Exotic Journeys: A Tourist's Guide to Philosophy
brought to you by Ron Yezzi
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
Minnesota State University, Mankato
© Copyright 2003, 2015, 2020 by Ron Yezzi
Return to History of Philosophy
Pre-Socratics 1 - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras
Pre-Socratics 2 - Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea
Pre-Socratics 3 - Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Atomists, Sophists
Topics
Empedocles
Life
First Major Synthesis
Philosophical Significance
Fragments
Anaxagoras
Life
Main Doctrines
Philosophical Significance
Fragments
Atomists
Lives of Leucippus and Democritus
Main Doctrines
Philosophical Significance
Fragments
Sophists in General
Protagoras and Gorgias
Sophists in General
Notable Quotes
Empedocles came from a wealthy family and became a person of some prominence in Akragas, Sicily (see map). He practiced medicine and may have founded a school of medicine. He also was a democratic leader in Akragas and a fine orator.
Apparently Empedocles was a person of some flamboyance―walking about in a purple robe with a golden girdle and wearing brass slippers. He seemed to take himself and his importance very seriously. Some people even thought of him as a god. And according to one story told by Diogenes Laertius, he tried to confirm his divinity by disappearing. His disappearing act however was unsuccessful: After jumping to his death into the crater of Mt. Etna, the volcano in Sicily, it happens that the fires of the crater threw up one of his bronze slippers so that people became aware of what happened to him.
Of his writings, we have two poems, On Nature and On Purifications.
Empedocles' philosophy incorporated many of the positions of his predecessors, but in his own special way.
Empedocles maintained that the basic stuff of the universe consisted of four elements—fire, air, water, and earth—which were eternal and indestructible.
a. There was no transmission of these elements—that is, no changing of one into the other so that one could be regarded as more basic.
b. There could be compounds of the elements.
He had a cyclical conception of the world—with Love and Strife as causal factors explaining unity and diversity, respectively.
a. Love brings the world into unity and harmony, whereas Strife pulls things apart.
b. Love and Strife seem to suggest some sort of animism.
Empedocles produced a major synthesis by taking nearly all his predecessors into account—although he was not arguing for the same thing as each of them.
a.. He included all four elements as the basic stuff—thereby accommodating Thales (water), Anaximines (air), and Heraclitus (fire).
b. He maintained that the four elements were eternal and indestructible and that they did not transmute one into the other—thereby accommodating the stress on permanence and unity by Parmenides.
c. The emphasis on Love was a way of accommodating unity in Parmenides' thought and the harmony stressed by the Pythagoreans.
d. The emphasis on Strife was a way of accommodating Heraclitus' emphasis on change.
(Note: The fragments that follow are taken from Bakewell's Sourcebook in Ancient Philosophy.)
4. . . . BUT come, use all the hands of sense in grasping each thing in the way that it is clear. Do not put greater confidence in what thou seest than in what thou hearest, nor trust a loud noise more than the things that the tongue makes clear; and do not withhold thy confidence in any of the other hands which open a way to knowledge; but know each thing in the way it is clear.
6. Hear first the four roots of all things: brightly shining Zeus, life-bringing Hera, Aidoneus, and Nestis who bedews with her tears the well-spring of mortals.
8. And another thing I shall tell thee: of no one of all the things that perish is there any birth, nor any end in baneful death. There is only a mingling and a separation of what has been mingled. But “birth” is the name men use for this.
11. Fools! Short is the reach of their thinking who suppose that what before was not comes into being, or that anything perishes and is utterly destroyed.
12. For it is inconceivable that anything should arise from that which in no way exists, and it is impossible, and a thing unheard of, that what exists should perish, for it will always be wherever one in every case puts it.
17 . . . . Come hearken to my words, for learning adds strength to thy mind. As I said before, when I unfolded the chief points of my discourse, twofold is the truth I shall disclose. At one time things grew to be one alone out of many; and then again [this] fell asunder so that there were many from the one, fire and water and earth and the endless height of the air; and, apart from these, baneful Strife, with equal weight throughout, and in their midst Love, equally distributed in length and breadth. Let thy mind's gaze rest upon her, nor sit with dazed eyes. It is she that is held to be implanted in the parts of mortals; it is she who awakens thoughts of love and fulfils the works of peace. They call her by the name of Delight and Aphrodite. No mortal man has searched her out as she swirls around in [the elements]. But do thou hearken to the guileless course of my argument. For all these [elements] are equal and of like age. Each one has a different office, each has its own character, but as time runs on they win in turn the upper hand. And besides them nothing is added, nothing taken away. For were they being continually destroyed they would no longer exist. But what could increase this All, and whence could it come? And whither could these elements pass away, since there is no place bereft of them? No, they are the same, but as they penetrate each other, sometimes one thing arises, sometimes another, and continuously and to all eternity they are the same.
