routledge history of philosophy volume i from the beginning to plato

Routledge History of Philosophy
Volume I
Volume I of the Routledge History of Philosophy covers one of the most
remarkable periods in human thought. In the space of two and a half centuries,
philosophy developed from quasi-mythological speculation to a state in which
many of the most fundamental questions about the universe, the mind and human
conduct had been vigorously pursued and some of the most enduring
masterworks of Western thought had been written.
The essays present the fundamental approaches and thinkers of Greek
philosophy in chronological order. Each is written by a recognized authority in
the particular field, and takes account of the large amount of high-quality work
done in the last few decades on Platonic and pre-Platonic philosophy. All write
in an accessible style, meeting the needs of the non-specialist without loss of
scholarly precision. Topics covered range from early Greek speculative thought
and its cultural and social setting, to the Sophists and Socrates, culminating in
three chapters on Plato’s lasting contribution to all central areas of philosophy.
Supplemented with a chronology, a glossary of technical terms and an
extensive bibliography, this volume will prove an invaluable and comprehensive
guide to the beginnings of philosophy.
C.C.W.Taylor is Reader in Philosophy in the University of Oxford and a
Fellow of Corpus Christi College. He is the author of Plato, Protagoras (1976)
and co-editor of Human Agency: Philosophical Essays in Honor of J.O.Urmson
(1988). Currently, he is the editor of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy.
Routledge History of Philosophy
General Editors—G.H.R.Parkinson and S.G.Shanker
The Routledge History of Philosophy provides a chronological survey of the
history of Western philosophy, from its beginnings in the sixth century BC to the
present time. It discusses all major philosophical developments in depth. Most
space is allocated to those individuals who, by common consent, are regarded as
great philosophers. But lesser figures have not been neglected, and together the

ten volumes of the History include basic and critical information about every
significant philosopher of the past and present. These philosophers are clearly
situated within the cultural and, in particular, the scientific context of their time.
The History is intended not only for the specialist, but also for the student and
the general reader. Each chapter is by an acknowledged authority in the field.
The chapters are written in an accessible style and a glossary of technical terms
is provided in each volume.
I From the Beginning to Plato C.C.W.Taylor (published 1997)
II Hellenistic and Early Medieval Philosophy David Furley
III Medieval Philosophy John Marenbon
IV The Renaissance and C17 Rationalism G.H.R.Parkinson (published 1993)
V British Philosophy and the Age of Enlightenment Stuart Brown (published
1996)
VI The Age of German Idealism Robert Solomon and Kathleen Higgins
(Published 1993)
VII The Nineteenth Century C.L.Ten (published 1994)
VIII Continental Philosophy in the C20 Richard Kearney (published 1993)
IX Philosophy of Science, Logic and Mathematics in the C20 S.G.Shanker
(published 1996)
X Philosophy of Meaning, Knowledge and Value in the C20 John Canfield
(published 1997)
Each volume contains 10–15 chapters by different contributors
Routledge History of Philosophy
Volume I
From the Beginning to Plato
EDITED BY
C.C.W.Taylor
London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
selection and editorial matter © 1997 C.C.W.Taylor
individual chapters © 1997 the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-02721-3 Master e-book ISBN
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Contents
General editors’ preface vii
Notes on contributors ix
Chronology xi
List of sources xxi
Introduction
C.C.W.Taylor

1
1 The polis and its culture
Robin Osborne
8
2 The Ionians
Malcolm Schofield
42
3 Heraclitus
Catherine Osborne
80
4 Pythagoreans and Eleatics
Edward Hussey
117
5 Empedocles
M.R.Wright
161
6 Anaxagoras and the atomists
C.C.W.Taylor
192
7 The sophists
G.B.Kerferd
225
8 Greek arithmetic, geometry and harmonics: Thales to Plato
Ian Mueller
249
9 Socrates and the beginnings of moral philosophy
Hugh H.Benson
298
10 Plato: metaphysics and epistemology
Robert Heinaman

