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A Critical History of Greek Philosophy W. T. Stace Project Gutenberg’s A Critical History of Greek Philoso- LONDON — BOMBAY — CALCUTTA — MADRAS phy, by W. T. Stace MELBOURNE This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost THE MACMILLAN COMPANY and with NEW YORK — BOSTON — CHICAGO almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or DALLAS — SAN FRANCISCO re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd included TORONTO with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net A CRITICAL HISTORY OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY Title: A Critical History of Greek Philosophy BY Author: W. T. Stace W. T. STACE Release Date: August 12, 2010 [EBook #33411] MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED Language: English ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON *** START OFTHISPROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL HISTORY OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY *** 1920 Produced by Don Kostuch COPYRIGHT [Transcriber’s Notes] GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS ThistextisderivedfromacopyintheAveMariaUniversity BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. library, catalog number “B 171 .S8” {v} [End Transcriber’s Notes] PREFACE A CRITICAL HISTORY OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY This book contains the substance, and for the most part MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED the words, of a course of public lectures delivered during the first three are difficult in themselves, however clearly expressed. No months of amount of 1919. Theoriginaldivisionintolectureshasbeendropped, explanation can ever render them anything but difficult to the matter the being more conveniently redivided into chapters. unsophisticated mind, and anything in the nature of “phi- losophy made Theaudiencetowhomthelecturesweredeliveredwascom- posed of easy” is only to be expected from quacks and charlatans. Greek philosophy is not, even now, antiquated. It is not members of the general public, and not only of students. from the For the most point of view of an antiquary or historian {vi} that its part they possessed no previous knowledge of philosophy. treasures are Hence this valuable. We are dealing here with living things, and not book,liketheoriginallectures,assumesnopreviousspecial with mere knowledge, though it assumes, of course, a state of general deadthings—notwiththedrybonesanddebrisofabygone education age. And I in the reader. Technical philosophical terms are carefully have tried to lecture and write for living people, and not explained for mere when first introduced; and a special effort has been made fossil-grubbers. IfIdidnotbelievethatthereistobefound to put here, philosophicalideasintheclearestwaypossible. Butitmust in Greek philosophy, at least a measure of the truth, the be truth that remembered that many of the profoundest as well as the does not grow old, I would not waste five minutes of my most difficult life upon it. ofhumanconceptionsaretobefoundinGreekphilosophy. “We do not,” says a popular modern writer, [Footnote 1] Such ideas “bring the young mind up against the few broad elemental questions the Arab mathematicians in Spain, or started with Roger that are the Bacon in questions of metaphysics .... We do not make it discuss, chemistry, or Sir Richard Owen in comparative anatomy correct it, .... It is time elucidate it. That was the way of the Greeks, and we wor- the educational powers began to realise that the questions ship that of divine people far too much to adopt their way. No, we metaphysics,theelementsofphilosophy,are,hereandnow lecture to our to be done young people about not philosophy but philosophers, we afresh in each mind .... What is wanted is philosophy, and put them not a shallow smattering of the history of philosophy ... {vii} through book after book, telling how other people have The proper discussed these way to discuss metaphysics, like the proper way to discuss questions. We avoid the questions of metaphysics, but we mathematics deliver or chemistry, is to discuss the accumulated and digested semi-digested half views of the discussions of, and answers product of to these human thought in such matters.” questionsmadebymenofallsortsandqualities,invarious remote [Footnote 1: H. G. Wells in “First and Last Things.”] languages and under conditions quite different from our Plausible words these, certain to seem conclusive to the own. . . . It mob, is as if we began teaching arithmetic by long lectures upon notwithstandingthatforoneelementoftruththeycontain the origin nine of of the Roman numerals, and then went on to the lives and untruth! The elements of truth are that our educational motives of system unwarrantably leaves unused