection of the numerical series and thus was a universal formula for all existence. The rational basis of the cosmos was designated by the Pythagoreans by the number “4” (“tetractys”), represented as the sum of the first four numbers: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, and containing the basic musical intervals: octave (2: 1), fifth (2: 3) and fourth (3: 4). Guided by the formula “there is no movement without sound”, the Pythagoreans correlated the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars with this or that interval, and the pitch of the sound of bodies was considered proportional to the speed of their movement: the Moon had the lowest tone, the stellar sphere had the highest. Subsequently, this theory was called the “harmony of the spheres” or “music of the world”. “The Harmony of the Spheres” served as evidence of the hidden numerical nature of the cosmos and had a deep ethical and aesthetic meaning. The soul, from the point of view of the Pythagoreans, is immortal and is a “demon”, i.e. an immortal living being of semi-divine origin – either leading a blissful life among the gods, or existing in metempsychosis (Greek μετεμψύχωσις – literally “re-animation”), i.e. wandering through the bodies of animals and plants. The soul is in the body “as in a grave” (in accordance with the Pythagorean acousma: Greek – , “body – grave”) and ends up in it as a punishment “for sins”; only if the soul has been in three different bodies without committing a single crime, it will forever find peace and eternal bliss. In accordance with this theory, the Pythagoreans taught the homogeneity of all living beings and the “purification” of the “demon” or soul through vegetarianism. Later, in the teachings of Philolaus, the soul was considered a “harmony” of various mental states, but, unlike the heavenly “harmony”, less perfect and prone to “disorders”; music was intended as a therapy for the soul in this case, and a moderate diet as a therapy for the body. A scientist and physician close to the Pythagoreans
Alcmaeon of Croton (1st half of the 5th century BC) claimed that the condition of the human body is determined by pairs of opposite forces or qualities, such as sweet and bitter, dry and wet, hot and cold, etc. Alcmaeon believed that the main condition of human health is the “equality” of these qualities, while the “dominance” of one member of any pair over the other leads to illness. An imbalance can be caused by the nature of food, the characteristics of water and the properties of the area, as well as other reasons. The task of the doctor is to restore the disturbed balance. According to ancient accounts, Alcmaeon of Croton was the first in the history of European science to practice autopsy of corpses for the purpose of a detailed study of the structure and functions of individual organs. One of the results of this practice was Alcmaeon’s discovery of the nervous system and the functions of the brain, which, according to his teaching, is the center of all human mental activity.
A younger contemporary of Pythagoras was Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 540 – c. 480 BC). Heraclitus belonged to an ancient royal family and even had the hereditary title of priest-basileus, which, however, he later renounced in favor of his younger brother. In his youth, Heraclitus claimed that he knew nothing, but in adulthood he said that he knew everything. According to Diogenes Laërtius (3rd century AD), he never learned anything from anyone, but claimed that he examined himself and learned everything from himself (Diogenes Laërtius, IX, 5). He neglected the request of his fellow citizens to give them laws, citing the fact that the city was already under bad governance. Having retired to the sanctuary of Artemis, he spent day after day amusing himself with the boys by playing dice, and to the surprised Ephesians who approached him he said: “What are you surprised at, scoundrels? Is it not better for me to stay here and do this than to participate with you in governing the state?” Heraclitus wrote only one work and, according to legend, dedicated it to the temple of Artemis of Ephesus. The book was written in a complex metaphorical language, with deliberate ambiguity, parables and riddles, for which Heraclitus later received the nickname “Dark” from his readers. According to legend, Socrates, when he read the work of Heraclitus, said the following about it: “What I understood is wonderful; what I did not understand, probably, too; only one must truly be a deep-sea diver to understand everything in it to the end” (Diogenes Laertius, I, 22). Heraclitus’s work consisted of three sections: “On the Universe”, “On the State”, “On Theology”, and was called by ancient authors in different ways: “Muses”, “A Single Order of the Structure of Everything”, “On Nature”. More than 100 fragments-quotes have survived to this day. After his death, Heraclitus received the nickname “Weeping”, “for every time Heraclitus left the house and saw around him such a multitude of people living badly and dying badly, he cried, pitying everyone” (Seneca. On Anger, II, 10, 5).