329
11 Plato: ethics and politics 364
A.W.Price
12 Plato: aesthetics and psychology
Christopher Rowe
392
Glossary 420
Index of topics 431
Index locorum 439
Index of proper names 455
vi
General editors’ preface
The history of philosophy, as its name implies, represents a union of two very
different disciplines, each of which imposes severe constraints upon the other.
As an exercise in the history of ideas, it demands that one acquire a ‘period eye’:
a thorough understanding of how the thinkers whom it studies viewed the
problems which they sought to resolve, the conceptual frameworks in which they
addressed these issues, their assumptions and objectives, their blind spots and
miscues. But as an exercise in philosophy, we are engaged in much more than
simply a descriptive task. There is a crucial critical aspect to our efforts: we are
looking for the cogency as much as the development of an argument, for its
bearing on questions which continue to preoccupy us as much as the impact
which it may have had on the evolution of philosophical thought.
The history of philosophy thus requires a delicate balancing act from its
practitioners. We read these writings with the full benefit of historical hindsight.
We can see why the minor contributions remained minor and where the grand
systems broke down: sometimes as a result of internal pressures, sometimes
because of a failure to overcome an insuperable obstacle, sometimes because of a
dramatic technological or sociological change and, quite often, because of
nothing more than a shift in intellectual fashion or interests. Yet, because of our

continuing philosophical concern with many of the same problems, we cannot
afford to look dispassionately at these works. We want to know what lessons are
to be learnt from the inconsequential or the glorious failures; many times we
want to plead for a contemporary relevance in the overlooked theory or to
reconsider whether the ‘glorious failure’ was indeed such or simply ahead of its
time: perhaps even ahead of its author.
We find ourselves, therefore, much like the mythical ‘radical translator’ who
has so fascinated modern philosophers, trying to understand an author’s ideas in
his and his culture’s eyes, and at the same time, in our own. It can be a
formidable task. Many times we fail in the historical undertaking because our
philosophical interests are so strong, or lose sight of the latter because we are so
enthralled by the former. But the nature of philosophy is such that we are
compelled to master both techniques. For learning about the history of
philosophy is not just a challenging and engaging pastime: it is an essential
element in learning about the nature of philosophy—in grasping how philosophy
is intimately connected with and yet distinct from both history and science.
The Routledge History of Philosophy provides a chronological survey of the
history of Western philosophy, from its beginnings up to the present time. Its aim
is to discuss all major philosophical developments in depth, and with this in
mind, most space has been allocated to those individuals who, by common
consent, are regarded as great philosophers. But lesser figures have not been
neglected, and it is hoped that the reader will be able to find, in the ten volumes
of the History, at least basic information about any significant philosopher of the
past or present.
Philosophical thinking does not occur in isolation from other human activities,
and this History tries to situate philosophers within the cultural, and in particular
the scientific, context of their time. Some philosophers, indeed, would regard
philosophy as merely ancillary to the natural sciences; but even if this view is
rejected, it can hardly be denied that the sciences have had a great influence on
what is now regarded as philosophy, and it is important that this influence should

be set forth clearly. Not that these volumes are intended to provide a mere record
of the factors that influenced philosophical thinking; philosophy is a discipline
with its own standards of argument, and the presentation of the ways in which
these arguments have developed is the main concern of this History.
In speaking of ‘what is now regarded as philosophy’, we may have given the
impression that there now exists a single view of what philosophy is. This is
certainly not the case; on the contrary, there exist serious differences of opinion,
among those who call themselves philosophers, about the nature of their subject.
These differences are reflected in the existence at the present time of two main
schools of thought, usually described as ‘analytic’ and ‘continental’ philosophy.
It is not our intention, as general editors of this History, to take sides in this
dispute. Our attitude is one of tolerance, and our hope is that these volumes will
contribute to an understanding of how philosophers have reached the positions
which they now occupy.
One final comment. Philosophy has long been a highly technical subject, with
its own specialized vocabulary. This History is intended not only for the
specialist but also for the general reader. To this end, we have tried to ensure that
each chapter is written in an accessible style; and since technicalities are
unavoidable, a glossary of technical terms is provided in each volume. In this
way these volumes will, we hope, contribute to a wider understanding of a
subject which is of the highest importance to all thinking people.
G.H.R.Parkinson
S.G.Shanker
viii
Notes on contributors
Hugh H.Benson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Oklahoma. He is the author of articles on Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and
editor of Essays on the Philosophy of Socrates (1992).
Robert Heinaman is Lecturer in Philosophy at University College, London.
He is the author of articles on Plato and Aristotle, and editor of Aristotle and

