The presocratics and the supernatural: magic, philosophy and science in early Greece PDF
Preview The presocratics and the supernatural: magic, philosophy and science in early Greece
The Presocratics and the Supernatural The Presocratics and the Supernatural Magic, Philosophy and Science in Early Greece Andrew Gregory Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2013 © Andrew Gregory, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Andrew Gregory has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-4725-0416-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN For Sheelagh, with love Contents Abbreviations viii Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Plato and Aristotle 23 3 The Milesian Philosophers 43 4 The Hippocratic On the Sacred Disease 69 5 The Hippocratic On Regimen 85 6 Xenophanes and Others: More Natural Explanation 101 7 Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans 127 8 The Early Pythagoreans and Numerology 149 9 Empedocles 167 10 Leucippus and Democritus 185 11 Conclusion 199 Notes 207 Bibliography 249 Index Locorum 267 Index of Names 272 General Index 275 Abbreviations KRS G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven and M. Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. LSJ H. G. Liddle, R. Scott and R. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 9th edn, 1996. Preface This book is about the supposed presocratic rejection of the supernatural. I say supposed as the widespread view that a group of ancient Greek thinkers between the sixth and fourth centuries bce rejected the supernatural has been subjected to consid- erable recent criticism. This book is a contribution to that debate. As such it looks at aspects of presocratic philosophy, religious belief and magical belief. It attempts to treat the issues broadly, by going beyond the canon of presocratic philosophers to look at some medical writers, historians and playwrights as well. This book makes no claim to be comprehensive on these issues (such a work would be many volumes) but I do hope to address the most important and interesting examples. I have transliterated Greek terms, using circumflexes to mark long vowels (ê, ô) to keep the book as accessible as possible for those with little or no Greek. All Greek and Latin passages are translated and are my own translations except where otherwise indicated. I would like to thank everyone I have discussed aspects of this book with and to audiences at the annual London Ancient Science Conference where I have presented some of the material here. I would especially like to thank Simon Trepanier, Leonid Zhmud and Phillip Horky who all sent me interesting material that they are working on prior to publication. I would also like to thank Deborah Blake who first commissioned the book for Duckworth, as well as Charlotte Loveridge and Dhara Patel at Bloomsbury who have been enormously helpful and efficient in getting this book to press. Finally I would like to thank Bloomsbury’s anonymous referee who made many useful comments. This book was written while I was on sabbatical leave from the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. I am grateful for a small grant from the Department which paid for two postgraduates, Claudio Ehrenfeld and Michael Coxhead, to compile the indices.
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