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Primary Source 8.1

PRESOCRATIC GREEK THINKERS1

The earliest Greek philosophers were the first thinkers to formulate explanations of natural phenomena without reference to mythology or magic. Although their theories were often inaccurate, they demonstrated a commitment to understand nature by means of reason and empirical observation. They are called Presocratics, in honor of the first important ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates (c. 469–c. 399 B.C.), who wrote down none of his ideas but profoundly influenced the thought of his star pupil, Plato (428–347 B.C.), probably the most important philosopher in world history. Presocratic thinking—mostly handed down in fragments or descriptions by later philosophers only—influenced ancient Greek and Roman and medieval Islamic and European philosophers and scholars. Of the following passages, three relate to what have been called the Milesians, that is, thinkers from the Greek city of Miletus, located on the western coast of Anatolia (today’s Turkey). All three hypothesized about the elemental composition of matter. Thales (624–546 B.C.), for example, posited water as the original substance that made the generation of all things possible. He also achieved breakthroughs in mathematics, including the concept of the diameter, and accurate astronomical discoveries concerning eclipses and the solstices. Anaximander (610–546 B.C.) drew the first map of the inhabited world, introduced the sundial to Greece, and conceived an early idea of biological evolution. He also argued for an indeterminate substance underlying all things. Anaximenes (c. 585–c. 528 B.C.) believed the essential substance was air and explained earthquakes as resulting from excessive dryness or moisture. Thus, these thinkers endeavored both to measure and analyze celestial and terrestrial phenomena and to hypothesize about their fundamental causes, though they also reflected upon society and human relations. The last passage, by Heraclitus, or Herakleitos (c. 535–c. 475 B.C.) of Ephesus, another city in Anatolia, expounds, among other thoughts, his idea concerning a universal law, or logos, that is common to all people and things and was not established by gods or man, but predated the creation of the world. Similar to the concept of Natural Law of the Stoics and later Western thinkers, the logos in Heraclitus’s conception is symbolized best by fire, an element constantly changing yet always the same. For these and other texts by Greek thinkers online, click here.

THALES

I. Thales, then, as Herodotus2 and Duris3 and Democritus4 say, was the son of Euxamius and Cleobule; of the family of the Thelidae, who are Phoenicians by descent, among the most noble of all the descendants of Cadmus5 and Agenor,6 as Plato testifies.

1 Oliver J. Thatcher (ed.), The Library of Original Sources (New York; University Research Extension, 1907), 138–45, 148–52. 2 Herodotus (c. 484–425 B.C.) was an ancient Greek historian who collect data with impressive accuracy. 3 Duris of Samos (c. 350–281 B.C.) was a Greek historian. 4 Democritus (c. 460–370 B.C.) formulated an atomic theory. 5 A Phoenician prince thought to have lived around 2000 B.C. 6 A Phoenician king according thought to have lived before 2000 B.C. 2

And he was the first man to whom the name of Wise was given, when Damasius was Archon7 at Athens, in whose time also the seven wise men had that title given to them, as Demetrius Phalereus8 records in his Catalogue of the Archons. He was enrolled as a citizen at Miletus when he came thither with Neleus, who had been banished from Phoenicia; but a more common statement is that he was a native Milesian, of noble extraction. II. After having been immersed in state affairs he applied himself to speculations in natural philosophy; though, as some people state, he left no writings behind him, for the book on Naval Astronomy, which is attributed to him is said in reality to be the work of Focus the Samian.9 But Callimachus10 was aware that he was the discoverer of the Lesser Bear; for in his Iambics he speaks of him thus:

And, he, ‘tis said, did first compute the stars Which beam in Charles’s wain, and guide the bark11 Of the Phoenician sailor o’er the sea.