Moral Realism (1995).
Edward Hussey is Lecturer in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford
and a Fellow of All Souls College. He is the author of The Presocratics (1972)
and Aristotle Physics III and IV (1982).
G.B.Kerferd is Emeritus Professor of Greek at the University of Manchester.
He is the author of The Sophistic Movement (1981), and editor of The Sophists
and Their Legacy (1981). He was the editor of Phronesis from 1973 to 1979.
He is the author of many reviews and articles on the history of Greek
philosophy.
Ian Mueller is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago and a
member of the Academie internationale d’histoire des sciences. He is the
author of Philosophy of Mathematics and Deductive Structure in Euclid’s
Elements (1981), and editor of PERI TON MATHEMATON: Essays on Greek
Mathematics and its Later Development (1991).
Catherine Osborne is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Wales,
Swansea. She is the author of Rethinking Early Greek Philosophy (1987) and
Eros Unveiled (1994).
Robin Osborne is Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford
and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. He is the author of Demos: The
Discovery of Classical Attika (1985), Classical Landscape with Figures: The
Ancient Greek City and its Countryside (1987), and Greece under
Construction: from the Dark Ages to the Persian War, 200–479 BC (1996).
A.W.Price is Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, London. He is the
author of Love and Friendship in Plato and Aristotle (1989) and Mental
Conflict (1995).
Christopher Rowe is Professor of Greek at the University of Durham. He is
the author of The Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics: A Study in the
Development of Aristotle’s Thought (1971) and of commentaries on Plato’s
Phaedrus (1986, with translation), Phaedo (1993), and Statesman (1995, with
translation). He is the editor of Reading the Statesman: Proceedings of the

Fourth Symposium Platonicum (1995). He is currently co-editing (with
M.Schofield) The Cambridge History of Ancient Political Thought.
Malcolm Schofield is Reader in Ancient Philosophy in the University of
Cambridge and a Fellow of St John’s College. He has published widely on
ancient philosophy; in the pre-Socratic field he is the author of An Essay on
Anaxagoras (1980) and co-author (with G.S.Kirk and J.E.Raven) of The
Presocratic Philosophers (2nd edn, 1983). His most recent book is The Stoic
Idea of the City (1991). He is co-editor (with A.Laks) of Justice and
Generosity: Studies in Hellenistic Social and Political Philosophy
(Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum, 1995).
C.C.W.Taylor is Reader in Philosophy in the University of Oxford and a
Fellow of Corpus Christi College. He is the author of Plato, Protagoras
(Clarendon Plato Series (1976, revised edn. 1991), World’s Classics (1996)),
co-author (with J.C.B.Gosling) of The Greeks on Pleasure (1982), and co-
editor (with J.Dancy and J.M.E.Moravcsik) of Human Agency: Philosophical
Essays in Honor of J.O.Urmson (1988). He is currently the editor of Oxford
Studies in Ancient Philosophy.
M.R.Wright is Professor of Classics at the University of Wales, Lampeter.
Her publications include Empedocles: The Extant Fragments (1981, revised
edn. 1995), Cicero, On Stoic Good and Evil (1991), and Cosmology in
Antiquity (1995).
x
Chronology
C.C.W.Taylor and Robin Osborne
We have comparatively few precise and reliable dates for the biography of
individuals (including birth, death and composition of individual works). In some
cases approximate dates can be given, but in others all that can be said is that the
person was active during a certain period, e.g. in the first third or half of a
particular century. Dramatic works are dated by the year of their performance at
one of the Athenian dramatic festivals, of which official records were preserved.

All dates are BC. Dates of the form 462/1 designate years of the official
Athenian calendar, in which the year began in June. (Hence 462/1 is the year
from June 462 BC to June 461 BC.) Dates of the form 750–700 designate
periods of several years.
Politics and religion The arts
776 First Olympiad 800 Geometric pottery
produced throughout
Greece
c.750–c.700 Foundation of Greek
colonies in S. Italy
and Sicily
c. mid-cent. Earliest Greek
alphabetic
inscriptions
2nd half of cent. Figurative decoration
developed on Late
Geometric pottery
Composition of
Homeric poems
c.700 Hesiod active
Earliest certain
scenes of myths on
Greek pottery
Politics and religion The arts
c.700–c.650 Oriental influence
manifest in Greek
pottery and
metalwork
c.650 Archilochus,
Semonides, Tyrtaeus

