Prologue
There are some who say that the study of philosophy had its beginning among the barbarians.
They urge that the Persians have had their Magi,
the Babylonians or Assyrians their Chaldaeans, and
the Indians their Gymnosophists; and among the
Celts and Gauls there are the people called Druids
or Holy Ones, for which they cite as authorities the
Magicus of Aristotle and Sotion in the
twenty-third
1
book of his
Succession of Philosophers. Also they
say that Mochus was a Phoenician, Zamolxis a
Thracian, and Atlas a Libyan.
[
2]
If we may believe the Egyptians, Hephaestus was
the son of the Nile, and with him philosophy began,
priests and prophets being its chief exponents.
Hephaestus lived 48,863 years before Alexander
of Macedon, and in the interval there occurred 373
solar and 832 lunar eclipses.
The date of the Magians, beginning with Zoroaster
the Persian, was 5000 years before the fall of Troy,
as given by Hermodorus the Platonist in his work
on mathematics; but Xanthus the Lydian reckons
6000 years from Zoroaster to the expedition of
Xerxes, and after that event he places a long line
of Magians in succession, bearing the names of
Ostanas, Astrampsychos, Gobryas, and Pazatas,
down to the conquest of Persia by Alexander.
[
3]
These authors forget that the achievements which
they attribute to the barbarians belong to the
Greeks, with whom not merely philosophy but the
human race itself began. For instance, Musaeus is
claimed by Athens, Linus by Thebes. It is said
that the former, the son of Eumolpus, was the first
to compose a genealogy of the gods and to construct
a sphere, and that he maintained that all things
proceed from unity and are resolved again into
unity. He died at Phalerum, and this is his
epitaph
2:
Musaeus, to his sire Eumolpus dear,
In Phalerean soil lies buried here;
and the Eumolpidae at Athens get their name from
the father of Musaeus.
[
4]
Linus again was (so it is said) the son of Hermes
and the Muse Urania. He composed a poem describing the creation of the world, the courses of the
sun and moon, and the growth of animals and
plants. His poem begins with the line:
Time was when all things grew up at once;
and this idea was borrowed by Anaxagoras when he
declared that all things were originally together
until Mind came and set them in order. Linus died
in Euboea, slain by the arrow of Apollo, and this is
his epitaph
3:
Here Theban Linus, whom Urania bore,
The fair-crowned Muse, sleeps on a foreign shore.
And thus it was from the Greeks that philosophy
took its rise: its very name refuses to be translated
into foreign speech.
[
5]
But those who attribute its invention to barbarians
bring forward Orpheus the Thracian, calling him a
philosopher of whose antiquity there can be no
doubt. Now, considering the sort of things he said
about the gods, I hardly know whether he ought to
be called a philosopher; for what are we to make of
one who does not scruple to charge the gods with
all human suffering, and even the foul crimes wrought
by the tongue amongst a few of mankind? The
story goes that he met his death at the hands of
women; but according to the epitaph at Dium in
Macedonia he was slain by a thunderbolt; it runs
as follows
4:
Here have the Muses laid their minstrel true,
The Thracian Orpheus whom Jove's thunder slew.
[
6]
But the advocates of the theory that philosophy
took its rise among the barbarians go on to explain
the different forms it assumed in different countries.
As to the Gymnosophists and Druids we are told
that they uttered their philosophy in riddles, bidding
men to reverence the gods, to abstain from wrongdoing, and to practise courage. That the Gymno-
sophists at all events despise even death itself is
affirmed by Clitarchus in his twelfth book; he also
says that the Chaldaeans apply themselves to
astronomy and forecasting the future; while the
Magi spend their time in the worship of the gods,
in sacrifices and in prayers, implying that none but
themselves have the ear of the gods. They propound their views concerning the being and origin
of the gods, whom they hold to be fire, earth, and
water; they condemn the use of images, and
especially the error of attributing to the divinities
difference of sex.
[
7]
They hold discourse of justice,
and deem it impious to practise cremation; but
they see no impiety in marriage with a mother or
daughter, as Sotion relates in his twenty-third book.
Further, they practise divination and forecast the
future, declaring that the gods appear to them in
visible form. Moreover, they say that the air is
full of shapes which stream forth like vapour and
enter the eyes of keen-sighted seers. They prohibit
personal ornament and the wearing of gold. Their
dress is white, they make their bed on the ground,
and their food is vegetables, cheese,
5 and coarse
bread; their staff is a reed and their custom is, so
we are told, to stick it into the cheese and take up
with it the part they eat.
With the art of magic they were wholly unacquainted, according to Aristotle in his
Magicus
and Dinon in the fifth book of his
History Dinon
tells us that the name Zoroaster, literally interpreted,
means "star-worshipper"
6; and Hermodorus
agrees
with him in this.