the powerful weapon of oral philosophy, etc., they rest wholly upon a false parallel, and discussion—so involve forcibly wielded by the Greeks—and develops book knowl- a total failure to comprehend the nature of philosophic edge at the truth, and its expense of original thought. Though even here it must be fundamental difference from arithmetical, chemical, or remembered, physical truth. as regards the Greeks, (1) that if they studied the history If Eratosthenes thought the circumference of the earth to of be so much, philosophy but little, it was because there was then but whereasithasnowbeendiscoveredtobesomuch,thenthe little later historyofphilosophytostudy,and(2)thatifanyoneimag- correctviewsimplycancelsandrendersnugatorytheolder ines that view. the great Greek thinkers did not fully master the thought of their {viii}Theoneiscorrect,theotherincorrect. Wecanignore and predecessors before constructing their own systems, he is grievously forget the incorrect view altogether. But the development of mistaken, and (3) that in some cases the over-reliance on oral philosophy proceeds on quite other principles. Philosophi- cal truth is discussion—the opposite fault to ours—led to intellectual no sum in arithmetic to be totted up so that the answer is dishonesty, quibbling, ostentation, disregard of truth, shal- thus lowness, and absence of all principle; this was the case with the formallyandfinallycorrectorincorrect. Rather,thephilo- Sophists. sophical As to the comparisons between arithmetic and philosophy, truth unfolds itself, factor by factor, in time, in the succes- chemistry and sive systems of philosophy, and it is only in the complete series toweldthevariousfactorsofthetruthintoasingleorganic that the whole completetruthistobefound. ThesystemofAristotledoes or system, which should thus be the total result to date, is not simply another question. Only one such attempt has ever been made, but cancel and refute that of Plato. Spinoza does not simply no one will abolish pretend that it is possible to understand it without a thor- Descartes. AristotlecompletesPlato,ashisnecessarycom- ough plement. knowledge of all previous systems, a knowledge, in fact, of Spinoza does the same for Descartes. And so it is always. the The separatefactorsofthetruthbeforetheyarethuscombined calculation of Eratosthenes is simply wrong, and so we can into a afford to total result. Besides, that attempt, too, is now part of the forget it. But the systems of Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, history Leibniz, of philosophy! etc.,areallalikefactorsofthetruth. Theyareastruenow Henceanyphilosophicalthinkingwhichisnotfounded{ix} as they upon a were in their own times, though they are not, and never thorough study of the systems of the past will necessarily were, the be shallow whole truth. And therefore it is that they are not simply and worthless. And the notions that we can dispense with wrong, done this study, with, finished, ended, and that we cannot afford to forget and do everything out of our own heads, that everyone is them. to be his own Whether it is not possible to bring the many lights to a philosopher, and is competent to construct his own system single focus, in his own way—such ideas are utterly empty and hollow. Of these that it needs any enquiry, or that it is possible for anyone truths, indeed, to think we see a notable example in what the writer just quoted otherwise. Yetanyonewhowilltakethetrouble,notmerely styles his superficiallytodipintothehistoryofphilosophy,butthor- “metaphysic.” This so-called metaphysic is wholly based oughly to upon the submit himself to its discipline, will at least learn that this assumptionthatknowledgeanditsobjectexist,eachonits is an own assumption,averydoubtfulassumption,too,whichnoone account, external to one another, the one here, the other now has the there over right to foist upon the public without discussion as if it were an against it, and that knowledge is an “instrument” which in this axiomatic truth. He might even learn that it is a false assumption. external manner takes hold of its object and makes it its own. The Andhewillnote,asanominoussign,thatthesubjectivism which very moment the word “instrument” is used here, all the rest, permeates and directs the whole course of Mr. Wells’s thinking is including the invalidity of knowledge, follows as a matter of course. identicalincharacterwiththat{x}subjectivismwhichwas the Such assumption then—that knowledge is an “instrument”—our writer essential feature of the decay and downfall of the Greek philosophic makes, wholly uncritically, and without a shadow of right. He gives no spirit, and was the cause of its final ruin and dissolution. sign that it has ever even occurred to him that this is an I would counsel the young, therefore, to pay no attention assumption, to