The First Philosophers of Greece — Arthur Fairbanks (Parmenides)

numbers give folio and line, the second, page (and line) in the edition published by the Berlin Academy.

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(b) PassaGEs RELATING TO THALES IN THE DoxoGRAPHISTS.

(Theophrastos, Dox. 475) Simpl. Phys. 6r; 28, 21. Of those who say that the first principle [ἀρχή] is one and movable, to whom Aristotle applies the distinctive name of physicists, some say that it is limited; as, for instance, Thales of Miletos, son of Examyes, and Hippo who seems also to have lost belief in the gods. These say that the first principle is water, and they are led to this result by things that appear to sense; for warmth lives in moisture and dead things wither up and all germs are moist and all nutriment is moist. Now it is natural that things should be nourished by that from which each has come; and water is the first principle of moist nature . . .; accordingly they assume that water is the first principle of all things, and they assert that the earth rests on water. Thales is the first to have set on foot the investigation of nature by the Greeks; although so many others preceded him, in Theophrastos’s opinion he so far surpassed them as to cause them to be forgotten. It is said that he left nothing in writing except a book entitled ‘Nautical Astronomy.’

Hipp. i.; Dox. 555. It is said that Thales of Miletos, one of the seven wise men, was the first to undertake the study of physical philosophy. He said that the begin- ning (the first principle) and the end of all things is water. All things acquire firmness as this solidifies, and again as it is melted their existence is threatened; to this are due earthquakes and whirlwinds and movements of the stars. And all things are movable and in a fluid state, the character of the compound being determined by the nature of the principle from which it springs. This principle is god, and it has neither beginning nor end.

Thales 5

Thales was the first of the Greeks to devote himself to
the study and investigation of the stars, and was the
originator of this branch of science; on one occasion
he was looking up at the heavens, and was just saying
he was intent on studying what was overhead, when
he fell into a well; whereupon a maidservant named
Thratta laughed at him and said: In his zeal for
things in the sky he does not see what is at his feet.'
And he lived in the time of Kroesos.

Plut. Strom.1; Doxz.579.2 Hesays that Thales was
the earliest thinker to regard water as the first principle
of all things. For from this all things come, and to it
they all return.

Aet. Plac. 1.2; Dox. 275. Thales of Miletos regards the first principle and the elements as the same thing. But there is a very great difference between them, for elements are composite, but we claim that first principles are neither composite nor the result of processes. Ρο we call earth, water, air, fire, elements ; and we call them first principles for the reason that there is nothing antecedent to them from which they are sprung, since this would not be a first principle, but rather that from which it is derived. Now there is something anterior to earth and water from which they are derived, namely the matter that is formless and invisible, and the form which we call entelechy, and privation. So Thales was in error when he called water an element and a first principle. i.8; 276. Thales the Milesian declared that the first principle of things is water. [This man seems to have been the first philo- sopher, and the Ionic school derived its name from him; for there were very many successive leaders in philosophy. And Thales was a student of philosophy in

1 Of. Plato, Theaet. 1744; Diog. Laer. i. 94. ? Epiphan. iii. 1; Dow. 589; Herm. J.G. Ρ. 10; Dox. 653.

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Eigypt, but he came to Miletos in his old age.] For he says that all things come from water and all are resolved into water. The first basis for this conclusion is the fact that the seed of all animals is their first principle and it is moist; thus it is natural to conclude that all things come from water as their first principle. Secondly, the fact that all plants are nourished by moisture and bear fruit, and unless they get moisture they wither away. Thirdly, the fact that the very fire of the sun and the stars is fed by the exhalations from the waters, and so is the universe itself. 7; 801. Thales said that the mind in the universe is god, and the all is endowed with soul and is full of spirits; and its divine moving power pervades the elementary water. 8; 307. Thales et al. say that spirits are psychical beings; and that heroes are souls separated from bodies, good heroes are good souls, bad heroes are bad souls. 8; 807. The followers of Thales et al. assert that matter is turned about, varying, changing, and in a fluid state, the whole in every part of the whole. 12; 910. Thales and his successors declared that the first cause is im- movable. 16; 814. The followers of Thales and Pytha- goras hold that bodies can receive impressions and can be divided even to infinity; and so can all figures, lines, surfaces, solids, matter, place, and time. 18; 916. The physicists, followers of Thales, all recognise that the void is really a void. 21; 821. Thales: Necessity is most powerful, for it controls everything.