active
c.650–c.600 Age of tyrants and
lawgivers Laws of
Draco at Athens 621
630–600 Alcman active
c.610–c.600 Earliest black-figure
vase painting at
Athens
c.600 First monumental
kouroi Sappho,
Alcaeus active
594/3 Archonship of Solon
at Athens
c.600–c.550 Earliest Doric
temples (Olympia,
Corinth, Syracuse,
Corcyra, Selinus)
c.560 Earliest Ionic temples
(Samos, Ephesus)
c.550 Theognis active
Mythological
cosmogony of
Pherecydes of Syros
Amasis Painter and
Exekias active at
Athens
c.550–c.500 Earliest Orphic
poems written
546 Persian conquest of
Lydia

c.540–c.522 Tyranny of
Polycrates at Samos
540–520 Anacreon active
Temple of Hera at
Samos
535 Traditional date of
first dramatic
competition at Athens
520–10 Invention of red-
figure technique of
xii
Politics and religion The arts
vase painting at
Athens
c.510–480 Technique for
making large hollow-
cast bronze statues
perfected
508/7 Reforms of
Cleisthenes: full
democracy
established at Athens
500–494 Ionian revolt against
Persia
c.500 Kleophrades Painter
and Berlin Painter
active at Athens
500–490 Temple of Athena
Aphaia, Aegina
Science and technology Philosophy

early 6th cent. Geometrical
discoveries
attributed to Thales
(see Ch. 8)
Anaximander’s
world map
585 Eclipse allegedly
predicted by Thales
Anaximander,
Anaximenes active
c.575–560 Earliest electrum
coins minted in
Ionia
c.570–c.550 Birth of Pythagoras
546 (?) Xenophanes goes
into exile
c.540–c.522 Polycrates’ tunnel c.540–c.520 Foundation of
Pythagorean
community at
Croton
c.520 Earliest Athenian
owl coinage
c.540 Foundation of Elea
c.515 Birth of Parmenides
Late 6th-early 5th
cent.
Hecataeus, Journey
Round the World,
world map and
work on mythology

and genealogy
c.500 Heraclitus active
Birth of Anaxagoras
Birth of Protagoras
xiii
Politics and religion The arts
494 Phrynichus, Capture of
Miletus
490 First Persian invasion:
Battle of Marathon
(Aeschylus a combatant)
500–440 Pindar (d.438) active
Bacchylides active
Simonides (d.468) active
Building of temples at
Acragas
485 Comedy added to City
Dionysia
484 Aeschylus’ first victory
480–79 Second Persian invasion:
Battles of Thermopylae,
Salamis and Plataea
Battle of Himera:
Carthaginian invasion of
Sicily defeated
c.480 Critian boy
472 Aeschylus, Persians
470 Sophocles’ first victory
468 Aeschylus, Seven Against
Thebes

c.465 Battle of Eurymedon 470–60 Painted Stoa at Athens:
paintings by Polygnotus
and others
c.463 Establishment of
democracy at Syracuse
462/1 Ostracism of Kimon
Reforms of Ephialtes at
Athens
459–4 Athenian expedition to
Egypt
458 Aeschylus, Oresteia
456 Death of Aeschylus
Completion of Temple of
Zeus at Olympia
454 Tranfer of treasury of
Delian League to Athens:
beginning of Athenian
empire
Pericles elected general for
first time
xiv
Politics and religion The arts
c.450 Piraeus replanned by
Hippodamus of Miletus
450–30 Polyclitus active
447 Parthenon begun
448 Pericles re-elected general
(and annually thereafter till
his death)
443 Foundation of Thurii

Ostracism of Thucydides
son of Melesias
Herodotus among the
colonists of Thurii: city laid
out by Hippodamus
Sophocles, Antigone
441 Revolt of Samos from
Athens
441 Euripides’ first victory
438 Euripides, Alcestis
Phidias, statue of Athena in
Parthenon
Science and technology Philosophy
469 Birth of Socrates
467 Fall of meteorite at
Aegospotamoi said
to have been
predicted by
Anaxagoras
c.460 Birth of Democritus
5th cent. Pythagorean
discovery of
mathematical basis
of musical intervals
454 Destruction of
Pythagorean
communities in S.
Italy
2nd half of 5th
cent.

