Ancient Philosophy. Daniel W. Graham

      This edition first published 2020

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      Preface

      When I was asked to prepare this volume for the series Fundamentals of Philosophy, I recognized that there are already a number of valuable introductory works on ancient Greek philosophy in the marketplace. I have created this volume in an effort to provide a work that will both offer a basic survey of the field in a historical sequence of the most influential philosophers, and present an opportunity to enter into the philosophical debates that those philosophers initiated or continued. This work is meant to be accessible to a large audience, but to be more than a primer; it aims to engage the figures as philosophers, with theories and arguments. Accordingly, I hope that this work will prove to be of benefit both to the new student of philosophy and to the professional philosopher, classicist, or humanist who, in the increasingly specialized world of academia, wishes to become better acquainted with this field.

Ancient Greek philosophy grows out of mythological lore, develops its own idioms and problems, and then develops into a sophisticated study from which originate philosophy, natural science, and many other disciplines that we tend to think of as modern inventions. Fortunately, the earliest philosophy begins without technicalities, and subsequent generations add gradually to the vocabulary and theory of the field, so that a historical study of ancient philosophy can introduce the complications of theory gradually and sequentially, as I have tried to do. Needless to say, no slender one‐volume study can do justice to the richness of Greek (and Roman) philosophy. I have provided in the endnotes references to important studies that can carry the reader on to more advanced studies of the material. I follow the story of Western philosophy from its pre‐philosophical mythological roots to its adoption by Christian philosophers who would transmit its messages to the Middle Ages. I have had to be selective in my coverage of thinkers and theories. But I have tried to cover the more important developments in philosophy, with some reflection on the social and political background they grew out of. I have also tried to indicate ways in which ancient thinkers carry on a conversation with their predecessors, and also offer valuable insights to their successors, including of course ourselves.

      I would like to express my appreciation to Dr. Al Martinich for inviting me to undertake this project. This work was significantly improved by the suggestions of two anonymous readers, to whom I am indebted. I would also like to thank the editors and staff of Wiley, including Marissa Koors, Rachel Greenberg, Mohan Jayachandran, Manish Luthra, Deirdre Ilkson, Allison Kostka, Sindhuja Kumar, and Giles Flitney. I would also like to recognize my colleagues at Brigham Young University, a student research assistant, Michael Williams, and Michael Shaw of Utah Valley University, for advice and feedback on the project.

      1

      Introduction

      In the 460s BC a young Greek tourist made a journey up the Nile river in Egypt in search of answers. Among other things, he wanted to know what made the Nile flood, for it flooded at an odd time: in mid‐summer, not in winter or spring when the rivers in Greece flood with seasonal rains and melting snow. When he asked the local priests, they could tell him nothing, he reports. Perhaps they informed him that the Nile god caused the floods. But that was no answer. He went on to evaluate three different philosophical theories: the floods were caused by the summer winds that blew from the north and pushed back the Nile waters as they flowed northward, heaping them up; or they were caused by water flowing into the Nile from Ocean, a mythical watercourse flowing around the rim of the flat disk‐shaped Earth; or they were caused by melting snows in high mountains to the south. The young man rejected all these theories for their manifest failures to get the facts right, and he proposed a complicated theory of his own. At roughly the same time, a Greek sailor from Massalia went on a voyage that took him through the Pillars of Hercules to the west coast of Africa. He saw there a river with flora and fauna like that of the Nile and noted heavy winds blowing offshore, which he thought supported the second theory of the Nile floods.

The tourist, named Herodotus, went on to win undying fame as the Father of History.¹ The sailor, Euthymenes, wrote an engaging memoir of his travels.² Something strange was happening in the world. A tourist from Ionia (the Aegean coast of modern Turkey) and a sailor from Marseilles (Massalia was the Greek colony that preceded the French city) were traveling the world looking for evidence – scientific evidence, we could say – for theories about natural phenomena that everyone, including the Greeks, used to attribute to the workings of the gods. The idea of a rational explanation of the world based on natural processes rather than supernatural interventions was beginning to catch on. The proponents of the new approach we now call philosophers. Without them, the world we live in today would be immeasurably poorer.

1.1 From Mythology to Philosophy

      There is a Latin maxim inspired by early Greek philosophy: ex nihilo nihil fit, nothing comes from nothing. That is a principle of Greek metaphysics, but it also offers a good principle of