35. . . When Strife had fallen to the lowest depth of the vortex, and Love had come to be in the centre of the whirl, all things came together in Love so as to be one only,—not all at once, but coming together at their pleasure, one from this quarter, one from that. And as they came together Strife retired to the outermost boundary. But many things unmixed remained, alternating with the things that were mixed, as many as Strife, still remaining on high, retained in its grasp; for it had not yet blamelessly retired altogether to the outermost boundaries of the circle. Partly it still remained within, and partly it had separated from the elements. But just in proportion as it was continuously rushing out a gracious and divine impulse of blameless Love kept ever coming in. And straightway things grew mortal that were wont to be immortal before, and things before unmixed were mixed, changing their ways of life. And from these as they were mingled the countless tribes of mortal creatures poured forth, fashioned in all manner of forms, a wonder to behold.
82. Hair and leaves and the thick feathers of birds and the scales that grow on tough limbs are the same thing.
100. In this wise do all breathe in and out. All have bloodless tubes of flesh stretched over the surface of the body, and at their mouths is the outermost surface of the skin pierced with pores closely packed so that the blood is kept in, while an easy way is cut for the air through the openings. Then, whenever the smooth blood rushes back, the blustering air rushes in with a furious surge, and when the blood springs back, the air is breathed out again. As when a girl playing with a klepsydra of shining brass, as long as she holds the mouth of the pipe pressed against her comely hand and dips it in the smooth mass of silvery water, the water does not flow into the vessel, but the weight of the air inside as it presses on the closely packed pores keeps it back, until she uncovers the compressed stream [of air]. Then, however, as the air escapes, a corresponding mass of water flows in. And so in the same way when water fills the hollow of the brazen vessel, and the neck or opening is stopped by the human hand, the air outside which strives to get in holds back the water at the gates of the narrow gurgling passage, holding possession of the end, until she lets go with her hand. Then, on the contrary, the opposite of what happened before takes place, and as the air rushes in a corresponding mass of water rushes out. Just so, when the smooth blood that courses through the limbs turns backward and rushes into the interior, straightway the stream of air comes surging in, and when the blood crowds back the air breathes out again, retracing its steps.
109. For with earth we perceive earth, with water, water, with air, the air divine, and with fire, the devouring fire, and love we perceive by means of love, hate by means of dismal hate.
133. We cannot bring God near so as to reach him with our eyes or lay hold of him with our hands—-the [two ways] along which the chief highway of persuasion leads into the mind of man.
134. For he has no human head attached to bodily members, nor do two branching arms dangle from his shoulders; he has neither feet nor swift knees nor any hairy parts. No, he is only mind, sacred and ineffable mind, flashing through the whole universe with swift thoughts.
Anaxagoras came from Klazomenai in Asia Minor (see map). He may have been a student of Anaximenes. At any rate, he settled in Athens, where he lived for thirty years. Pericles, the great Athenian political leader, was his friend.
Anaxagoras never showed much interest in practical affairs or religion, focusing his intellectual efforts instead on understanding the natural world. This focus eventually got him into trouble and led to a charge of impiety against him―although there are strong indications that Pericles' political opponents used the charge as a means of getting at the Athenian leader. The trial led to Anaxagoras' exile from Athens, and he spent the rest of his life in Lampsacus, not far from the legendary city of Troy (see map).
Some portions of his book, Physica, have survived.
1. Matter (Frs. 1, 4, 15)
For Anaxagoras, matter is infinitely divisible with all parts containing mixtures of warm and cold, wet and dry, dense and rare, light and dark. Of this mixture, he says, "in everything there is a portion of everything."
a. In an undifferentitated state, this mixture has no specific qualities. But with differentiation, some qualities of the mixture become preponderant over others and we then observe specific things.
b. With a mixture of everything in everything else, flesh, bones, blood, and everything else are in a rock; but it is a rock because of the preponderance of rockness.
c. Remember though that he focused upon qualities rather than elements as the basic stuff (in contrast with Empedocles). So we might want to say that the qualities of warm and cold, dense and rare, etc. that make something flesh or bones are there in the rock.
2. Mind (Frs. 11, 12, 13, 14)
What brings differentiation and order to the realm of matter is Mind. Mind (or Nous) is infinite, pure (unmixed with matter), and self-ruled.
a. Regardless of the overwhelming power and influence of Mind for Anaxagoras, It seems to be more a mechanical principle of order in the natural world rather than an intelligent, personal being. He does not write about Mind in religious terms―which may explain somewhat the charge of impiety.
a. He introduces Mind, or The Mental, to explain unity, diversity, and the material world.
b. He stressed stressed qualitative properties (for example, the wet and the dry) rather than elements or things as being the basic stuff of nature.
