PUIVATI THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE AN EDITION AND TRANSLATION OF THE REMAINING FRAGMENTS OF THE PRE-SOKRATIC PHILOSOPHERS, TOGETHER WITH A TRANSLATION OF THE MORE IMPORTANT ACCOUNTS OF THEIR OPINIONS CONTAINED IN THE EARLY EPITOMES OF THEIR WORKS BY ARTHUR FAIRBANKS " NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1898 PEEFACE THE Hegelian School, and in particular Zeller, have shown us the place of the earlier thinkers in the history of Greek thought, and the importance of a knowledge of their work for all who wish to understand Plato and Aristotle. Since Zeller's monumental work, several writers (e.g. Benn, Greek Philosophers, vol. i. London 1883 ; Tannery, Science hellene, Paris 1887 ; Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, London 1892) have traced for us the history of this development, but the student who desires to go behind these accounts and examine the evidence for himself still finds the material difficult of access. This material consists of numerous short fragments preserved by later writers, and of accounts of the opinions of these thinkers given mainly by Aristotle and by the Greek doxographists (i.e. students of early thought who made epitomes of the opinions of the masters). The Greek text of the doxographists is now accessible to students in the admirable critical edition of H. Diels (Berlin 1879). The Greek text of the fragments has been published in numerous short monographs, most of which are not readily accessible to the student to-day ; it is contained with a vast deal of other matter in Mullach's Fragmenta Graecorum Philosophormn (Paris 1883-1888, vol. i.-iii.), but the text 2052656 vi PREFACE is in many places so carelessly constructed that it does not serve the purposes of the scholar. In the present work it has been my plan to prepare for the student a Greek text of the fragments of these early philosophers which shall represent as accurately as possible the results of recent scholarship, and to add such critical notes as may be necessary to enable the scholar to see on what basis the text rests. From this text I have prepared a translation of the fragments into English, and along with this a translation of the impor- tant passages bearing on these early thinkers in Plato and Aristotle, and in the Greek doxographists as col- lected by Diels, in order that the student of early Greek thought might have before him in compact form practi- ., cally all the materials on which the history of this thought is to be based. It has been difficult, especially in the case of Herakleitos and the Pythagoreans, to draw the line between material to be inserted, and that to be va-(os ' until after his death. It soon became rare, and Simplicius does not seem to have had access to it. Literature : Schleiermacher, Abh. d. Berl. Akad. 1815 ; Op. Phil. ii. 171 ; Krische, Forschungen, pp. 42- 52 ; Teichmiiller, Studien, pp. 1-70, 545-588 ; Biisgen, Das airupov Anax. Wiesbaden 1867 ; Liitze, Das aimpov Anax. Leipz. 1878 ; J. Neu- hauser, De Anax. Miles. Bonn 1879, and in more complete form, Bonn 1883 ; Tannery, Rev. Phil. v. (1882) ; Natorp, Phil. Monatshefte, 1884 ; Tannery, Archiv f. d. Gesch. d. Philos. viii. 443 ff. ; Diels, ibid. x. (1897) 228 ff. (a) FRAGMENTS OF ANAXIMANDROS. 1. Arist. Phys. iii. 4; 203 b 13 ff. The words aOdvardv yap Kal avaiXedpov and by some the words ANAXIMANDROS 9 airavra xal iravra icvfiepvav are thought to come from Anaximandros. 2. In Simpl. Pliys. 6 r (24, 19) ; Dox. 476, it is generally agreed that the following phrase is from Anaxi- mandros : Kara TO xpswv SiSovac yap avra a\\rf\,ois ri(Tiv Kal ^IKTJV rrjs dSiKias. 1 Translation. 1. ' Immortal and indestructible,' ' surrounds all and directs all.' 2. ' (To that they return when they are destroyed) of necessity; for he says that they suffer punishment and give satisfaction to one another for injustice.' (6) PASSAGES RELATING TO ANAXIMANDROS IN ARISTOTLE. Arist. Phys. L 4 ; 187 a 12. For some who hold that the real, the underlying substance, is a unity, either one of the three [elements] or something else that is denser than fire and more rarefied than air, teach that other things are generated by condensation and rare- faction. ... 20. And others believe that existing opposites are separated from the unity, as Anaximandros says, and those also who say that unity and multiplicity exist, as Empedokles and Anaxagoras; for these separate other things from the mixture [/uy/za]. 2 Phys. iii. 4 ; 203 b 7. There is no beginning of the infinite, for in that case it would have an end. But it is without beginning and indestructible, as being a sort of first principle ; for it is necessary that whatever comes into existence should have an end, and there is a conclu- sion of all destruction. Wherefore as we say, there is no first principle of this [i.e. the infinite], but it itself 1 The fragment is discussed at length by Ziegler, Archiv f. d. Gesch. d. Philos. i. (1883) p. 16 ff. - Cf. Theophrastos (Dox. 478) under Anaxagoras, infra. 10 THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE seems to be the first principle of all other things and to surround all and to direct all, as they say who think that there are no other causes besides the infinite (such as mind, or friendship), but that it itself is divine ; for it is immortal and indestructible, as Anaximandros and most of the physicists say. .Simpl. Phys. 32 r; 150, 20. There is another method, according to which they do not attribute change to matter itself, nor do they suppose that generation takes place by a transformation of the underlying substance, but by separation ; for tbe opposites existing in tbe substance which is infinite matter are separated, according to Anaximandros, who was the earliest tbinker to call tbe underlying substance the first principle. And tbe opposites are beat and cold, dry and moist, and the rest. Phys. iii. 5 ; 204 b 22. But it is not possible that infinite matter is one and simple ; either, as some say, that it is something different from the elements, from which they are generated, or that it is absolutely one. For there are some who make the infinite of this character, but they do not consider it to be air or water, in order that other things may not be blotted out by the infinite ; for these are mutually antagonistic to one another, inasmuch as air is cold, water is moist, and fire hot ; if one of these were infinite, the rest would be at once blotted out ; but now they say that the infinite is something different from these things, namely, that from which they come. Phys. iii. 8; 208 a 8. In order that generation may actually occur, it is not necessary to prove that the infinite should actually be matter that sense can per- ceive ; for it is possible that destruction of one thing is generation of another, provided the all is limited. De Coelo iii. 5 ; 303 b 11. For some say that there is only one underlying substance ; and of these some ANAXIMANUROS 11 say that it is water, some that it is air, some that it is fire, and some that it is more rarefied than water and denser than air ; and these last say that being infinite it surrounds all the heavens. Meteor. 2 ; 355 a 21. It is natural that this very thing should be unintelligible to those who say that at first when the earth was moist and the universe including the earth was warmed by the sun, then air was formed and the whole heavens were dried, and this pro- duced the winds and made the heavens revolve. 1 Metaph. xii. 2 ; 1069 b 18. So not only is it very properly admitted that all things are generated from not-being, but also that they all come from being : potentially from being, actually from not-being ; and this is the unity of Anaxagoras (for this is better than to say that all things exist together [o/ioO TrdvTa]), and it is the mixture \_iM