plausible and shallow words such as those quoted, but, before form- Firstly, in dealing with Plato’s politics I have relied on the ing their own “Republic,” andsaidnothingofthe“Laws.” Thiswouldnot philosophic opinions, most thoroughly and earnestly to be study and permissible in a history of political theories, nor even in a masterthehistoryofpastphilosophies,firsttheGreekand history then the of philosophy which laid any special emphasis on politics. modern. That this cannot be done merely by reading a But, from modern resume of my point of view, politics lie on the extreme outer margin that history, but only by studying the great thinkers in of their own philosophy,sothatamoreslendertreatmentofthesubject works, is true. But philosophical education must begin, is and the permissible. Moreover, the “Republic,” whether written early or late, function of such books as this, is, not to complete it, but to begin expresses, in my opinion, the views of Plato, and not those of it; and to obtain first of all a general view of what must afterwards Socrates, and it still remains the outstanding, typical, and be studied in detail is no bad way of beginning. Moreover, characteristic{xi}expressionofthePlatonicpoliticalideal, the study however much that ideal had afterwards to be modified by ofthedevelopmentandhistoricalconnexionsofthevarious practical philosophies, which is not found in the original writings considerations. themselves, Secondly, Ihavenotevenmentionedtheview, nowheldby willalwaysprovideaworkforhistoriesofphilosophytodo. some, that Two omissions in this book require, perhaps, a word of the theory of Ideas is really the work of Socrates, and not explanation. of Plato, and that Plato’s own philosophy consisted in some sort of antiquary. ItisliketheBacon-Shakespearequestion,which esoteric no lover number-theory,combinedwiththeisticandotherdoctrines. of drama, as such, need concern himself with at all. No I can only doubt the saythatthistheory,asexpoundedforexamplebyProfessor Plato-Socrates question is of interest to antiquarians, but Burnet, after all, doesnotcommenditselftome,that,infact,Idonotbelieve fundamentally,itdoesnotmatterwhoistohavethecredit it, but of the that, it being impossible to discuss it adequately in a book theory of Ideas, the only essential thing for us being to of this understand kind, I have thought that, rather than discuss it inade- that theory, and rightly to apprehend its value as a factor quately, it of the werebettertoleaveitalonealtogether. Moreover,itstands truth. Thisbookisprimarilyconcernedwithphilosophical on a ideas, totallydifferentfootingfrom,say,ProfessorBurnet’sinter- their truth, meaning, and significance, and not with the pretation rights and ofParmenides,whichIhavediscussed. Thatconcernedthe wrongs of antiquarian disputes. It does indeed purport to {xii} be a interpretation of the true meaning of a philosophy. This merely history, as well as a discussion of philosophic conceptions. But concerns the question who was the author of a philosophy. That was a thisonlymeansthatittakesupphilosophicalideasintheir questionofprinciple,thismerelyofpersonalities. Thatwas historical sequence and connexions, and it does this only of because the importancetothephilosopher, thismerelytothehistorian conceptionsofevolutioninphilosophy,oftheonwardmarch and of thought to a determined goal; of its gradual and steady rise to the {xiii} supreme CONTENTS heights of idealism, its subsequent decline, and ultimate CHAPTER PAGE collapse, I. THE IDEA OF PHILOSOPHY IN GENERAL. THE are not only profoundly impressive as historical phenom- ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY 1 ena, but are of II. THE IONICS. THALES. ANAXIMANDER. vital importance to a true conception of philosophy itself. Were it ANAXIMENES. OTHER IONIC THINKERS 20 III. THE PYTHAGOREANS 31 not for this, Mr. Wells would, I think, be right, and I for one should IV. THE ELEATICS. XENOPHANES. PARMENIDES. abandon treatment in historical order altogether. Lastly, I ZENO. CRITICAL REMARKS ON ELEATICISM 40 may remark V. HERACLEITUS 72 thatthedescriptionofthisbookasacritical historymeans VI. EMPEDOCLES 81 that it VII. THE ATOMISTS 86 is, or attempts to be critical, not of dates, texts, readings, and the VIII. ANAXAGORAS 94 like, but of philosophical conceptions. IX. THE SOPHISTS 106 I owe a debt of thanks to Mr. F. L. Woodward, M.A., late X. SOCRATES 127 principal of XI. THE SEMI-SOCRATICS. THE CYNICS. THE Mahinda College, Galle, Ceylon, for assisting me in the CYRENAICS. THE MEGARICS 155 compilation of This text was converted to LaTeX by means of Guten- the index of names, and in sundry other matters. Mark software (version Jul 12 2014). W.T.S. ThetexthasbeenfurtherprocessedbysoftwareintheiTeX project, by Bill Cheswick. January, 1920.

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