Heraclitus chose fire as the primary principle of things. “This cosmos (order, Greek κόσμος), says Heraclitus, is one and the same for all, was not created by any of the gods, nor by any of the people, but it always was, is and will be an eternally living fire, flaring up in measures and dying out in measures” (Heraclitus, fr. 51. From here on — trans. A. V. Lebedev, with changes by S. A. Melnikov and D. V. Bugay, the order of Heraclitus’s fragments is also indicated according to the edition of A. V. Lebedev). Fire in the philosophy of Heraclitus is not so much one of the world elements as an image of eternal movement and change. The periods of “ignition” and “fading out” of fire alternate one after another, and this alternation continues forever. During the “fading out” (“the path down”, according to Heraclitus), fire turns into water, and that passes into earth and air; During the “ignition” (“the way up”), vapors come out of the earth and water, among which Heraclitus included the souls of living beings. Souls are involved in the circulation of cosmic elements, together with them they “ascend” and “set”. “The death of souls is the birth of water, the death of water is the birth of the earth, water is born from the earth, the soul is born from water” (fr. 66). Vapors have different natures: light and pure ones turn into fire and, rising upward and accumulating in round containers (“cups”), are perceived by people as the Sun, Moon and stars; dark and damp vapors are the cause of rain and fog. “A dry soul,” says Heraclitus, “is the wisest and best” (fr. 68). The alternating predominance of certain vapors explains the change of day and night, summer and winter. The sun is “no wider than a human foot,” and eclipses occur because the celestial “cups” turn their convex, dark side toward the Earth. “Everything is exchanged for fire, and fire for everything, just as all things are exchanged for gold and gold for all things” (fr. 54). Heraclitus taught about the ceaseless changeability of things, their “fluidity”; he entered the consciousness of subsequent generations primarily as a philosopher who taught that “everything flows” (Greek πάντα ). “More and more new waters run up on those who enter the same river,” wrote Heraclitus (fr. 40).
The most important tenet of his philosophical doctrine was that “the way up and the way down are one and the same” (fr. 33), and that wisdom consists in “knowing everything as one” (fr. 26). Heraclitus, like the Pythagoreans, believed that everything in the world consists of opposites, but not “combined” with each other, but rather opposing and “fighting” with each other. “It must be known that war is generally accepted, that enmity is justice, and that everything arises through enmity and at the expense of another (χρεών)” (fr. 28). “War is the father of all and the king of all: some it has declared gods, others men, some it has created slaves, others free” (fr. 29). The interaction and struggle of opposites determines the existence of every thing and every process in the universe. Acting simultaneously, these oppositely directed forces form a state of tension, which determines the internal harmony of things. Heraclitus calls this “harmony” “mystery” and says that it is “better than the obvious”, Pythagorean (fr. 9). To express this “secret harmony” Heraclitus used a word that later became famous – “logos” (Greek λόγος – “word”, “speech”, “condition”, “contract”, “position”, “definition”, “account”, “report”, “ratio”, “proportionality”, “reason”, “rational basis”, “cause”, “opinion”, “reasoning”, “assumption”, “law”, “concept”, “meaning”). “This Logos,” says Heraclitus, “truly eternally existing people do not understand”; “everything happens in agreement with this Logos, but people are like ignorant” (fr. 1); “and with that logos with which they are in constant communion, with it they are in constant discord” (fr. 4).
