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LOGOS |
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
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A. WHAT IS MYTH?
1.Etymology: Greek, mythos: traditional
tale, story, myth, fable, or legend.
2.The Mythical
Worldview (German, Weltanschaunng): General Characteristics
3. Greek Myth: Homer and Hesiod
4. Gods and Deities of THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY
a)
THE ILIAD
Source:
Homer Web Page
5. Excerpt from Hesiod’s Theogony
(ll. 1-25) From the Heliconian Muses let us
begin to sing, who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft
feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronos,
and, when they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse's
Spring or Olmeius, make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon and move
with vigorous feet. Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick
mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder and
queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the
aegis-holder bright-eyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in
arrows, and Poseidon the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis
and quick-glancing (1) Aphrodite, and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair
Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty counselor, Eos and great Helius and
bright Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and dark Night, and the holy race
of all the other deathless ones that are forever. And one day they taught
Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and
this word first the goddesses said to me – the Muses of Olympus, daughters of
Zeus who holds the aegis:
(ll. 26-28) `Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere
bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we
know, when we will, to utter true things.'
(ll. 29-35) So said the ready-voiced daughters of great Zeus, and they plucked
and gave me a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel, a marvelous thing, and breathed
into me a divine voice to celebrate things that shall be and things there were
aforetime; and they bade me sing of the race of the blessed gods that are
eternally, but ever to sing of themselves both first and last. But why all this
about oak or stone? (2)
(ll. 36-52) Come thou, let us begin with the Muses who gladden the great spirit
of their father Zeus in Olympus with their songs, telling of things that are and
that shall be and that were aforetime with consenting voice. Unwearying flows
the sweet sound from their lips, and the house of their father Zeus the
loud-thunderer is glad at the lily-like voice of the goddesses as it spread
abroad, and the peaks of snowy Olympus resound, and the homes of the immortals.
And they uttering their immortal voice, celebrate in song first of all the
reverend race of the gods from the beginning, those whom Earth and wide Heaven
begot, and the gods sprung of these, givers of good things. Then, next, the
goddesses sing of Zeus, the father of gods and men, as they begin and end their
strain, how much he is the most excellent among the gods and supreme in power.
And again, they chant the race of men and strong giants, and gladden the heart
of Zeus within Olympus, — the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus the
aegis-holder.
(ll. 53-74) Them in Pieria did Mnemosyne (Memory), who reigns over the hills of
Eleuther, bear of union with the father, the son of Cronos, a forgetting of ills
and a rest from sorrow. For nine nights did wise Zeus lie with her, entering her
holy bed remote from the immortals. And when a year was passed and the seasons
came round as the months waned, and many days were accomplished, she bare nine
daughters, all of one mind, whose hearts are set upon song and their spirit free
from care, a little way from the topmost peak of snowy Olympus. There are their
bright dancing-places and beautiful homes, and beside them the Graces and
Himerus (Desire) live in delight. And they, uttering through their lips a lovely
voice, sing the laws of all and the goodly ways of the immortals, uttering their
lovely voice. Then went they to Olympus, delighting in their sweet voice, with
heavenly song, and the dark earth resounded about them as they chanted, and a
lovely sound rose up beneath their feet as they went to their father. And he
was reigning in heaven, himself holding the lightning and glowing thunderbolt,
when he had overcome by might his father Cronos; and he distributed fairly to
the immortals their portions and declared their privileges.
(ll. 75-103) These things, then, the Muses sang who dwell on Olympus, nine
daughters begotten by great Zeus, Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and
Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia and
Urania and Calliope (3), who is the chiefest of them all, for she attends on
worshipful princes: whomsoever of heaven-nourished princes the daughters of
great Zeus honour, and behold him at his birth, they pour sweet dew upon his
tongue, and from his lips flow gracious words. All the people look towards him
while he settles causes with true judgments: and he, speaking surely, would soon
make wise end even of a great quarrel; for therefore are there princes wise in
heart, because when the people are being misguided in their assembly, they set
right the matter again with ease, persuading them with gentle words. And when
he passes through a gathering, they greet him as a god with gentle reverence,
and he is conspicuous amongst the assembled: such is the holy gift of the Muses
to men. For it is through the Muses and far-shooting Apollo that there are
singers and harpers upon the earth; but princes are of Zeus, and happy is he
whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his mouth. For though a man have
sorrow and grief in his newly-troubled soul and live in dread because his heart
is distressed, yet, when a singer, the servant of the Muses, chants the glorious
deeds of men of old and the blessed gods who inhabit Olympus, at once he forgets
his heaviness and remembers not his sorrows at all; but the gifts of the
goddesses soon turn him away from these.
