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PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS |
THEMES ON THIS PAGE:
| 1. HERACLITUS | 2. PARMENIDES | 3. DEMOCRITUS |
PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS
Western philosophy was born in the 6th century in ancient Greece. For the first time in Western civilization, a group of thinkers started practicing what we call “philosophy”: They developed general theories about reality based on reason (as opposed to faith or authority), and in terms of fundamental, universal principles (as opposed to mythological stories about the gods). This was one of the greatest revolutions of human thought, and it led not only to philosophy, but (later on) also to science. When Thales of Miletus said that water is the basic substance from which all matter is made, this was, conceptually, not very different from the modern view that all mater is made of atoms, or quarks.
The name “Pre-Socratics” refers to the first ancient Greek philosophers, those who lived and philosophized before the great philosopher Socrates (470-399 BC). Only short fragments remain today from their books, mostly sentences or paragraphs quoted by later ancient philosophers.
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TOPIC 1. HERACLITUS |
Heraclitus lived around the year 500 BC, in the Greek city of Ephesus in Asia Minor. Little is known about his life, but later ancient historians wrote that he was from an influential family; that he was a snob and wrote in a difficult language so that only few would understand him (hence the name “Heraclitus the obscure”); and that he was a pessimist (hence the name “the weeping philosopher”). He died of some illness at the age of 60.
Heraclitus wrote one book in which he attempted to cover all knowledge. Its main themes were: that all things follow the Logos – the universal law that governs all; that most people live half-asleep and do not understand the Logos; that everything in the world is in a constant change; that fire is the basic principle of reality; that good and bad are relative to one’s perspective; and that the processes of nature are governed by conflict between opposites, or tension between opposite forces.
1. Although the Logos is valid forever, yet men are unable to understand it, not only before they hear it, but even after hearing it for the first time. Thus, although all things come into being according to this Logos, men seem as if they have never experienced it – in terms of the ideas and processes I am explaining here, separating each thing according to its nature and explaining how it behaves. Other men are not aware of what they are doing when awake, just as they are when asleep.
2. We should let ourselves be guided by the Logos which is common to all. But although the Logos is common to all, most people live as if they had their own private understanding.
8. What opposes unites, and the finest harmony comes from things that are different from each other.
12. When different people step into the same river, they always have different waters flowing upon them.
30. This cosmos, which is the same for all, was not made by any god or man, but it always was, is, and will be. It is an ever-living fire, kindled in regular measures and reduced in regular measures.
35. Men who love wisdom must inquire about very many things indeed.
41. Wisdom is one thing: to understand the intelligence which directs all things through all things.
45. You cannot discover the limits of the soul, even if you travel the whole way; so deep is its meaning.
47. Let us not speculate randomly about the most important things.
49a. In the same river, we both step and do not step, we are and we are not.
51. People do not understand how things which are in conflict with themselves agree with themselves. Harmony consists of opposing tension, like the tension of the bow and the lyre.
60. The way up and the way down are one and the same.
61. The sea is the purest and most polluted: For fish, it is drinkable and life-giving; for men it is undrinkable and destructive.
72. The Logos: Although people are connected with the Logos most closely, yet they separate themselves from it, and those things which they encounter daily seem to them strange.
73. We must not act and speak like men asleep.
78. Human nature has no power of understanding; but the divine nature has it.
80. One should understand that war is universal, that justice is conflict, and all things come into being through conflict and necessity.
88. What is in us, is the same thing: living and dead, awake and asleep, young and old. Because the second in each pair changes to become the first, and then it is changed back to become the second.
89. Those who are awake have one cosmos that is common to all, but when they are asleep each man turns away to a world of his own.
90. All things are an exchange for fire, and fire is an exchange for all things, just as goods are exchanged for gold and gold for goods.
91. You cannot step twice into the same river, because new water scatters and combines, approaches and separates.
101. I have searched myself.
107. The eyes and ears are bad witnesses for me, if they have barbarian souls.
114. To speak with intelligence, we must rely on what is common to all, just as a city relies on its law, and even more strongly. Because all human laws are nourished by the divine law, which governs as much as it wants, and is enough for all things, and more than enough.