(Note: The fragments that follow are taken from Bakewell's Sourcebook in Ancient Philosophy.)
1. ALL things were together, in number and in smallness without limit, for the small, too, was without limit. And as long as all things were together no one of them could be clearly distinguished, because of their smallness. Yes, and air and ether, both being infinite, dominated all things, for they are the biggest things in the universe both in quantity and in size.
4. And this being so one must suppose that many things and of all sorts coexist in all [the worlds] that are brought together—seeds of all things, having all sorts of forms and colors and savors. And (in all these worlds) men have been put together, and all animals that have life; and these men possess inhabited cities and tilled fields, as we do; and they have a sun and moon and other heavenly bodies, as we have; and their earth brings forth many plants and of all sorts, the most serviceable of which they garner and use for their sustenance. This then is the view that I have put forward with regard to the differentiation [of the primal mixture],—that it takes place not with us alone but also elsewhere.
Before these things were differentiated, when all things were still together, there was not even any color clearly distinguishable, for the mixture of all things prevented it,—of the moist and the dry, the warm and the cold, the bright and the dark. (And there was much earth too in the mixture t) and an endless multitude of seeds, no one like another.
5. We must know that when these things are separated one from another the whole is neither more nor less [than it was before], for it is impossible that there should be more than the whole, but the whole is always equal to itself.
17. We Greeks are wrong in using the expressions “to come into being” and “to be destroyed,” for no thing comes into being or is destroyed. Rather, a thing is mixed with or separated from already existing things. And so it would be more accurate to say, instead of origin, commingling; instead of destruction, dissolution.
6. And since the parts of the great and of the small are equal in number, this is another reason for holding that all things are in everything. Nor is it possible for one of the parts to exist in isolation from the rest, but everything includes a portion of everything. Since it is impossible that there should be any least part no portion can be isolated, or come to be by itself, but as at the beginning, so now, all things are together. And in everything that has been differentiated, in what is largest as in what is smallest, many things are contained, and an equal number.
8. Nor are the things that exist in one and the same world isolated, or chopped off from one another as with a hatchet—the warm from the cold or the cold from the warm.
10. For how could hair come from what is not hair, flesh from what is not flesh?
9 . . . . while these things are thus swirling around and becoming differentiated by force and velocity. And the velocity gives the force. But their velocity is not to be compared to the velocity of anything in our present world. It is in every way many times as swift.
15. The dense and the moist, the cold and the dark, crowded together where the earth now is; the rare, the warm, the dry, and the bright,t travelled out into the far-off ether.
16. And from these as they were differentiated the earth was fashioned. For from the clouds water is separated off, from the water, earth; and from the earth stones are solidified by the influence of the cold, and they travel out still farther from the water.
11. In everything there is a portion of everything except mind [nous]. There are some things in which there is mind also.
12. All other things contain a portion of everything, but mind [nous] is infinite and self-ruled and is mixed with nothing. For if it did not exist by itself, but were mixed with anything else, it would contain a portion of all things . . . . For in everything there is a portion of everything, as I have said above. And in that case the things mixed with it would prevent it from having power over anything else such as it now has, being alone and by itself. For it is the thinnest of all things and the purest, and it possesses all knowledge and the greatest power. And whatsoever things are alive, the largest as well as the smallest, over all is mind the ruler. And over the whole revolving universe mind held sway, so that it caused it to revolve in the beginning. The revolution first began in a small area; now it extends over a larger space, and it will extend still farther. And mind knows all things, whether mixed together, or differentiated and separate. Mind also regulated all things,—what they were to be, what they were [but are not now], and what they are; and mind regulated the revolution in which revolve the stars, the sun and the moon, and the air and the ether that are differentiated [from the primal mixture]. And it is this revolution that caused the differentiation. The dense is differentiated from the rare, the warm from the cold, the light from the dark, the dry from the moist; and there are many portions of many things. Nothing, however, is altogether differentiated and distinct from anything else, excepting only mind. And all mind, whether greater or smaller, is alike. Nothing else, however, is like anything else. But whatever portions are predominant in each individual thing, these it has always been taken to be, because they were the most conspicuous things.
13. And when mind [nous] began to set things in motion there was a differentiation of all that was in motion, and whatever mind set in motion was all separated; and when things were set in motion and separated the revolution caused them to be much more separated.