[
8]
Aristotle in the first book of his
dialogue
On Philosophy declares that the Magi are
more ancient than the Egyptians; and further, that
they believe in two principles, the good spirit and
the evil spirit, the one called Zeus or Oromasdes,
the other Hades or Arimanius. This is confirmed
by Hermippus in his first book about the Magi,
Eudoxus in his
Voyage round the World, and Theopompus in the eighth book of his
Philippica.
[
9]
The last-named author says that according to the Magi
men will live in a future life and be immortal, and
that the world will endure through their invocations.
7
This is again confirmed by Eudemus of Rhodes.
But Hecataeus relates that according to them the
gods are subject to birth. Clearchus of Soli in his
tract
On Education further makes the Gymnosophists
to be descended from the Magi; and some trace
the Jews also to the same origin. Furthermore,
those who have written about the Magi criticize
Herodotus. They urge that Xerxes would never
have cast javelins at the sun nor have let down
fetters into the sea, since in the creed of the Magi
sun and sea are gods. But that statues of the
gods should be destroyed by Xerxes was natural
enough.
[
10]
The philosophy of the Egyptians is described as
follows so far as relates to the gods and to justice.
They say that matter was the first principle, next
the four elements were derived from matter, and
thus living things of every species were produced.
The sun and the moon are gods bearing the names of
Osiris and Isis respectively; they make use of the
beetle, the dragon, the hawk, and other creatures
as symbols of divinity, according to Manetho in his
Epitome of Physical Doctrines, and Hecataeus in
the
first book of his work
On the Egyptian Philosophy.
They also set up statues and temples to these sacred
animals because they do not know the true form of
the deity.
[
11]
They hold that the universe is created
and perishable, and that it is spherical in shape.
They say that the stars consist of fire, and that,
according as the fire in them is mixed, so events
happen upon earth; that the moon is eclipsed when
it falls into the earth's shadow; that the soul
survives death and passes into other bodies; that
rain is caused by change in the atmosphere; of all
other phenomena they give physical explanations,
as related by Hecataeus and Aristagoras. They
also laid down laws on the subject of justice, which
they ascribed to Hermes; and they deified those
animals which are serviceable to man. They also
claimed to have invented geometry, astronomy, and
arithmetic. Thus much concerning the invention
of philosophy.
[
12]
But the first to use the term, and to call himself
a philosopher or lover of wisdom, was Pythagoras;
8
for, said he, no man is wise, but God alone. Heraclides of Pontus, in his
De mortua, makes him say
this at Sicyon in conversation with Leon, who was
the prince of that city or of Phlius. All too quickly
the study was called wisdom and its professor a
sage, to denote his attainment of mental perfection;
while the student who took it up was a philosopher
or lover of wisdom. Sophists was another name for
the wise men, and not only for philosophers but for
the poets also. And so Cratinus when praising
Homer and Hesiod in his
Archilochi gives them the
title of sophist.
[
13]
The men who were commonly regarded as sages
were the following: Thales, Solon, Periander,
Cleobulus, Chilon, Bias, Pittacus. To these are
added Anacharsis the Scythian, Myson of Chen,
Pherecydes of Syros, Epimenides the Cretan; and
by some even Pisistratus the tyrant. So much for
the sages or wise men.
9
But philosophy, the pursuit of wisdom, has had
a twofold origin; it started with Anaximander on
the one hand, with Pythagoras on the other. The
former was a pupil of Thales, Pythagoras was taught
by Pherecydes. The one school was called Ionian,
because Thales, a Milesian and therefore an Ionian,
instructed Anaximander; the other school was called
Italian from Pythagoras, who worked for the most
part in Italy.
[
14]
And the one school, that of Ionia,
terminates with Clitomachus and Chrysippus and
Theophrastus, that of Italy with Epicurus. The
succession passes from Thales through Anaximander,
Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Archelaus, to Socrates,
who introduced ethics or moral philosophy; from
Socrates to his pupils the Socratics, and especially
to Plato, the founder of the Old Academy; from
Plato, through Speusippus and Xenocrates, the
succession passes to Polemo, Crantor, and Crates,
Arcesilaus, founder of the Middle Academy, Lacydes,
10
founder of the New Academy, Carneades, and Clitomachus. This line brings us to Clitomachus.
[
15]
There is another which ends with Chrysippus,
that is to say by passing from Socrates to Antisthenes,
then to Diogenes the Cynic, Crates of Thebes, Zeno
of Citium, Cleanthes, Chrysippus. And yet again
another ends with Theophrastus; thus from Plato
it passes to Aristotle, and from Aristotle to Theophrastus.