124. The most beautiful universe is just a heap of dust piled up randomly.
126. Cold things grow hot, hot things grow cold, the wet dries, the dry is moistened.
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TOPIC 2. PARMENIDES |
Parmenides of Elea, who lived around the end of the 5th century B.C. and beginning of the 4th, was an ancient Greek philosopher. His influence on Western philosophy was considerable. He wrote a philosophical poem, fragments of which survived, which describes his imaginary journey to the sacred temple of some goddess. There, the goddess explains to him two ways of thinking: The way of common opinion, which is based on sensory appearance, and the way of truth, which is based on reason (logos). While the way of common opinion portrays the world as a plurality of things which move and change and are created and destroyed, the way of truth shows that this is impossible. Movement, change, and creation mean a negation of being (it is here but not there, it is this but not that, it is now but was not earlier), which is impossible. What is – is; and what is not – is not. Thus, being just is, without division or change.
Parmenides’ student, Zeno of Elea (not to be confused with Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism), developed the famous paradoxes (Achilles and the tortoise, the arrow paradox, etc.) designed to show that motion is impossible.
1. […] And the goddess received me kindly, and took my right hand in hers, and said to me: Young man, companion of immortal charioteers, you who came by the help of the horses which brought you to our dwelling -- welcome! What brought you here on this road, which is far from the paths of humans, is not evil fate but divine command and rightness. You should examine everything: both the unchanging heart of the truth that is well-rounded, and also the opinions of mortals in which there is no true reliability. You will learn these things too – how to examine the ways in which all things appear, without exception, and evaluate them.
2. Come, I will tell you (and you must accept my word when you hear it) the two ways of inquiry that are available for thinking. The one way is: that it is, and that being cannot not-be. This is the credible way, because it follows truth. The second way is that it is-not, and that not-being must be. This, I tell you, is a path that cannot be explored, because you cannot recognize what is not, and you cannot express it.
3. Being and thinking are the same.
7, 8. Because this view can never dominate: that what-is-not exists. You must stop your thought from going in this path, and must not let ordinary experience tempt you to go along this way. Do not be ruled by the eye that is sightless, and the ear that is full of sound, and the tongue. You must judge with reason the disputed issue which I am explaining.
The only alternative way to describe the true road is: that [what is] is. There are many signs that point to this way: First, being has no beginning and it will never be destroyed, because it is whole, without motion, and without end. And it never was, nor will be, because it is now, a whole all together, one, continuous; because what kind creation can you look for? How, and from where could being come into existence? I will not I allow you to speak or think about it as coming from not-being, because it is impossible to explain or think that what-is-not is. Also, if it came from nothing, then what factor forced it to be produced later or earlier? Therefore, it must either absolutely be, or not be at all.
[…] Being is also not divisible, since it is all alike. Nor is there anything else which can prevent it from holding together, nor [does it contain] any smaller thing, but all is full of being. Therefore it is completely continuous, because being is close to being.
Furthermore, it is motionless, and is kept this way by powerful bonds, without beginning and without end, since creation and destruction have been pushed very far away, rejected by true conviction. And since it remains the same in the same place, it rests by itself and thus remains there fixed; because powerful necessity holds it confined within a boundary, which constrains it all around – this is determined by divine law that being cannot be without boundary. Because being does not lack anything, and if it was infinite it would be lacking everything [every specific characteristic].
Thinking is the same as thinking that it is, because you will not find thinking that is not about being, for which there is a description. Nothing except being either is or shall be, since fate has tied it together to be a whole and motionless. Therefore, all the ideas which mortals have created, and which they believe are true, are just a name: creation and perishing, being and not-being, change of position and change of color.
[…] At now I am ending my reliable theory and reflection about truth. From now on, you must learn the opinions of mortals, and listen to their deceptive re-ordering of my words. […] I will tell you about this world-order as it appears in all kinds of phenomena, so that people will not defeat your intellect.