(ll. 104-115) Hail, children of Zeus! Grant lovely song and celebrate the holy
race of the deathless gods who are forever, those that were born of Earth and
starry Heaven and gloomy Night and them that briny Sea did rear. Tell how at the
first gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its
raging swell, and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods
who were born of them, givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth,
and how they shared their honors amongst them, and also how at the first they
took many-folded Olympus. These things declare to me from the beginning, ye
Muses who dwell in the house of Olympus, and tell me which of them first came to
be.
(ll. 116-138) Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth,
the ever-sure foundations of all (4) the deathless ones who hold the peaks of
snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros
(Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes
the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came
forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether (5) and Day, whom
she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare
starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an
ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills,
graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills.
She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet
union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling
Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and
Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos
the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty
sire.
(ll. 139-146) And again, she bare the Cyclopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes,
and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges (6), who gave Zeus the thunder and made
the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the gods, but one eye only was set
in the midst of their fore-heads. And they were surnamed Cyclopes (Orb-eyed)
because one orbed eye was set in their foreheads. Strength and might and craft
were in their works.
(ll. 147-163) And again, three other sons were born of Earth and Heaven, great
and doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareos and Gyres, presumptuous
children. From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not to be approached,
and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong limbs, and
irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great forms. For of
all the children that were born of Earth and Heaven, these were the most
terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first.
Source:
Hesiod, the
Homeric Hymns and Homerica:
The Theogony
6. Myth: The Historical Matrix of Western Philosophy, Science, and Rationality
Matrix: Generally,
something that constitutes the point or place from which something else
originates, takes shape, or develops; the generative soil from which something
else grows. Its archaic meaning is womb; hence a concrete
(corresponding to a particular or specific object) term that
progressively expanded into an abstract concept (general, formal, or
structural meaning) over the centuries. Accordingly, the term matrix
has a variety of context-specific usages, including anatomical,
biological, metallurgical, mathematical, linguistic, and print-set usages. In
our context it bears a historical meaning. [Note: If you’ve seen
the movie The Matrix, how would you define the sense or meaning of the
term in that film?]
B. THE BIRTH OF PHILOSOPHY
1. The Greek Philosophical Revolution: Thales of
Miletus (624-546 BC)
 Thales of Miletus |
a) Cosmology as Speculative
Metaphysics: A traditional Western philosophical ideal,
practiced from Plato to Hegel, which attempts to reduce the multiplicity of
all phenomena to the unity of an ultimate reality behind or beyond the world
of appearances (the finite, temporal, empirical world). Accordingly,
speculative metaphysics tends to be dualistic (reality is
fundamentally divided into two hierarchically ordered realms), although
there are monistic (reality is fundamentally one) exceptions
(Parmenides, Spinoza) that “prove the rule.” Actual, permanent, true reality
is above, beyond, or behind the transitory, multiple, finite, phenomenal
appearances of this world. Speculative metaphysics is one form of the
pervasive Greek problem or motif of the One and the Many:
reality/appearance, permanence/change, underlying and unitary primary
element (Greek: archê) and its multiple manifestations (Greek:
phenomena).
b) Naturalistic-causal explanatory model
c) Basic Philosophical Interest: The early Greek philosophers
(traditionally termed the “Presocratics”) were perplexed and preoccupied with
the nature of reality. A basic question, revealing an underlying presupposition
or hypothesis, and theoretically directing the course of their thinking, is
common to these philosophical pioneers: What is the fundamental or primary
element (Greek: archê) from which all other forms of reality
(Greek: phenomena= appearances) in nature (Greek: physis)
are derived?