Hippocrates of
Chios, Elements
Hippocrates of Cos
active
Early Hippocratic
treatises
450 Dramatic date of
Plato, Parmenides
Parmenides c.65
yrs old, Zeno c.40
yrs old
443 Protagoras writes
laws for Thurii.
xv
Science and technology Philosophy
Anaxagoras active
in Athens
441 Melissus
commands Samian
fleet against
Athens.
mid 5th. cent. Empedocles,
Leucippus,
Alcmaeon of
Croton active
Politics and religion The arts
432 Outbreak of Peloponnesian
War
c.432 Parthenon sculptures
completed Zeuxis at outset of

his career Thucydides begins
his history.
431 Euripides, Medea
c.430 Sophocles, Oedipus
Tyrannus Phidias, statue of
Zeus at Olympia
Birth of Xenophon
429 Plague at Athens: death of
Pericles
428 Euripides, Hippolytus
427 Leontinoi seeks help from
Athens against Syracuse,
(Gorgias an ambassador)
425 Aristophanes, Acharnians
424 Battle of Delium (Socrates
distinguishes himself.)
Capture of Amphipolis by
Brasidas: exile of Thucydides
424 Aristophanes, Knights
423 Aristophanes, Clouds
422 Aristophanes, Wasps
421 Peace of Nicias 421 Aristophanes, Peace
Eupolis, Flatterers
420 Alcibiades elected general
Introduction of cult of
Asclepius to Athens
c.420 Herodotus active
418 Renewal of war between
Athens and Sparta
xvi

Politics and religion The arts
416 Destruction of Melos by
Athens
416 Agathon’s first victory
(celebrated by Plato,
Symposium)
415 Sicilian expedition:
Mutilation of the Hermai:
Alcibiades goes over to
Sparta
415 Euripides, Trojan Women
414 Aristophanes, Birds
413 Defeat of Sicilian expedition
413/12 Introduction of cult of Bendis
to Athens (mentioned at
beginning of Plato, Republic)
412 Euripides, Helen
Science and technology Philosophy
late 5th cent. Hippias discovers
quadratrix, compiles
list of Olympic victors
c.433 Dramatic date of Plato,
Protagoras
Protagoras, Hippias,
Prodicus active
c.430 Anaxagoras exiled
from Athens
c.428 Death of Anaxagoras
427 Birth of Plato
423 Diogenes of Apollonia

active (doctrines
caricatured in Clouds).
c.420 Death of Protagoras
late 5th cent. Democritus, Philolaus
active
2nd half of 5th cent. Democritus states
without proof that
volumes of cone and
pyramid are 1/3
respectively of
volumes of cylinder
and prism.
xvii
Politics and religion The arts
411 Rule of 400 at Athens Aristophanes,
Lysistrata and
Thesmophoriazusai
409 Sophocles, Philoctetes
408 Euripides, Orestes
407 Return of Alcibiades to
Athens Spartan treaty
with Persia
406 Battle of Arginusai and
trial of generals
(Socrates a member of
presiding board)
Carthaginian invasion
of Sicily
406 Death of Sophocles
Death of Euripides

405 Defeat of Athenian
fleet at Aegospotamoi
Dionysius I establishes
tyranny at Syracuse
405 Aristophanes, Frogs
Euripides, Bacchae
and Iphigenia in Aulis
(produced
posthumously)
405–4 Siege of Athens
404 Surrender of Athens
404–3 Rule of Thirty Tyrants
at Athens: Lysias goes
into exile: Socrates
refuses to take part in
arrest of Leon of
Salamis Death of
Alcibiades
403 Restoration of
democracy at Athens:
death of Critias
401 Sophocles, Oedipus at
Colonus (produced
posthumously)
c.400 Death of Thucydides
Temple of Apollo,
Bassai
395–3 Rebuilding of Long
Walls at Athens
1st, half of 4th cent. Lysias active (d.c.380)

Xenophon active (d.c.
354)
xviii
Politics and religion The arts
Isocrates active (d.
338)
392 Aristophanes,
Ecclesiazusai
389 Aristophanes, Plutus
386 King’s Peace
Science and technology Philosophy
late 5th cent. Basic work on
irrationals by
Theodorus of
Cyrene
1st half of 4th
cent.
Theaetetus (d.
369) generalizes
Theodorus’ work
on irrationals and
describes five
regular solids.
399 Trial and death of
Socrates
Eudoxus (d. c.
340) invents
general theory of
proportion and
proves