According to others he wrote two books, and no more, about the solstice and the equinox; thinking that everything else was easily to be comprehended. According to other statements, he is said to have been the first who studied astronomy, and who foretold the eclipses and motions of the sun, as Eudemus12 relates in his history of the discoveries made in astronomy; on which account Xenophanes and Herodotus praise him greatly; and Heraclitus and Democritus confirm this statement. III. Some again (one of whom is Chaerilus the poet) say that he was the first person who affirmed that the souls of men were immortal; and he was the first person, too, who discovered the path of the sun from one end of the ecliptic to the other; and who, as one account tells us, defined the magnitude of the sun as being seven hundred and twenty times as great as that of the moon. He was also the first person who called the last day of the month the thirtieth. And likewise the first to converse about natural philosophy, as some say. But Aristotle and Hippias say that he attributed souls also to lifeless things, forming his conjecture from the nature of the magnet, and of amber. VI. He asserted water to be the principle of all things, and that the world had life, and was full of demons; they say, too, that he was the original definer of the seasons of the year, and that it was he who divided the year into three hundred and sixty-five days. And he never had any teacher except during the time that he went to Egypt, and associated with the priests. Hieronymus also says that he measured the Pyramids: watching their shadow, and calculating when they were of the same size as that was. He lived with Thrasybulus13 the tyrant of Miletus, as we are informed by Minyas. IX. These are quoted as some of his lines:—

It is not many words that real wisdom proves;

7 A Greek word meaning ruler or leader. 8 An Athenian orator thought to have lived c. 350–250 B.C. 9 From the Greek island of Samos. 10 An ancient Greek poet, critic, and scholar who lived around 310/305–240 B.C. 11 That is, the boat. 12 Eudemus of Rhodes (c. 370–300 B.C.) was a historian of science and a student of Aristotle. 13 An Athenian general and democratic leader, living c. 440–388 B.C. 3

Breathe rather one wise thought, Select one worthy object, So shall you best the endless prate of silly men reprove.— And the following are quoted as saying of his:—”God is the most ancient of all things, for he had no birth: the world is the most beautiful of things, for it is the work of God; place is the greatest of things, for it contains all things: intellect is the swiftest of things, for it runs through everything: necessity is the strongest of things, for it rules everything: time is the wisest of things, for it finds out everything.” He said also that there was no difference between life and death. “Why, then,” said some one to him, “do not you die?” “Because,” said he, “it does make no difference.” A man asked him which was made first, night or day, and he replied, “Night was made first by one day.” Another man asked him whether a man who did wrong, could escape the notice of the gods. “No, not even if he thinks wrong,” said he. An adulterer inquired of him whether he should swear that he had not committed adultery. “Perjury,” said he, “is no worse than adultery.” When he was asked what was very difficult, he said, “To know one’s self.” And what was easy, “To advise another.” What was most pleasant? “To be successful.” To the question, “What is the divinity?” he replied, “That which has neither beginning nor end.” When asked what hard thing he had seen, he said, “An old man a tyrant.” When the question was put to him how a man might most easily endure misfortune, he said, “If he saw his enemies more unfortunate still.” When asked how men might live most virtuously and most justly, he said, “If we never do ourselves what we blame in others.” To the question, “Who was happy?” he made answer, “He who is healthy in his body, easy in his circumstances, and well-instructed as to his mind.” He said that men ought to remember those friends who were absent as well as those who were present, and not to care about adorning their faces, but to be beautified by their studies. “Do not,” said he, “get rich by evil actions, and let not any one ever be able to reproach you with speaking against those who partake of your friendship. All the assistance that you give to your parents, the same you have a right to expect from your children. “He said that the reason of the Nile overflowing was, that its streams were beaten back by the Etesian14 winds blowing in a contrary direction.—Diogenes Laertius.15

ANAXIMANDER Fragments

Anaximander of Miletus, son of Praxiades, a fellow-citizen and associate of Thales, said that the material cause and first element of things was the Infinite, he being the first to introduce this name for the material cause. He says it is neither water nor any other of what are now called the elements, but a substance different from them which is infinite, from which arise all the heavens and the worlds within them. He says that this is eternal and ageless, and that it encompasses all the worlds. And into that from which things take their rise they pass away once more, “as is ordained; for they make reparation and satisfaction to one another for their injustice according to the appointed time,” as he says in these somewhat poetical terms.

