Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Argument in ancient philosophy
- 2 The Presocratics
- 3 The Sophists and Socrates
- 4 Plato
- 5 Aristotle
- 6 Hellenistic philosophy
- 7 Roman philosophy
- 8 Philosophy and literature
- 9 Late ancient philosophy
- 10 Philosophy and science
- 11 Philosophy and religion
- 12 The legacy of ancient philosophy
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
2 - The Presocratics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Argument in ancient philosophy
- 2 The Presocratics
- 3 The Sophists and Socrates
- 4 Plato
- 5 Aristotle
- 6 Hellenistic philosophy
- 7 Roman philosophy
- 8 Philosophy and literature
- 9 Late ancient philosophy
- 10 Philosophy and science
- 11 Philosophy and religion
- 12 The legacy of ancient philosophy
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Introduction. From fossils to Philosophy
Hippolytus, antipope in the early third century AD, has this to tell us in the course of the survey of pagan Greek philosophy he presents in the first book of his Refutation of all Heresies (exhibit A):
Xenophanes thinks that a mixture of the land with the sea occurs, and that in time the land is dissolved by wetness. He claims he has demonstrations of the following kind: shells are found inland and in the mountains. Moreover he says that in Syracuse an impression of a fish and of seaweed has been found in the quarries; in Paros an impression of a bay-leaf in the depth of the rock; and in Malta laminae of all marine life. These came into being, he says, when everything was long ago covered with mud, and the impression was dried in the mud. All mankind is destroyed when the land is carried down into the sea and becomes mud. Subsequently the land starts again on its genesis. And for all worlds genesis takes place through a process of change.
(KRS 184)You might think that Xenophanes’ heresy was to have been someone who left God out of the creation story. But that does not seem to have been a point Hippolytus was wanting to make. What leaps out of his report is the picture it paints of Xenophanes as pioneer practitioner of the scientific method.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy , pp. 42 - 72Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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