Aet. ii. 1; Dox. $327. Thales and his successors hold that the universe is one. 12; $40. Thales et al. hold that the sphere of the entire heaven is divided into five circles which they call zones; and of these the first is called the arctic zone, and is always visible, the next 1s the summer solstice, the next is the equinoctial, the next the winter solstice, and the next the antarctic, which is invisible. And the ecliptic in the three middle ones is

Thales 7

called the zodiac and is projected to touch the three middle ones. All these are cut by the meridian at a right angle from the north to the opposite quarter. 18; 841. The stars consist of earth, but are on fire. 20; 949. The sun consists of earth. 24; 853. The eclipses of the sun take place when the moon passes across it in direct line, since the moon is earthy in character ; and it seems to the eye to be laid on the disk of the sun. 28; 858. The moon is lighted from the sun. 29; 860. Thales et al. agree with the mathematicians that the monthly phases of the moon show that it travels along with the sun and is lighted by it, and eclipses show that it comes into the shadow of the earth, the earth coming between the two heavenly bodies and blocking the light of the moon.

Aet. iii. 9-10; 876. The earth is one and spherical
in form. 11; 877. It is in the midst of the universe.
15 ; 879. Thales and Demokritos find in water the cause
of earthquakes. |

Aet. iv. 1; 884. Thales thinks that the Etesian winds blowing against Egypt raise the mass of the Nile, because its outflow is beaten back by the swelling of the sea which lies over againstits mouth. 2; 386. Thales was the first to declare that the soul is by nature always moving or self-moving.

Aet. v. 26; 488. Plants are living animals; this is
evident from the fact that they wave their branches and
keep them extended, and they yield to attack and relax
them freely again, so that weights also draw them down.

(Philodemos) Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. 10; Dox. 581.
For Thales of Miletos, who first studied these matters,
said that water is the first principle of things, while god
is the mind which formed all things from water. If
gods exist without sense and mind, why should god be
connected with water, if mind itself can exist without
a body ?

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Π. ANAXIMANDROS.

AnaximanpRos of Miletos was a companion or pupil

of Thales. According to Apollodoros he was born in

the second or third year of the forty-second Olympiad

(611-610 Β.ο.). Of his life little is known ; Zeller infers

from the statement of Aelian (7). H. iii. 17) to the effect

that he led the Milesian colony into Apollonia, that he

was 8 man of influence in Miletos. He was a student

of geography and astronomy ; and various inventions,

such as the sundial, are attributed to him. His book,

which was referred to as the first philosophical treatise

in Greece, may not have received the title “περὶ

φύσεως ᾿ 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 ;

. Phil. ii. 171; Krische, Forschungen, pp. 42-

62; Teichmiiller, Studien, pp. 1-70, «646-086;

Biisgen, Das ἄπειρον Anax. Wiesbaden 1867;

Liitze, Das ἅπειρον Anaz. Leipz. 1878; J. Neu-

hauser, De Anaz. Meles. Bonn 1879, and in more

complete form, Bonn 1888; Tannery, Rev. Phil.

v. (1882); Natorp, Phtl. Monatshefte, 1884 ;

ο... f.d. Gesch. d. Philos. viii. 448 ff. ; Diels, toed. x. (1897) 228 ff.

(a) Fra@Ments oF ANAXIMANDROS.

1. Arist. Phys. iii. 4; 208 b 19 ff. The words ἀθάνατον γὰρ καὶ ἀνώλεθρον and by some the words περιέχει»

Anaximandros 9

ἅπαντα καὶ πάντα κυβερνᾶν are thought to come from Anaximandros.

2. In Simpl. Phys. 6 r (24, 19); Dox. 476, it is
generally agreed that the following phrase is from Anaxi-
mandros: κατὰ τὸ χρεών’. διδόναι γὰρ αὐτὰ ἀλλήλοις
τίσιν καὶ δίκην τῆς ἀδικίας.ὶ

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) PassaGEsS RELATING TO ANAXIMANDROS IN

Arist. Phys. 1.4; 187a12. 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 [μῖγμα |."

Phys. iii.4; 208 b7. There is no beginning of the infinite, for in that case it would havean 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 [2.ο. the infinite], but it itself

' The fragment is discussed at length by Ziegler, Archiv f. d. Gesch.

d. Philos. i. (1883) p. 16 ff. 2 Cf. Theophrastos (Dox. 478) under Anaxagoras, infra.

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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. 82 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 the
opposites existing in the substance which is infinite
matter are separated, according to Anaximandros,
who was the earliest thinker to call the underlying
substance the first principle. And the opposites
are heat and cold, dry and moist, and the rest.

Phys. iii. 5; 204 Ὦ 22. But it is not possible that infinite matter is one and simple; either, as some say, that if 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.