“Logos” in Heraclitus denotes, on the one hand, a rational law governing the universe and setting, determining for the cosmos the measure of its “ignition” and “extinction”; on the other hand, such knowledge of things, according to which things are part of the general cosmic process, i.e. are given not in the statics of their state, but in the dynamics of transition. “The immortals are mortal, the mortals are immortal, some live at the expense of the death of others, at the expense of the life of others they die” (fr. 47). Separate (particular) knowledge of individual things – “much knowledge”, according to Heraclitus – is obviously false and insufficient, since it (“much knowledge”) “does not teach the mind” (fr. 16). “The teacher of the majority is Hesiod: they think of him that he knows a lot – of the one who did not even know day and night! For they are one” (fr. 43). People live as if each of them had his own special consciousness (fr. 23). They are like sleepers, for each sleeper lives in his own world, while the waking ones have one common world. It is possible that the famous fragment 94 (“For a man, the daemon is his disposition and character”) testifies to Heraclitus’s polemic with the Pythagorean idea of the “daemon” (δαίμων) as an immortal bearer of the personal principle, which can retain its self-identity even when moving into other bodies. “Man,” wrote Heraclitus, “is a light in the night: he flares up in the morning, having died out in the evening. He flares up to life after dying, just as he flares up to wakefulness after falling asleep” (fr. 48).
The teachings of Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570 – after 478 BC), a philosopher and poet-rhapsode (a performer of songs at poetry competitions), had a significant resonance, anticipating, in particular, Heraclitus’ criticism of the Pythagorean theory of the “transmigration of souls”. Xenophanes dedicated one of his satirical epigrams to Pythagoras: Once he passed by and saw: a little dog squealing from beatings.
He felt sorry for her and said the following:
“Enough! Don’t hit! In this squeal of the dear dead man the voice:
This is my own puppy, I recognize him as a friend.”
( Xenophanes, fr. 7. Trans. S. Ya. Lurye).
In general, Xenophanes’ teaching consisted of two closely related parts: “negative” (criticism of traditional Greek religious ideas) and “positive” (the doctrine of a single self-identical god existing in the Universe). The main objects of Xenophanes’ criticism were the poems of Homer and Hesiod, recognized as exponents of the “common opinion” about the nature of the “heavenly” and “earthly”:
Everything about the gods was written by Homer and Hesiod together.
What is only considered shameful and disgraceful by people,
It’s as if they steal, commit fornication and deception.
( Xenophanes, fr. 11. Trans. S. Ya . Lurye).
People tend, according to Xenophanes, to imagine what is beyond their understanding in their own image: for example, people believe that gods are born, have a human form and wear clothes (fr. 14); the Ethiopians in the south depict the gods as black and with flattened noses, the Thracians in the north – as red-haired and blue-eyed (fr. 16).
No, if bulls, or lions, or horses had hands,
Or they painted with their hands and created everything that people,
Then they would begin to draw the gods in a similar form –
The horses were like horses, and the bulls were like bulls, and the figures
They should create exactly the same ones they have themselves.
( Xenophanes, fr. 15. Trans. S. Ya. Lurye).
Xenophanes opposed the traditional anthropomorphic and polytheistic religion with a monotheistic conception based on the idea of a single god, eternal and unchanging, in no way resembling mortal beings. “One god, the greatest among gods and men, not resembling mortals either in body or in mind” (fr. 23). He “sees entirely, thinks entirely, and hears entirely” (fr. 24). He remains motionless, for “it is not fitting for him to move now here, now there” (fr. 26), and by the mere “power of his mind” he “shakes everything” (fr. 25). Xenophanes’ God is most likely identified with the air that fills the cosmos and is present in all things. The upper limit of the earth “is under our feet and touches the air,” while the lower end “goes off into infinity” (fr. 28). According to Xenophanes, “everything from the earth and into the earth dies” (fr. 27). “Everything is earth and water that is born and grows” (fr. 29). The land periodically sinks into the sea, and in this case all creatures perish, and when the water recedes they are born again. Only God, according to Xenophanes, possesses the highest and absolute knowledge, while human (ordinary) knowledge never goes beyond the limits of a separate “opinion” and is entirely based on guesswork (fr. 34).