d) Aristotle on Early Greek Philosophy, Metaphysics Book 1:
"Of the first philosophers, then, most thought the principles which were of the
nature of matter were the only principles of all things. That of which all
things that are consist, the first from which they come to be, the last into
which they are resolved (the substance remaining, but changing in its
modifications), this they say is the element and this the principle of things,
and therefore they think nothing is either generated or destroyed, since this
sort of entity is always conserved, as we say Socrates neither comes to be
absolutely when he comes to be beautiful or musical, nor ceases to be when loses
these characteristics, because the substratum, Socrates himself remains. just so
they say nothing else comes to be or ceases to be; for there must be some
entity-either one or more than one-from which all other things come to be, it
being conserved.
"Yet they do not all agree as to the number and the nature of these principles.
Thales, the founder of this type of philosophy, says the principle is water (for
which reason he declared that the earth rests on water), getting the notion
perhaps from seeing that the nutriment of all things is moist, and that heat
itself is generated from the moist and kept alive by it (and that from which
they come to be is a principle of all things). He got his notion from this fact,
and from the fact that the seeds of all things have a moist nature, and that
water is the origin of the nature of moist things.
"Some think that even the ancients who lived long before the present generation,
and first framed accounts of the gods, had a similar view of nature; for they
made Ocean and Tethys the parents of creation, and described the oath of the
gods as being by water, to which they give the name of Styx; for what is oldest
is most honourable, and the most honourable thing is that by which one swears.
It may perhaps be uncertain whether this opinion about nature is primitive and
ancient, but Thales at any rate is said to have declared himself thus about the
first cause. Hippo no one would think fit to include among these thinkers,
because of the paltriness of his thought.
"Anaximenes and Diogenes make air prior to water, and the most primary of the
simple bodies, while Hippasus of Metapontium and Heraclitus of Ephesus say this
of fire, and Empedocles says it of the four elements (adding a fourth-earth-to
those which have been named); for these, he says, always remain and do not come
to be, except that they come to be more or fewer, being aggregated into one and
segregated out of one.
"Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, who, though older than Empedocles, was later in his
philosophical activity, says the principles are infinite in number; for he says
almost all the things that are made of parts like themselves, in the manner of
water or fire, are generated and destroyed in this way, only by aggregation and
segregation, and are not in any other sense generated or destroyed, but remain
eternally….
"Empedocles, then, in contrast with his predecessors, was the first to introduce
the dividing of this cause, not positing one source of movement, but different
and contrary sources. Again, he was the first to speak of four material
elements; yet he does not use four, but treats them as two only; he treats fire
by itself, and its opposite-earth, air, and water-as one kind of thing. We may
learn this by study of his verses….
"Contemporaneously with these philosophers and before them, the so-called
Pythagoreans, who were the first to take up mathematics, not only advanced this
study, but also having been brought up in it they thought its principles were
the principles of all things. Since of these principles numbers are by nature
the first, and in numbers they seemed to see many resemblances to the things
that exist and come into being-more than in fire and earth and water (such and
such a modification of numbers being justice, another being soul and reason,
another being opportunity-and similarly almost all other things being
numerically expressible); since, again, they saw that the modifications and the
ratios of the musical scales were expressible in numbers; -since, then, all
other things seemed in their whole nature to be modeled on numbers, and numbers
seemed to be the first things in the whole of nature, they supposed the elements
of numbers to be the elements of all things, and the whole heaven to be a
musical scale and a number. And all the properties of numbers and scales that
they could show to agree with the attributes and parts and the whole arrangement
of the heavens, they collected and fitted into their scheme; and if there was a
gap anywhere, they readily made additions so as to make their whole theory
coherent. E.g. as the number 10 is thought to be perfect and to comprise the
whole nature of numbers, they say that the bodies which move through the heavens
are ten, but as the visible bodies are only nine, to meet this they invent a
tenth--the 'counter-earth'. We have discussed these matters more exactly
elsewhere.
"From these facts we may sufficiently perceive the meaning of the ancients who
said the elements of nature were more than one; but there are some who spoke of
the universe as if it were one entity, though they were not all alike either in
the excellence of their statement or in its conformity to the facts of nature.