In this manner the school of Ionia comes
to an end.
In the Italian school the order of succession is as
follows: first Pherecydes, next Pythagoras, next
his son Telauges, then Xenophanes, Parmenides,
11
Zeno of Elea, Leucippus, Democritus, who had
many pupils, in particular Nausiphanes [and Naucydes], who were teachers of Epicurus.
[
16]
Philosophers may be divided into dogmatists and
sceptics: all those who make assertions about
things assuming that they can be known are
dogmatists; while all who suspend their judgement
on the ground that things are unknowable are
sceptics. Again, some philosophers left writings
behind them, while others wrote nothing at all, as
was the case according to some authorities with
Socrates, Stilpo, Philippus, Menedemus, Pyrrho,
Theodorus, Carneades, Bryson; some add Pythagoras and Aristo of Chios, except that they wrote a
few letters. Others wrote no more than one treatise
each, as Melissus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras. Many
works were written by Zeno, more by Xenophanes,
more by Democritus, more by Aristotle, more by
Epicurus, and still more by Chrysippus.
[
17]
Some schools took their name from cities, as the
Elians and the Megarians, the Eretrians and the
Cyrenaics; others from localities, as the Academics
and the Stoics; others from incidental circumstances,
as the Peripatetics; others again from derisive nicknames, as the Cynics; others from their temperaments, as the Eudaemonists or Happiness School;
others from a conceit they entertained, as Truthlovers, Refutationists, and Reasoners from Analogy;
others again from their teachers, as Socratics,
Epicureans, and the like; some take the name of
Physicists from their investigation of nature, others
that of Moralists because they discuss morals;
while those who are occupied with verbal jugglery
are styled Dialecticians.
[
18]
Philosophy has three parts, physics, ethics, and
dialectic or logic. Physics is the part concerned
with the universe and all that it contains; ethics
that concerned with life and all that has to do with
us; while the processes of reasoning employed
by both form the province of dialectic. Physics
flourished down to the time of Archelaus; ethics,
as we have said, started with Socrates; while
dialectic goes as far back as Zeno of Elea. In ethics
there have been ten schools: the Academic, the
Cyrenaic, the Elian, the Megarian, the Cynic, the
Eretrian, the Dialectic, the Peripatetic, the Stoic,
and the Epicurean.
[
19]
The founders of these schools were: of the Old
Academy, Plato; of the Middle Academy, Arcesilaus;
of the New Academy, Lacydes; of the Cyrenaic,
Aristippus of Cyrene; of the Elian, Phaedo of Elis;
of the Megarian, Euclides of Megara; of the Cynic,
Antisthenes of Athens; of the Eretrian, Menedemus
of Eretria; of the Dialectical school, Clitomachus of
Carthage; of the Peripatetic, Aristotle of Stagira;
of the Stoic, Zeno of Citium; while the Epicurean
school took its name from Epicurus himself.
Hippobotus in his work
On Philosophical Sects
declares that there are nine sects or schools, and
gives them in this order: (1) Megarian, (2) Eretrian,
(3) Cyrenaic, (4) Epicurean, (5) Annicerean,
12,
(6)
Theodorean, (7) Zenonian or Stoic, (8) Old Academic,
(9) Peripatetic.
[
20]
He passes over the Cynic, Elian,
and Dialectical schools; for as to the Pyrrhonians,
so indefinite are their conclusions that hardly any
authorities allow them to be a sect; some allow
their claim in certain respects, but not in others.
It would seem, however, that they are a sect, for
we use the term of those who in their attitude to
appearance follow or seem to follow some principle;
and on this ground we should be justified in calling
the Sceptics a sect. But if we are to understand
by "sect" a bias in favour of coherent positive
doctrines, they could no longer be called a sect,
13,
for they have no positive doctrines. So much for
the beginnings of philosophy, its subsequent developments, its various parts, and the number of the
philosophic sects.
[
21]
One word more: not long ago an Eclectic school
was introduced by Potamo of Alexandria,
14, who
made a selection from the tenets of all the existing
sects. As he himself states in his
Elements of
Philosophy, he takes as criteria of truth (1) that
by which the judgement is formed, namely, the
ruling principle of the soul; (2) the instrument
used, for instance the most accurate perception.
His universal principles are matter and the efficient
cause, quality, and place; for that out of which
and that by which a thing is made, as well as the
quality with which and the place in which it is
made, are principles. The end to which he refers
all actions is life made perfect in all virtue, natural
advantages of body and environment being indispensable to its attainment.
It remains to speak of the philosophers themselves,
and in the first place of Thales.