Xenophanes’ teaching influenced the development of the Eleatic school of philosophy (Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, Melissus), which took its name from the city of Elea, a Greek colony on the west coast of southern Italy. The founder of the school was Parmenides (born c. 540/515 BC). According to ancient authors, Parmenides first studied with Xenophanes and then received training from the Pythagorean Aminias. He set out his views in a poem consisting of two parts and a mystical introduction written on behalf of an unnamed “youth”. The introduction describes his flight on a chariot into the supersensible world through the “gates of day and night” from the “darkness” of ignorance to the “light” of absolute knowledge. Here he meets a goddess who reveals to him “both the undaunted heart of the perfectly round Truth and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true certainty” (fr. 1, 28-30). Accordingly, in the first part of the poem the doctrine of the true intelligible “being” (Greek – “being”, “that which is”, simply “is”) is expounded, which is alien to the opinion of mortals (“the path of truth”); in the second part Parmenides draws the most plausible picture of the deceptive world of phenomena (“the path of opinion”).
Initially, for Parmenides, two assumptions are theoretically conceivable: 1) something “is and cannot not be” — this is “being” and “existence”; 2) something “is not and can not be” — this is “non-being” and “non-existence”. The first assumption leads to the “path of conviction and truth”; the second must be immediately rejected as “completely unknowable”, for “that which is not can neither be known nor expressed” (fr. 2). Denying the existence of something presupposes knowledge of it and, thereby, its reality. From this is derived the principle of the identity of being and thinking: “To think and to be are one and the same” (fr. 3); “one and the same thinking and that about which the thought is, for without being, in which it is expressed, you will not find thinking” (fr. 8, 34-36). “Non-being” is unthinkable, and “that which is not” is impossible. The assumption of the existence of “non-being” along with “being” results in the “path of opinion”, i.e. leads to unreliable knowledge about things – “one way or another”, existing “one way or another”. From the point of view of Parmenides, it is necessary, without trusting either “opinions” or sensations, to recognize the path of “is” as truly correct. From this “is” necessarily follow all the main characteristics of truly existing being: it “has not arisen, is indestructible, integral, unique, motionless and endless in time” (fr. 8, 4-5). The fact that “being” has not arisen and cannot perish follows directly from the impossibility of non-being, from which “being” could “be born”, or into which, having been destroyed, “being” could “pass”. It is impossible to say about being “was” or “will be”, since “it is all together, one, continuous” (Fr. 5, 6). It is “indivisible” and homogeneous (Fr. 8, 22), since the recognition of heterogeneity and divisibility would require the admission of emptiness (i.e., “that which is not”). It eternally remains in the same place (Fr. 8, 29) and “does not need anything” (Fr. 8, 33).
The second part of Parmenides’ poem is devoted to the “opinions” of mortals. Here Parmenides sets forth his cosmology. The world of “opinion” is not entirely unreal and false: it is “mixed” of being and non-being, truth and falsehood. Mortals, says Parmenides, distinguish two “forms” of things. On the one hand, there is “light” or “ethereal fire”, bright, rarefied, everywhere identical to itself (“being”). On the other hand, there is dark “night”, dense and heavy (“non-being”). “Light” is “hot”, or fire; “night” is “cold”, or earth (Fr. 8, 56-59). All things partake of “light” and “darkness”, or are a mixture of both. At the same time, “night” is merely the absence of “light”, and the assertion of this “form” of things as independently existing is the main and truly fatal error of mortals. The cosmos is one and is surrounded on all sides by a spherical shell. It consists of a series of concentric rings, or “crowns”, rotating around the world center. The gods are treated by Parmenides as allegories of the heavenly bodies, the elements, passions, etc. Traditional mythology and religion, from the point of view of Parmenides, are also a consequence of the false assumption of the existence of non-being, or “many”: only one “being” truly exists, and the many-faced Olympic deities are only “imagined”.