14. And mind [nous], which is eternal, is most assuredly now also where all other things are,—in the surrounding mass, in the things that have been differentiated, and in the things that are being differentiated.
15. For there is no least of what is small: there is always a still smaller. For it is impossible that that which is should cease to be by being divided. On the other hand there is always a still larger than the large. And [the large] is equal to the small in number [of portions]. In itself, however, each thing is both large and small.
7. And so we cannot know either by word or by deed the number of the things that have been differentiated.
21. Because of the weakness of our senses we are unable to discern the truth.
Not much is known about the life of Democritus. He lived to an advanced age and he traveled widely―visiting Egypt, Persia, Babylon and perhaps India and Ethiopia as well. Plato made a point of purposely ignoring him and the atomistic philosophy in his dialogues.
Democritus was a prolific writer, with a range of interests and writings comparable to Aristotle's. Unfortunately nearly all these writings have been lost; and we have only small fragments.
We know little about the life of Democritus; but we know even less about the life of Leucippus. He may have been a student of Zeno of Elea. And he authored at least two works, Great World System and On Mind, both of which have been lost (except for one fragment from the second work).
1. Nature, a Plurality in a Void
The atomists accepted Parmenides' assertion that what exists must be eternal and indestructible; but, by contrast, they asserted that reality is a plurality (plenum ) rather than a unity and that motions occur within a Void.
a. Motion is eternal and occurs according to causal necessity
b. What we attribute to chance is just what we fail to understand about the causal processes.
2. Atoms
What moves perpetually in the Void are atoms that are eternal, indestructible, imperceptible, differing in shape and size, solid, and impenetrable.
a. Vortexes cause collisions of atoms.
b. Because the atoms are imperceptible, we are frequently misled into judging the real by our five senses and thus have difficulty discovering the truth about nature.
3. The Soul and Thought
The soul and thought, like everything else, consists of atoms. They just happen to be particularly small and fine. Democritus associated the soul with fire.
a. The atomists offered a materialistic, mechanical description of nature.
b. They were precursors of atomic theory in modern science.
(Note: The fragments are taken from Bakewell's Sourcebook in Ancient Philosophy.)
Nothing comes into being without a reason, but everything arises from a specific ground and driven by necessity.
6. Man should know from this rule that he is cut off from truth.
7. This argument too shows that in truth we know nothing about anything, but every man shares the generally prevailing opinion.
8. And yet it will be obvious that it is difficult to really know of what sort each thing is.
10. Now, that we do not really know of what sort each thing is, or is not, has often been shown.
117. Verily we know nothing. Truth is buried deep.
9. In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the [influences] that reach and impinge upon it.
11. There are two forms of knowledge, one genuine, one obscure. To the obscure belong all of the following: sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling. The other form is the genuine, and is quite distinct from this. (And then distinguishing the genuine from the obscure, he continues:) Whenever the obscure [way of knowing] has reached the minimum sensibile of hearing, smell, taste, and touch, and when the investigation must be carried farther into that which is still finer, then arises the genuine way of knowing, which has a finer organ of thought.
0. [Democritus] says: By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real.
2. Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.
3. He who intends to enjoy life should not be busy about many things, and in what he does should not--undertake what exceeds his natural capacity. On the contrary, he should have himself so in hand that even when fortune comes his way, and is apparently ready to lead him on to higher things, he should put her aside and not o'erreach his powers. For a being of moderate size is safer than one that bulks too big.
35. If any one hearken with understanding to these sayings of mine many a deed worthy of a good man shall he perform and many a foolish deed be spared.
37. If one choose the goods of the soul, he chooses the diviner [portion]; if the goods of the body, the merely mortal.
38. 'Tis well to restrain the wicked, and in any case not to join him in his wrong--doing.
40. 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.
41. Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.
43. Repentance for one's evil deeds is the safeguard of life.
45. He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.
49. 'Tis a grievous thing to be subject to an inferior.
53. Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.
54. Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.
55. One should emulate works and deeds of virtue, not arguments about it.
57. Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.
58. The hopes of the right-minded may be realized, those of fools are impossible.
59. Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.
60. It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.
61. Those who have a well-ordered character lead also a well-ordered life.
62. Good means not [merely] not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong:
64. There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.
77. Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.
78. Making money is not without its value, but nothing is baser than to make it by wrong-doing.
68. You can tell the man who rings true from the man who rings false, not by his deeds alone, but also by his desires.
82. False men and shams talk big and do nothing.
89. My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.
90. The enmity of one's kindred is far more bitter than the enmity of strangers.
98. The friendship of one wise man is better than the friendship of a host of fools.
99. No one deserves to live who has not at least one good-man-and-true for a friend.
108. Seek after the good, and with much toil shall ye find it; the evil turns up of itself without your seeking it.
111. For a man petticoat government is the limit of insolence.
118. (Democritus said he would rather discover a single demonstration than win the throne of Persia.)
119. Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness. Luck seldom measures swords with wisdom. Most things in life quick wit and sharp vision can set right.
154a. In the weightiest matters we must go to school to the animals, and learn spinning and weaving from the spider, building from the swallow, singing from the birds,—from the swan and the nightingale, imitating their art.
160. An evil and foolish and intemperate and irreligious life should not be called a bad life, but rather, dying long drawn out.
176. Fortune is lavish with her favors, but not to be depended on. Nature on the other hand is self sufficing, and therefore with her feebler but trustworthy [resources] she wins the greater [meed] of hope.
174. The right-minded man, ever inclined to righteous and lawful deeds, is joyous day and night, and strong, and free from care. But if a man take no heed of the right, and leave undone the things he ought to do, then will the recollection of no one of all his transgressions bring him any joy, but only anxiety and self-reproaching.
175. Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.
178. Of all things the worst to teach the young is dalliance, for it is this that is the parent of those pleasures from which wickedness springs.
231. A sensible man takes pleasure in what he has instead of pining for what he has not.
230. A life without a holiday is like a long journey without an inn to rest at.
232. The pleasures that give most joy are the ones that most rarely come.
233. Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.
234. Men in their prayers beg the gods for health, not knowing that this is a thing they have in their own power. Through their incontinence undermining it, they themselves become, because of their passions, the betrayers of their own health.
191. Men achieve tranquillity through moderation in pleasure and through the symmetry of life. Want and superfluity are apt to upset them and to cause great perturbations in the soul. The souls that are rent by violent conflicts are neither stable nor tranquil. One should therefore set his mind upon the things that are within his power, and be content with his opportunities, nor let his memory dwell very long on the envied and admired of men, nor idly sit and dream of them. Rather, he should contemplate the lives of those who suffer hardship, and vividly bring to mind their sufferings, so that your own present situation may appear to you important and to be envied, and so that it may no longer be your portion to suffer torture in your soul by your longing for more. For he who admires those who have, and whom other men deem blest of fortune, and who spends all his time idly dreaming of them, will be forced to be always contriving some new device because of his [insatiable] desire, until he ends by doing some desperate deed forbidden by the laws. And therefore one ought not to desire other men's blessings, and one ought not to envy those who have more, but rather, comparing his life with that of those who fare worse, and laying to heart their sufferings, deem himself blest of fortune in that he lives and fares so much better than they. Holding fast to this saying you will pass your life in greater tranquillity and will avert not a few of the plagues of life—-envy and jealousy and bitterness of mind.
235. All who delight in the pleasures of the belly, exceeding all measure in eating and drinking and love, find that the pleasures are brief and last but a short whileonly so long as they are eating and drinking—but the pains that come after are many and endure. The longing for the same things keeps ever returning, and whenever the objects of one's desire are realized forthwith the pleasure vanishes, and one has no further use for them. The pleasure is brief, and once more the need for the same things returns.
252. We ought to regard the interests of the state as of far greater moment than all else, in order that they may be administered well; and we ought not to engage in eager rivalry in despite of equity, nor arrogate to ourselves any power contrary to the common welfare. For a state well administered is our greatest safeguard. In this all is summed up: When the state is in a healthy condition all things prosper; when it is corrupt, all things go to ruin.
The Sophists were professional educators who traveled and taught for pay. Although they are most famous for the negative portrayal of them in Plato's dialogues, they do seem to have performed an important function as educators. The two most famous Sophists were Protagoras and Gorgias.
Plato wrote two dialogues, the Protagoras and the Gorgias, that provide an image of the character and methods of the Sophists. In addition, his Theaetetus discusses in some detail (and refutes) Protagoras' relativism and subjectivism with respect to knowledge.
The Sophists claimed to teach virtue (arete, human excellence); but this was interpreted by them to mean the art of successful leadership.
a. There was a lot of emphasis on rhetoric (and the Sophists were great rhetoricians themselves).
b. Their approach to teaching success was not based upon objective principles of truth and goodness.
With respect to the true meaning of knowledge and virtue, they were subjectivists and relativists.
“Man is a measure of all things, of things that are that they are; and of things that are not, that they are not”—[meaning “man” as an individual person (RY)]
"With regard to the gods I know not whether they exist or not, or what they are like. Many things prevent our knowing; the subject is obscure and brief is the span of our mortal life."
“Nothing exists; if anything exists, it cannot be known; if anything can be known, it cannot be communicated.”