The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists (Oxford World's Classics)

401 Pages·2000·1.26 MB·English

by  Robin Waterfield

oxford world’s classics
THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS
The Presocratics were philosophers and scientists who lived
and worked in various cities throughout the ancient Greek world,
from southern Italy and Sicily to the coast of the Black Sea, from
the beginning of the sixth century bce to the time of Socrates in the
late fifth century. Among a number of lesser names, some fifteen
major thinkers stand out in this period. Though their work survives
only in fragments and in reports from later writers, who were often
unsympathetic, as well as far removed in time, enough remains for
us to be able to effect a reconstruction with some degree of plausi-
bility, and thus to see that they formed the foundations of Western
scientific and philosophical thought. Most of them wrote in prose,
and indeed they were among the first prose writers in the West,
helping to develop the genre; but some kept to the traditional
didactic medium of verse.
The Sophists were itinerant teachers and writers, dating chiefly
from the fifth century bce. Though they lectured and taught
throughout the Greek world, they achieved the most recognition in
Athens, which at the time was the centre of culture in Greece. Very
little of their original prose survives, and we are largely dependent
upon the reports of others, who were often hostile to their enter-
prise, and upon reflections of their work in contemporary historians,
dramatists, and orators. As well as initiating a revolution in educa-
tion, by offering what was effectively the first Western attempt at
higher education, they also made important strides in social, ethical,
and political philosophy, and we can now see that the pejorative use
of the term ‘Sophist’, which stems from Plato and Aristotle, is rarely
deserved.
Robin Waterfield was born in 1952. After graduating from
Manchester University, he went on to research ancient Greek phil-
osophy at King’s College, Cambridge. He has been a university
lecturer (at Newcastle upon Tyne and St Andrews), and an editor
and publisher. Currently, however, he is a self-employed writer,
whose books range from philosophy to children’s fiction. He has
previously translated, for Oxford World’s Classics, Plato’s Republic,
Symposium, and Gorgias, Aristotle’s Physics, Herodotus’ Histories,
and Plutarch’s Greek Lives and Roman Lives.
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OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
The First Philosophers
The Presocratics and Sophists
Translated with commentary by
ROBIN WATERFIELD
1
3
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CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Introduction xi
Select Bibliography xxxiv
Note on the Texts xli
Timeline xliii
THE PRESOCRATICS
The Milesians: Thales of Miletus, Anaximander of Miletus,
Anaximenes of Miletus 3
Xenophanes of Colophon 22
Heraclitus of Ephesus 32
Parmenides of Elea 49
Zeno of Elea 69
Melissus of Samos 82
Pythagoras of Croton and Fifth-century Pythagoreanism 87
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae 116
Empedocles of Acragas 133
The Atomists: Leucippus of Abdera, Democritus of Abdera 164
Diogenes of Apollonia 194
THE SOPHISTS
Protagoras of Abdera 205
Gorgias of Leontini 222
Prodicus of Ceos 241
Hippias of Elis 251
Antiphon the Sophist 258
Thrasymachus of Chalcedon 270
viii Contents
Euthydemus and Dionysodorus of Chios 277
Double Arguments 285
Anonymous and Miscellaneous Texts 300
Explanatory Notes 315
Textual Notes 337
Concordance with Diels/Kranz 345
Index of Translated Passages 350
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
So much of our information about the Presocratic philosophers and
the Sophists is fragmentary or otherwise obscure that the temptation
was to write a book in which the amount of commentary outweighed
the amount of translated material. I have resisted this temptation.
After a short introduction, each thinker has been allowed to speak as
much as possible for himself, or, failing that, at least to be heard,
however faintly at times, through the work of ancient commentators.
There is a great deal of secondary ancient material, especially about
the Presocratics, whose importance was generally recognized in
ancient times. It is therefore well beyond the scope of a book such as
this to hope for completeness. Rather, my policy has been to translate
the majority of the actual fragments themselves, and a small propor-
tion of the ancient testimonia, concentrating on those passages which
are both important and relatively clear in their own right (so as to
continue to let the thinkers speak for themselves as much as possible),
and which seem to me to be relatively faithful to the original thinker or
at least to make it plain that they are distorting him, and how they are
doing so.
A few scholars are perhaps over-pessimistic about our chances of
recovering the thought of the Presocratics and Sophists. In some cases
we have enough genuine fragments to test the validity of the secondary
testimonia; in some cases the material surrounding shorter fragments
can cast light on the original context. Nevertheless, there is an
immense amount of discussion among modern scholars about what
each of these thinkers really thought. Naturally, scholars prefer to rely
as much as possible on the actual fragments themselves, but in the case
of none of these first Western philosophers are there ever quite
enough of these for us to be able to see the whole picture.1 In addition,
a lot of the fragments are devilishly obscure. The most unsatisfactory
aspect of writing this book has been the need to omit a great deal of the
1 However, we may in many cases have a greater proportion of the original work than
we might at first imagine. It is likely that the Presocratics’ and Sophists’ books were not
long, but were written in a condensed form, because they were meant to be read out loud
to an audience and then expanded by discussion afterwards, as much as they were
intended as documents for posterity. This helps to explain the frequent dogmatism of
their pronouncements, and also, given that much of what these early thinkers were
saying was open to interpretation, this must make our judgement of the distortions of
Aristotle and Theophrastus less harsh.