Parmenides’ student was Zeno of Elea (born c. 500/490 BC). Zeno was the author of a book that included a series of problems, or “aporias” (Greek: απορία – “difficulty”), the sole purpose of which was to defend Parmenides’ doctrine of “being”. Zeno analyzed the theses of Parmenides’ opponents – those who claimed, for example, that being is multiple and not single; that movement, emergence and change in the world of things exist in reality, etc. – and showed that all these assumptions necessarily lead to logical contradictions. Ancient authors report that Zeno’s book included 45 such “aporias”. The most famous were the four “aporias” against movement: “Dichotomy”, “Achilles and the Tortoise”, “Arrow” and “Stadius”. From the point of view of the Eleatics, since there is only one “being”, it is identical to itself and, therefore, indivisible. The belief in the real plurality of things and the reality of movement is the result of the erroneous assumption that along with “what is” (“being”), there is also “what is not” (“non-being”), i.e., a difference in “being” that makes it not one, but many, i.e., divisible.
It is on the paradox of the divisibility of “being” (and motion) that all four of Zeno’s problems are built: 1) “Dichotomy” (lit. “division in two”): before passing half, it is necessary to pass half of this distance, but before passing half, it is necessary to pass half of the half, and so on ad infinitum. However, “it is impossible to pass or touch an infinite number of points in a finite (definite) time” (Aristotle. Physics, VI, 2, 233a). Therefore, the movement will never begin and will never end – hence the contradiction; 2) “Achilles and the tortoise”: “the fastest runner (Achilles) will never catch up with the slowest (the tortoise), since the one catching up must first reach the place from which the runner moved, so that the slower one will always be a little ahead” (VI, 9, 239b); 3) “Arrow”: “if every object is at rest when it occupies a place equal to itself, and a moving object is always at the point “now”, then a flying arrow is motionless” (VI, 9, 239b); 4) “Stadium”: here it is said about “equal bodies moving around the stadium in opposite directions past equal motionless bodies”, and at the same time it turns out that “half the time is equal to double”, since a moving body passes another body moving towards it twice as fast as it passes a stationary one. The last “aporia” is based on ignoring the addition of velocities during oncoming motion; the first three are logically impeccable and could not be resolved by means of ancient mathematics.
Melissus of Samos (born c. 480 BC) was the third representative of the Eleatic school of philosophy. In a work entitled On Nature, or On Being, Melissus attempted to bring together Parmenides’ arguments about the one, unchanging, and motionless “being.” To the previous characteristics of truly existing “being” he added two new ones: 1) “being” has no boundaries, since if “being” were limited, it would border on “non-being,” but there is no “non-being,” therefore “being” cannot be limited; 2) “being” is incorporeal: “If it exists,” writes Melissus, “then it must be one, and since it is one, it cannot be a body. If “being” had volume (thickness), it would also have parts, and would no longer be one” (Melisus, fr. 9).
The philosophical teaching of the Eleatics became a kind of boundary in the history of early, “pre-Socratic” Greek thought. The arguments of the Eleatic school about the properties of true “being” seemed to the subsequent generation of philosophers to be, for the most part, irrefutable. On the other hand, the teaching of Parmenides dealt a serious blow to the “Ionian” philosophical tradition, which was engaged in the search for some cosmic basis of things, the source and beginning of everything that exists. Within the framework of the theory of “being” proposed by the Eleatics, no sought-after interconnection of all things could be substantiated; even the very principle of such substantiation was automatically called into question and lost its obviousness. A way out of this situation was found in the rejection of the search for some single generative principle and in the admission of many structural elements of things. These principles ceased to be considered uniform and motionless, but were still called eternal, qualitatively unchangeable, incapable of arising, being destroyed and passing into each other. These eternal entities could enter into various spatial relations with each other; the infinite variety of these relations determined the diversity of the sensory world. The most outstanding representatives of this new trend in Greek philosophy were successively Empedocles, Anaxagoras and the ancient “atomists” – Leucippus and Democritus.
The teachings of Empedocles of Acragas (Sicily) (c. 490 – c. 430 BC) are an original combination of Pythagorean, Eleatic, and, in part, Milesian theoretical constructs. He was a legendary figure – a politician, a physician, a philosopher, and a miracle worker. According to the ancients, he constantly – both in life and in death – strove to resemble a perfect deity in everything: “With a golden crown on his head, bronze sandals on his feet, and a Delphic garland in his hands, he walked through the cities, wishing to gain fame for himself like the immortal gods” (Suda, under the word “Empedocles”). According to one popular legend, he fought the winds that dried up the earth and resurrected the dead; According to another, feeling the imminent approach of death, he climbed the red-hot Etna and threw himself down into the very mouth of the volcano; the lava threw his bronze sandal onto the slope. Several hundred fragments of two philosophical poems by Empedocles, called “On Nature” and “Purification,” have survived.