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TOPIC 3. DEMOCRITUS – PLEASURE, HAPINESS AND CHEERFULNESS |
Democritus of Abdera (second half of the 4th century BC) is known today primarily for his theory of atoms, which resembles to some extent modern scientific theories. In fact, he wrote many books about a variety of topics, including ethics, natural science, mathematics, music, and technical works. Only fragments of these works have survived, many of them quotations by Aristotle (who lived about two generations later).
The following are Democritus’s main fragments on the topic of happiness. Since many of them are very short, it is difficult to understand the context from which they were taken. It seems, however, that he valued happiness that is balanced, moderate, and free of excessive emotions and passions. This kind of happiness does not come naturally, but requires education and cultivation, a sense of cheerfulness, friends, and being satisfied with what one has.
31. Medicine heals the diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passion.
61. Those whose character is well-ordered also have a well-ordered life.
71. Eventually, pleasures produce unpleasantness.
74. Accept no pleasure unless it is beneficial.
88. The envious person torments himself like an enemy.
99. Life is not worth living for the person who does not have even one good friend.
103. A person who loves nobody is, I think, loved by no one.
160. To live badly is not just to live badly, but to spend a long time dying.
170. Happiness, like unhappiness, is the property of the soul.
172. The same things from which we get good can also be for us a source of hurt, but we can avoid the hurt. For instance, deep water is useful for many purposes, and yet can be harmful, because there is danger of drowning. A technique has therefore been invented: instruction in swimming.
174. The cheerful person, who is driven towards words that are just and lawful, rejoices by day and by night, and is strong and free from care. But the person who neglects justice, and who does not do what he should, finds all such things unpleasant when he remembers any of them, and he worries and torments himself.
189. The best way for a person to lead his life is to be as cheerful as possible and to suffer as little as possible. This can happen if one does not seek pleasures in mortal things.
191. Cheerfulness is created for people through moderate enjoyment and harmonious life. Things that are too much or too little tend to change and cause great disturbance in the soul. Souls which are stimulated by great changes are neither stable nor cheerful. Therefore, one must keep one’s mind on what is attainable, be satisfied with what one has, pay little attention to things envied and admired, and not dwell on them in one’s mind. Rather, you should consider the lives of those who are in distress, and reflect on their intense suffering, so that your situation and possessions would seem to you great and enviable. And by stopping to desire more, you may stop suffering in your soul. Because a person who admires those who have possessions and who are called happy by others, and keeps thinking about them every hour, is constantly forced by his desire to do something new, and he risks doing something irreversible, and forbidden by law. Hence, one must not seek to get what others have, but must be content with what one has, and compare one’s own life with the life of those who are in a worse situation, and must consider himself better off than they. If you follow this way of thinking, you will live more peacefully, and you will expel those considerable curses in life: envy, jealousy, and spite.
194. The greatest pleasures come from the contemplation of noble works.
200. People who live without enjoying life are fools.
208. One should choose not every pleasure, but only pleasure concerned with the beautiful.
211. Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.
230. Life without celebration is a long road without an inn.
231. The right-minded man is somebody who is not grieved by what he doesn’t have, but enjoys what he has.
232. The pleasures that come most rarely give the greatest enjoyment.
233. If one steps beyond the appropriate amount, the most pleasurable things become most unpleasant.
235. All those who get their pleasures from the stomach, going beyond the appropriate amount of drinking or sexual pleasure, have pleasures that are only brief and short-lived – only during the moment of eating and drinking, but their pains are many. Because their desire for the same thing is always present, because when people get what they desire, the pleasures pass away quickly. And so, they have nothing good for themselves except for a brief enjoyment, after which their need for the same things returns again.
243. Many kinds of work are more pleasant than resting after you got what you were working for, or what you know you will get. But whenever there is failure to get it, then work is painful and hard.
286. Fortunate is the person who is happy with moderate means, and unfortunate is he who is unhappy with great possessions.