14 Strong north winds of the Aegean Sea that blow during the summer months. 15 A biographer of Greek philosophers, thought to have lived sometime in the third century A.D. 4

And besides this, there was an eternal motion, in the course of which was brought about the origin of the worlds. He did not ascribe the origin of things to any alteration in matter, but said that the oppositions in the substratum, which was a boundless Body, were separated out. He says that something capable of begetting hot and cold was separated off from the eternal at the origin of this world. From this arose a sphere of flame which grew round the air encircling the earth, as the bark grows round a tree. When this was broken up and enclosed in certain rings, the sun, moon, and stars came into existence. The heavenly bodies are wheels of fire separated off from the fire which encircles the world, and surrounded by air. And they have breathing-holes, certain pipe-like openings through which the heavenly bodies are seen. For this reason, too, when the breathing-holes are stopped, eclipses occur. And the moon appears now to wax and now to wane because of the stopping and opening of the outlets. The circle of the sun is twenty- seven times the size (of the earth, while that) of the moon (is eighteen times as large). The sun is highest of all, and lowest are the wheels of the fixed stars. Anaximander said the stars were hoop-like compressions of air full of fire, breathing out flames at a certain point from orifices. The sun was highest of all, after it came the moon, and below these the fixed stars and the planets. Anaximander said the sun was a ring twenty-eight times the size of the earth, like a cart-wheel with the felloe16 hollow and full of fire, showing the fire at a certain point, as if through the nozzle of a pair of bellows. Anaximander held that thunder and lightning were caused by the blast. When it is shut up in a thick cloud and bursts forth with violence, then the breakage of the cloud makes the noise, and the rift gives the appearance of a flash by contrast with the darkness of the cloud. Anaximander held that wind was a current of air (i.e. mist) which arose when its finest and moistest particles were set in motion or dissolved by the sun. Rain was produced by the moisture drawn up from the earth by the sun. The sea is what is left of the original moisture. The fire has dried up most of it and turned the rest salt by scorching it. He says that the earth is cylindrical in form, and that its height is as a third part of its width. The earth swings free, held in its place by nothing. It stays where it is because of its equal distance from anything. Its shape is convex and round, and like a stone pillar (?). We are on one of the surfaces, and the other is on the opposite side. Living creatures arose from the moist element as it was evaporated by the sun. Man was like another animal, namely, a fish, in the beginning. Further, he says that in the beginning man was born from animals of a different species. His reason is, that, while other animals quickly find food for themselves, man alone requires a prolonged period of sucking. Hence, had he been originally such as he is now, he could never have survived. The first living creatures were produced in the moist element, and were covered with prickly integuments. As time went on they came out upon the drier part, and, the integument soon breaking off, they changed their manner of life.