The basis of Empedocles’ teaching is the theory of four elements, which he calls “the roots of all things.” These are fire, air (or “ether”), water and earth. “The roots of things,” according to Empedocles, are eternal, unchanging and incapable of passing into each other. All other things are obtained as a result of the combination of these elements in certain quantitative proportions. Empedocles agreed with Parmenides’ thesis on the impossibility of the transition of “non-being” into “being” and “being” into “non-being”: for him, “birth” and “death” of things are only incorrectly used names, behind which stands a purely mechanical “connection” and “separation” of elements… In this perishable world
There is no birth, just as there is no destructive death: There is only one mixture and the exchange of what has been mixed, – Which people foolishly call birth.
( Empedocles, fr. 53. Trans. G. Yakubanis, revised by M. L. Gasparov).
As an external cause of the mutual attraction and repulsion of the elements, Empedocles postulated the existence of two cosmic forces – “Love” (Greek φιλία) and “Enmity” (or “Hatred”) (Greek νείκος), which he imagined to be immaterial, but spatially extended. Of these natural forces, the first unites (“mixes”) heterogeneous elements, while the second separates them. The alternating predominance of these forces determines the cyclical course of the world process.
My speech will be twofold: for that which sprouts through Unity
Multiplicity, then again the growth of Unity is divided into Multiplicity.
The birth of mortal things is twofold, and the death is twofold:
For one thing from the fusion of All is born and perishes, –
And in the division of Everything, something grows and something else dies.
This continuous exchange cannot stop in any way:
That which is drawn by Love, all comes together,
Then, through the enmity of discord, they are again driven apart from each other.
Thus, since Unity is eternally born from Multiplicity,
And by dividing the Unity, the Many are again accomplished, —
There is an emergence in them, but there is no harmonious century in them.
But since this exchange cannot stop in any way,
Forever, they move in a circle, unchanging.
( Empedocles, fr. 31, 1-13. Translated by G. Yakubanis, revised by M. L. Gasparov).
Each separate cosmogonic cycle has four phases: 1) the era of “Love”: all four elements are mixed in the most perfect way, forming a motionless and homogeneous “sphere” (Greek: σφαΐρος); 2) “Enmity” penetrates the “sphere” and displaces “Love”, separating the heterogeneous elements and uniting the homogeneous ones; due to the fact that fire accumulates in one half of the “sphere”, and air (ether) – in the other, a violation of the balance occurs, leading to the rotation of the world – at first slow, but gradually accelerating; this rotation explains, in particular, the alternation of day and night; 3) “Love” returns, gradually uniting heterogeneous elements and separating homogeneous ones; the movement of the cosmos slows down; 4) the fourth phase, the “zoogonic” one, is in turn subdivided into four stages: 1) in the damp, warm mud, individual members and organs of all sorts of creatures arise, which rush about in space in a disorderly manner; 2) unsuccessful combinations of members, diverse, mostly ugly creatures are formed; 3) “whole-natural” creatures arise, incapable of sexual reproduction; and, finally, 4) full-fledged animals with sexual differentiation are born.
According to Empedocles, the cosmos is ovoid in shape, its shell consists of solidified ether. The stars are fiery in nature: fixed stars are attached to the firmament, while the planets float freely in space. Empedocles likens the sun to a huge mirror that reflects the light emitted by the fiery hemisphere of space. The moon is formed from a condensation of clouds and is flat, receiving its light from the sun. Empedocles did not distinguish between the process of thinking and sensory perception. According to his theory of sensations, material “effluvia” are continuously separated from each thing, which penetrate the “pores” of the sense organs. Cognition (perception) is carried out in accordance with the principle: “Like is known by like.” For example, he believed that the interior of the eye consists of all four elements; when a given element meets the “effluvia” corresponding to it, visual perception arises.