The discussion of them is in no way appropriate to our present investigation of
causes, for they do not, like some of the natural philosophers, assume being to
be one and yet generate it out of the one as out of matter, but they speak in
another way; those others add change, since they generate the universe, but
these thinkers say the universe is unchangeable. Yet this much is germane to the
present inquiry: Parmenides seems to fasten on that which is one in definition,
Melissus on that which is one in matter, for which reason the former says that
it is limited, the latter that it is unlimited; while Xenophanes, the first of
these partisans of the One (for Parmenides is said to have been his pupil), gave
no clear statement, nor does he seem to have grasped the nature of either of
these causes, but with reference to the whole material universe he says the One
is God. Now these thinkers, as we said, must be neglected for the purposes of
the present inquiry-two of them entirely, as being a little too naive, viz.
Xenophanes and Melissus; but Parmenides seems in places to speak with more
insight. For, claiming that, besides the existent, nothing non-existent exists,
he thinks that of necessity one thing exists, viz. the existent and nothing else
(on this we have spoken more clearly in our work on nature), but being forced to
follow the observed facts, and supposing the existence of that which is one in
definition, but more than one according to our sensations, he now posits two
causes and two principles, calling them hot and cold, i.e. fire and earth; and
of these he ranges the hot with the existent, and the other with the
non-existent.
"From what has been said, then, and from the
wise men who have now sat in council with us, we have got thus much-on the one
hand from the earliest philosophers, who regard the first principle as corporeal
(for water and fire and such things are bodies), and of whom some suppose that
there is one corporeal principle, others that there are more than one, but both
put these under the head of matter; and on the other hand from some who posit
both this cause and besides this the source of movement, which we have got from
some as single and from others as twofold.
"Our review of those who have spoken about first principles and reality and of
the way in which they have spoken, has been concise and summary; but yet we have
learnt this much from them, that of those who speak about 'principle' and
'cause' no one has mentioned any principle except those which have been
distinguished in our work on nature, but all evidently have some inkling of
them, though only vaguely. For some speak of the first principle as matter,
whether they suppose one or more first principles, and whether they suppose this
to be a body or to be incorporeal; e.g. Plato spoke of the great and the small,
the Italians of the infinite, Empedocles of fire, earth, water, and air,
Anaxagoras of the infinity of things composed of similar parts. These, then,
have all had a notion of this kind of cause, and so have all who speak of air or
fire or water, or something denser than fire and rarer than air; for some have
said the prime element is of this kind.
"These thinkers grasped this cause only; but certain others have mentioned the
source of movement, e.g. those who make friendship and strife, or reason, or
love, a principle.
Source:
The Internet
Classics Archive
e)
Table of Presocratic Philosophers and Speculative Metaphysics
| Metaphysical View | Philosopher | Archê |
| Milesian monists |
Thales Anaximander Anaximenes |
Water Apeirôn (The Infinite) Air |
| Other monists |
Pythagoras Heraclitus Parmenides |
Arithmos
(Number) Logos (Principle of process) Being |
| Pluralists |
Empedocles Anaxagoras Democritus |
Earth, air, fire, water Seeds, germs Atoms (undividables) |
f) Presocratic Chronology
2. Xenophanes of Colophon:
Critic of the Mythic Gods (c. 565-c.470 BCE)
a) Philosophical Profile
b) Fragments
(10) Since all at first have learnt according to
Homer....
(11) Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all things that are a shame and
a disgrace among mortals, stealings and adulteries and deceivings of one
another.
(12) Since they have uttered many lawless deeds of the gods, stealings and
adulteries and deceivings of one another.
(14) But mortals deem that the gods are begotten as they are, and have clothes
like theirs, and voice and form.
(15) Yes, and if oxen and horses or lions had hands, and could paint with their
hands, and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint the forms of the
gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, and make their bodies in the image of
their several kinds.
(16) The Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed; the Thracians say
theirs have blue eyes and red hair.
(18) The gods have not revealed all things to men from the beginning, but by
seeking they find in time what is better.
(23) One god, the greatest among gods and men, neither in form like unto mortals
nor in thought....
(24) He sees all over, thinks all over, and hears all over.
(25) But without toil he swayeth all things by the thought of his mind.