16 The rim of a wheel. 5

ANAXIMENES Fragments

Anaximenes of Miletus, son of Eurystratos, who had been an associate of Anaximander, said, like him, that the underlying substance was one and infinite. He did not, however, say it was indeterminate, like Anaximander, but determinate; for he said it was Air. From it, he said, the things that are, and have been, and shall be, the gods and things divine, took their rise, while other things come from its offspring. “Just as,” he said, “our soul, being air, holds us together, so do breath and air encompass the whole world.” And the form of the air is as follows. Where it is most even, it is invisible to our sight; but cold and heat, moisture and motion, make it visible. It is always in motion; for, if it were not, it would not change so much as it does. It differs in different substances in virtue of its rarefaction and condensation. When it is dilated so as to be rarer, it becomes fire; while winds, on the other hand, are condensed Air. Cloud is formed from Air by “felting;” and this, still further condensed, becomes water. Water, condensed still more, turns to earth; and when condensed as much as it can be, to stones. He says that, as the air was “felted,” the earth first came into being. It is very broad, and is accordingly supported by the air. In the same way, the sun and the moon and the other heavenly bodies, which are of a fiery nature, are supported by the air because of their breadth. The heavenly bodies were produced from the earth by moisture rising from it. When this is rarefied, fire comes into being, and the stars are composed of the fire thus raised aloft. There were also bodies of earthy substance in the region of the stars, revolving along with them. And he says that the heavenly bodies do not move under the earth, as others suppose, but round it, as a cap turns round our head. The sun is hidden from sight, not because it goes under the earth, but because it is concealed by the higher parts of the earth, and because its distance from us becomes greater. The stars give no heat because of the greatness of their distance. Winds are produced when condensed air rushes into rarefied; but when it is concentrated and thickened still more, clouds are generated; and, lastly, it turns to water. The stars are fixed like nails in the crystalline vault of the heavens. They do not go under the earth, but turn round it. The sun is fiery. It is broad like a leaf. The heavenly bodies are diverted from their courses by the resistance of compressed air. The moon is of fire. Anaximenes explained lightning like Anaximander, adding as an illustration what happens in the case of the sea, which flashes when divided by the oars. Hail is produced when water freezes in falling; snow, when there is some air imprisoned in the water. The rainbow is produced when the beams of the sun fall on thick condensed air. Hence the anterior part of it seems red, being burnt by the sun’s rays, while the other part 6 is dark, owing to the predominance of moisture. And he says that a rainbow is produced at night by the moon; but not often, because there is net constantly a full moon, and because the moon’s light is weaker than that of the sun. The earth was like the slab of a table in shape. The cause of earthquakes was the dryness and moisture of the earth, occasioned by droughts and heavy rains respectively.

HERAKLEITOS Fragments

1. It is wise to hearken not to me but my argument, and to confess that all things are one. 2. Though this discourse is true evermore, yet men are as unable to understand it when they hear it for the first time as before they have heard it at all. For, although all things happen in accordance with the account I give, men seem as if they had no experience of them, when they make trial of words and works such as I set forth, dividing each thing according to its nature and explaining how it truly is. But other men know not what they are doing when you wake them up, just as they forget what they do when asleep. . . . 17. Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, practised inquiry beyond all other men, and made himself a wisdom of his own, which was but a knowledge of many things and an art of mischief. 18. Of all whose discourses I have heard, there is not one who attains to understanding that wisdom is apart from other things. 19. Wisdom is one thing. It is to know the thought by which all things are steered through all things. . . . 25. Fire lives the death of earth, and air lives the death of fire; water lives the death of air, earth that of water. 26. Fire will come upon and lay hold of all things. 27. How can one hide from that which never sinks to rest? 28. It is the thunderbolt that steers the course of all things. . . . 59. You must couple together things whole and things not whole, what is drawn together and what is drawn asunder, the harmonious and the discordant. The one is made up of all things, and all things issue from the one. 60. Men would not have known the name of justice if there were no injustice. 61. Men themselves have made a law for themselves, not knowing what they made it about; but the gods have ordered the nature of all things. Now the arrangements which men have made are never constant, neither when they are right nor when they are wrong; but all the arrangements which the gods have made are always right, both when they are right and when they are wrong; so great is the difference. . . . 65. Wisdom [logos] is one only. It is willing and unwilling to be called by the name of Zeus. . . . 7

91. Wisdom is common to all things. Those who speak with intelligence must hold fast to the common as a city holds fast to its law, and even more strongly. For all human laws are fed by one thing, the divine. It prevails as much as it will, and suffices for all things with something to spare. 92. Though wisdom is common, yet the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own. . . . 100. The people must fight for its law as for its walls. . . .