The views of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c. 500 – 428 BC), a close friend of Pericles who lived for a long time in Athens, were formed under the strong influence of the cosmology of Anaximenes of Miletus and the teaching of Parmenides on “being”. When asked why he was born, Anaxagoras answered: “In order to contemplate the Sun, the Moon and the sky.” In Athens, Anaxagoras was accused of a state crime (atheism), since he dared to assert that the god Helios (the Sun) was a red-hot block; for this he faced the death penalty. But Pericles stood up for his teacher, asking the judges whether they should also condemn Pericles. And when he heard that they should not, he said: “But I am this man’s disciple; do not execute him, but release him”; the death penalty was replaced by exile. The philosopher died in Lampsacus (Asia Minor), surrounded by his students. One of them lamented that the teacher was dying in exile; Anaxagoras, according to legend, said: “The path to the kingdom of the dead (Hades) is the same everywhere” (Diogenes Laërtius, II, 10-16).
The first phrase from the only work of Anaxagoras is well known: “All things were together, infinite both in quantity and in smallness” (Anaxagoras, fr. 1). The initial state of the world, according to Anaxagoras, was a motionless “mixture”, devoid of any outlines. The “mixture” consisted of an infinitely large number of tiny, invisible to the eye and infinitely divisible particles, or “seeds”, of all kinds of substances. Aristotle later called these particles “homeomeries” (Greek μοωμέρεια – “similar parts”), i.e. such structural elements of being in which each part is similar to another and at the same time to the whole (bone, meat, gold, etc.). At some point in time and in some area of space, this “mixture” acquired a rapid rotational motion, imparted to it by an external source in relation to it – “Mind” (Greek noys – “mind”, “reason”, “thought”). Anaxagoras calls “Mind” “the lightest of all things”, which does not mix with anything, and claims that it “contains complete knowledge of everything and has the greatest power” (fr. 12).
Under the influence of the rotation speed, the dark, cold, moist air, which gathers in the center of the cosmic vortex, separates from the light, hot, dry fire (ether), which rushes to its periphery. Later, denser and darker components are released from the air – clouds, water, earth, stones. In accordance with the principle of “like tends to like”, a combination of similar “seeds” occurs, forming masses perceived by the senses as homogeneous substances. However, complete isolation of these masses cannot occur, since “in everything there is a part of everything” (fr. 6), and each thing only seems to be what predominates in it (fr. 12). The total amount of matter always remains unchanged, since “no thing arises or is destroyed, but is united from existing things (i.e. “seeds”) and is divided” (fr. 17). The cosmic vortex, gradually slowing down, is subsequently perceived as the rotation of the firmament. The earth, formed from the densest and heaviest substances, slowed down more quickly and now remains motionless in the center of space. It is flat and does not fall down, being supported by the air beneath it. The heavenly bodies were torn from the earth’s disk by the force of the rotating ether and then became red-hot under its influence. The sun is a huge flaming block. The stars are red-hot stones. The moon is colder in nature, has depressions and elevations, and is possibly inhabited. Anaxagoras is credited with the first correct explanation of solar and lunar eclipses. Sensations arise as a result of the action of the “like” on the “dissimilar”; the intensity of the sensation is determined by the contrast of this action – therefore sensations are always relative and cannot be a source of true knowledge. But even without them knowledge is impossible, “since phenomena are the visible revelation of the invisible” (fr. 21a).