(26) And he abideth ever in the selfsame place, moving not at all; nor doth it
befit him to go about now hither now thither.
(27) All things come from the earth, and in earth all things end.
(34) There never was nor will be a man who has certain knowledge about the gods
and about all the things I speak of. Even if he should chance to say the
complete truth, yet he himself knows not that it is so. But all may have their
fancy.
Source: John Burnet,
Early Greek
Philosophy
c) Aristotle on Xenophanes, Metaphysics Book 1:
"From these facts we may sufficiently
perceive the meaning of the ancients who said the elements of nature were more
than one; but there are some who spoke of the universe as if it were one entity,
though they were not all alike either in the excellence of their statement or in
its conformity to the facts of nature. The discussion of them is in no way
appropriate to our present investigation of causes, for they do not, like some
of the natural philosophers, assume being to be one and yet generate it out of
the one as out of matter, but they speak in another way; those others add
change, since they generate the universe, but these thinkers say the universe is
unchangeable. Yet this much is germane to the present inquiry: Parmenides seems
to fasten on that which is one in definition, Melissus on that which is one in
matter, for which reason the former says that it is limited, the latter that it
is unlimited; while Xenophanes, the first of these partisans of the One (for
Parmenides is said to have been his pupil), gave no clear statement, nor does he
seem to have grasped the nature of either of these causes, but with reference to
the whole material universe he says the One is God. Now these thinkers, as we
said, must be neglected for the purposes of the present inquiry-two of them
entirely, as being a little too naive, viz. Xenophanes and Melissus; but
Parmenides seems in places to speak with more insight.
C. GLOSSARY OF GREEK TERMS
aêr: the lower air that surrounds the earth; the atmosphere
aesthêsis: perception by the senses; sense-impression
aethêr: the pure upper air
alêtheia: truth, unconcealedness
alogon: non-rational; without language
anankê: logical or causal
necessity of anything that cannot be otherwise
aneu logou: without reason
apeirôn: the Boundless, an
infinite, indefinite, intelligent, living whole.
archê: first-principle, beginning, primary element
arithmos: number
dialektikê: process of thinking by means of dialogue,
discussion, debate, or argument; general term for Socrates’ philosophical and
pedagogical method.
diánoia: understanding or
intellectual activity as a discursive process; contrasted with the immediate
apprehension nóêsis.
díkê: proportionate
compensation, justice
dóxa: mere belief or
opinion; contrasted with systematic or scientific knowledge (epistêmê)
dynamis: power or force;
used by the presocratic philosophers to refer to the qualities of material
elements.
epistêmê: theoretical, systematic, scientific
knowledge; demonstrable truth; opposite of doxa.
ethos: custom or habit
gnôsis: most general Greek term for knowledge.
gnothi seauton: know yourself
hyle: matter
hypokeimenon: that which underlies; underlying substance
kalos: beautiful, excellent
katharsis, katharmos: cleansing, purification
kinêsis: motion or change, a
subject of great controversy among Greek philosophers.
kosmos: order; jeweled ornament; cosmos
logoi: meanings
logos: word, meaning, rational account, speech, principle, discourse,
thought, reason; contrasted with mythos.
mathêma: learning, what is learnt
mathêmatikos: disposed to learn; a scientist, a scholar
morphê: shape or figure of a
thing.
mythos: speech, tale,
account, or story, as opposed to a rational explanation (logos).
noêma: thought
nóêsis: intuition or thinking; the
operation of nous, reasoning that characterizes diánoia.
nomos: custom, convention, law
nous: mind, intellect, reason
nous energeiai: intellect in act
nous pathetikos: passive mind
nous poietikos: active mind
nous theos: divine intellect
ousia: essence; substance, being
paideia: cultural education
phthora: destruction; annihilation, ceasing-to-be
phenomena: appearances
physis (phusis): nature
sophia: wisdom
technê: art, technique, craft
télos: end, completion, purpose,
or goal of any thing or activity.
theôria: rational contemplation
theos: god
thespis: inspired
zoe: a living or a means of living
zoon logon echon: living being who has language or reason
*Recommended Reading: F. E. Peters, Greek
Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon (NYU, 1967)
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