The teaching ol Heraclitus i B.C. 500) oilers a com- plete contrast to that of the Eleatics, and stands far in advance of the earlier [onic school, with which he is historically connected. So far from contrasting the existent an 1 the phenomenal, he boldly identified being with change. "There ever was, and is, and shall be, iving fire, unceasingly kindled and extinguished in dm- measure" (uirTOfuvov pro" ko\ airo(r(3tvvvfu- vov fiirpa, < lem. Alex. Strom, v, 1 1. g 105 . Rest and continuance is death, 'that which is is the instantane- ous balance of contending powers (Diog. Laert. ix, 7, ii i n)r ivavTiorpoirrjc fipfiooBat r,, ovra). Creation is the play of the Creator. Everywhere, a- far as bis opinions can be grasped, Heraclitus makes noble "guesses at truth;" yet he leaves "fate" (upapuivri) a- the su- preme ■ n ator i Stob. Eel. i. p. 59, ap. Kilter and Preller,
>; 12). rile Cycles of life and death run on by its law. It, may have been by a natural reaction that from these wider speculations he turned his thoughts inwards. '•I investigated myself," he say-, with conscious pride
(Plutarch, adv. Col. 1118, c); and in this respect he foreshadows the teaching of Socrates, a- Zeno did that of the Sophists.
The philosophy of Pythagoras (B.C.cir.540 510) is subordinate in interest to hi- social and political the- ories, though it supplies a link in the course of specula- tion : other- had Labored to trace a unity in the world in the presence of one underlying element or in tin- idea of a whole; in- Bought to combine tin separate harmony of parts with total unity. Numerical unity ^ includes the finite and the infinite; and in the relations of number there i- a perfect -\ mmetry, a- all Bpring out of the fundamental unit. Thus numbers seemed to Pythagoras to be not only "patterns" of things i rHv ovtwv), but causes of their I" ing 'Tnv ovoiag). How he connected numbers with concn te Lv ing it is impos- sible to determine; but it may not be wholly fanciful to see in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls an attempt to traee in the sueeessive forms of life an out- ward expression of a harmonious Law in the moral as well as in the physical world. (The remains of the pre-Socratic philosophers have been collected in a very convenient form by F.Mullach in Didot's Biblioth.Gr, Paris. 1860.)
The first cycle of philosophy was thus completed. All the great primary problems of thought had been stated, and typical answers rendered. The relation of spirit and matter was still unsolved. Speculation is- sued in dualism (Anaxagoras), materialism (De <ri-
tus), or pantheism (Xenophanes). < »n one side reason was made the sole criterion of truth (Parmeni the other, experience (Heraclitus). As yet there was no rest, and the Sophists prepared the way for a new method. Whatever may be the moral estimate which is formed of the Sophists, there can be Little doubt as to the importance of their teaching as preparatory to that of Socrates. All attempts to arrive at certainty by a study of the world had failed: might it not seem. I hen. that truth is subjective? "Man is the measure of all things." Sensations are modified by the individual; and may not this hold good universally'.-' The conclu- sion was applied to morals and politics with tearless skill. The belief in absolute truth and right was wcll- nigh banished; but meanwhile the Sophists were per- fecting the instrument which was to be turned against them. Language, in their hands, acquired a precision unknown before, when words assumed the place of things. Plato might ridicule the pedantry of Protag- oras, but Soerates reaped a rich harvest from it.
■J. The Socralic Schools.— In the second period of Greek philosophy the scene and subject were both changed. Athens became the centre of speculations which had hitherto chiefly found a home among the more mixed populations of the colonies. At the same time inquiry was turned from the outward world to the inward, from theories of the origin and relation of things to theories of our knowledge of them. A philosophy
Of ideas, using the term ill its widest sen-e. succeeded 8
philosophy of nature. In three generations Greek spec- ulation reached its greatest glory in the teaching of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. When the sovereignty ,.i Greece ceased, all higher philosophy ceased with it. In the hopeless turmoil of civil disturbances which fol- lowed, men's thoughts Were Chiefly directed to questions of personal duty.
The famous sentence in which Aristotle i .1/./. xiii. I i characterizes the teaching of Socrates (B.C L68 399) places hi- scientific position in the clearest light There an- two things, he Bays, which we may rightly attrib- ute to Socrates, inductive reasoning and general defini- tion roi c r' iiraKTiKovc, \6yovc, k<u ri opiZea&ai rodci- \,.r . Ia the first he endeavored to discover the per- manent element which underlies the changing forms of
appearance- and the varieties of opinion ; by the si c-
1 he fixed i lie truth w hich he had thus gained. Hut.
besides this, Socrab - rendered another service to truth, lie changed not only the method, hut also the subject
PHILOSOPHY
129
PHILOSOPHY
of philosophy (Cicero, Acad. Post, i, 4). Ethics occu- pied in his investigations the primary place which had hitherto been held by physics. The great aim of his induction was to establish the sovereignty of virtue; and, before entering on other speculations, he determined to obey the Delphian maxim and "know himself" (Plato, Pluedr. p. 229). It was a necessary consequence of a first effort in this direction that Socrates regarded all the results which he derived as like in kind. Knowl- edge (fc7ri0T»jjU?/) was equally absolute and authorita- tive, whether it referred to the laws of intellectual oper- ations or to questions of morality. A conclusion in geometry and a conclusion on conduct were set forth as true in the same sense. Thus vice was only another name for ignorance (Xenoph. Mem. iii, 9, 4; Arist. Eth. Eud. i, 5). Every one was supposed to have within him a faculty absolutely leading to right action, just as the mind necessarily decides rightly as to relations of space and number, when each step in the proposition is clearly stated. Socrates practically neglected the determina- tive power of the will. His great glory was, however, clearly connected with this fundamental error in his system. He affirmed the existence of a universal law of right and wrong. He connected philosophy with action, both in detail and in general. On the one side he upheld the supremacy of conscience, on the other the working of Providence. Not the least fruitful char- acteristic of his teaching was what may be called its desultoriness. *He formed no complete system. He wrote nothing. He attracted and impressed his follow- ers by his many-sided nature. He helped others to give birth to thoughts, to use his favorite image, but he was barren himself (Plato, Thecet. p. 150). As a result of this, the most conflicting opinions were maintained by some of his professed followers, who carried out iso- lated fragments of his teaching to extreme conclusions. Some adopted his method (Euclides, B.C. cir. 400, the Meyarians), others his subject. Of the latter, one section, following out his proposition of the identity of self-command (tyKpdriui) with virtue, professed an ut- ter disregard of everything material (Antisthenes, B.C. cir. 366, the Cynics), while the other (Aristippus, B.C. cir. 306, the Cyrenaics), inverting the maxim that vir- tue is necessarily accompanied by pleasure, took imme- diate pleasure as the rule of action.