The founders of atomism, Leucippus (nothing is known about his life) and Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), in opposition to the Eleatics, asserted that “non-being” exists no less than “being”, and this “non-being” is emptiness. Democritus of Abdera, the son of Hegesicrates, was born c. 460 BC. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Democritus was first “a student of some magicians and Chaldeans, whom King Xerxes gave to his father as teachers when he was visiting him”; “from them, while still a child, he learned the science of the gods and the stars. Then he went over to Leucippus” (Diogenes Laërtius, IX, 34). Legends circulated about Democritus’ curiosity. He said: “To find an explanation for at least one phenomenon is more gratifying than to be the Persian king!” After the death of his father, who left him a large inheritance, Democritus went on a journey and visited Egypt, Persia, India and Ethiopia. When he returned home, he was brought to trial for embezzlement of his father’s fortune. Instead of any justification, he read his main work, “The Great World Order,” before the judges and received 100 talents (1 talent = 26.2 kg of silver) as a reward for it; copper statues were erected in his honor, and after his death he was buried at state expense (IX, 39). Democritus lived for more than 90 years and died around 370 BC. He was a very versatile scholar and a prolific writer, the author of about 70 works, of which about 300 quotations have come down to us. He was nicknamed the “Laughing Philosopher” because “everything that was done seriously seemed so frivolous to him.”
According to the teaching of Democritus, the void separates the smallest particles of being – “atoms” (Greek τόμος – “indivisible”). “Atoms” differ from each other in size, shape and position; they rush around randomly in the void and, connecting with each other, give rise to all sorts of things. These fundamental principles of things are immutable, invisible, indivisible and perfect; there is an innumerable multitude of them. The cause of the movement of “atoms”, their cohesion and disintegration is “necessity” – the natural law that governs the universe. Large cohesions of “atoms” give rise to huge vortices, from which countless worlds arise. When a cosmic vortex arises, first of all an outer shell is formed, similar to a film or shell, which fences off the world from the external empty space. This film prevents the “atoms” inside the vortex from flying out and, thus, ensures the stability of the emerging cosmos. Whirling in such a vortex, the “atoms” are separated according to the principle of “like tends to like”: the larger of them gather in the middle and form a flat Earth, the smaller ones rush to the periphery. The Earth has the shape of a drum with concave bases; at first it was small and rotated around its axis, but then, having become denser and heavier, it passed into a motionless state. Some couplings of “atoms” ignite due to the speed of movement, as a result of which celestial bodies arise. From the point of view of Democritus, all worlds differ in size and structure: in some worlds there is neither the Sun nor the Moon, in others the Sun and Moon are larger than ours or are present in greater numbers; such worlds can also arise that do not have animals and plants and are generally deprived of moisture. Worlds are formed at different distances from each other and at different times; some have just begun to emerge, others (like ours) are in their prime, and still others perish, colliding with each other. Different species of living beings (birds, land animals, fish) differ in the nature of the “atoms” of which they are built. All living things differ from non-living things by the presence of a soul, which, according to Democritus, consists of small, round, mobile “atoms” similar to the “atoms” of fire. Not only humans and animals have a soul, but plants too. The soul is preserved in the body and increases through breathing, but it dies with the death of the body, dispersing into space. Gods also consist of “atoms” and are therefore not immortal, but they are very stable compounds of “atoms” that are inaccessible to the senses.
Based on Empedocles’ teaching on sensory perceptions, Democritus believed that from every body in all directions there emanate unique “effluvia”, which are the finest combinations of “atoms” deviating from the surface of the body and rushing through the void with the greatest speed. Democritus called these “effluvia” “images” of things. They enter the eyes and other sense organs and, according to the principle of “like acts on like”, act on “similar” “atoms” in the human body. All sensations and perceptions are the result of the interaction of the “atoms” of which the “images” are composed and the “atoms” of the corresponding sense organs. Thus, the sensation of white in the eye is caused by “smooth atoms”, black – by “rough” ones; “Smooth atoms” that hit the tongue cause a sensation of sweetness, while those that hit the nose cause a sensation of fragrance, etc. From Democritus’s point of view, sensations are not useless, but serve as a starting point on the path to knowledge: Democritus called this starting point “dark” knowledge, contrasting it with true knowledge, which can only be achieved through reason. Drawing an analogy between the structure of the human body and the entire universe, Democritus was the first to use the expressions “macrocosm” (Greek μέγας διάκοσμος – “large world order”) and “microcosm” (Greek μικρ ς διάκοσμος – “small world order”). With Democritus, the first period of the history of Greek philosophy ends.