Democritus’
discoveries of
volumes of cone
and pyramid;
invents
mathematical
model of cosmos
as set of nested
spheres to explain
movements of
heavenly bodies.
1st half of 4th
cent.
Associates of
Socrates active:
Antisthenes (d. c.
360)
Aristippus
(reputed founder
of Cyrenaic
school)
Aeschines
Eucleides (d. c.
380: founder of
Megarian school)
Phaedo
Archytas solves
problem of
duplication of the
cube, carries

further
Pythagorean work
on mathematical
xix
Science and technology Philosophy
determination of
musical intervals
and is first to
apply
mathematical
principles to
mechanics.
387 Plato’s first visit
to Sicily
Foundation of
Academy
Politics and religion The arts
377 Foundation of Second
Athenian Confederacy
371 Battle of Leuctra
370–69 Liberation of Messenia
367 Death of Dionysius I of
Syracuse: succession of
Dionysius II
360 Accession of Philip II of
Macedon: beginning of rise
of Macedon to hegemony in
Greece
c.356 Praxiteles, altar of Artemis at
Ephesus

352–1 Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
351 Demosthenes, First
Philippic
Science and technology Philosophy
384 Birth of Aristotle
367 Plato’s second visit to Sicily Aristotle
joins Academy
361 Plato’s third visit to Sicily
c.360 Birth of Pyrrho, founder of Scepticism
c. mid-cent. Diogenes the Cynic comes to Athens.
347 Death of Plato: Speusippus succeeds
as head of Academy: Aristotle leaves
Athens.
xx
List of Sources
The following ancient authors and works are cited as sources, chiefly for pre-
Socratic philosophy, in this volume. Many of these works are available in
original language editions only; details of these may be found (for Greek
authors) in Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th edn, revised
H.S.Jones and R.McKenzie, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1940 (many reprints), pp.
xvi–xli. This list indicates English translations where available; (L) indicates that
the works cited are available, in the original with facing English translation, in the
Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press). Where details of a translation
are given in the bibliography of any chapter, the appropriate reference is given.
There is a helpful discussion of the sources for pre-Socratic philosophy in
G.S.Kirk, J.E.Raven and M.Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd edn,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983 ([1.6], pp. 1–6.
Achilles. Astronomer; 3rd c. AD.
Aetius. Conjectured author of a history of philosophy, believed to have lived
1st or 2nd c. AD. His work survives in two summaries, the Epitome of [Plutarch]

(1) (q.v.) and the Selections of Stobaeus (q.v.), with some excerpts also preserved
by Theodoretus (q.v.); these versions are edited by H.Diels in Doxographi Graeci
[2.1].
Albert the Great (St). Theologian and scientist; 13th c. AD. Work cited; On
Vegetables, ed. E.Meyer and C.Jessen, Berlin, 1867.
Alexander of Aphrodisias. Philosopher and Aristotelian commentator; 2nd–
3rd c. AD. Works cited; On Fate (trans. R.Sharples, London, Duckworth, 1983),
commentaries on Meteorology and Topics.
Ammonius. Neoplatonist philosopher; 5th c. AD. Work cited; commentary on
Porphyry’s Introduction.
Aristotle. 4th c. BC. All works cited are translated in J.Barnes (ed.) The
Complete Works of Aristotle, 2 vols, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press,
1984 (also (L)).
Asclepius. Aristotelian commentator; 6th c. AD. Work cited: commentary on
Metaphysics A–Z.
Boethius. Roman statesman and philosopher; 5th c. AD. See [8.29].
Censorinus. Roman grammarian; 3rd c. AD. Work cited: On the Day of Birth
ed. N.Sallman, Leipzig, Teubner, 1983.
Cicero. Roman statesman and philosopher; 1st c. BC. Works cited;
Academica, On the Nature of the Gods, Tusculan Disputations (L).
Clement. Bishop of Alexandria; 3rd c. AD. Works cited: Protrepticus,
Miscellanies (L).
Columella. Roman writer on agriculture; 1st c. AD. Work cited: On
Agriculture (L).
Diogenes Laertius. Biographer; 3rd c. AD(?). Work cited: Lives of the
Philosophers (L).
Epicurus. Philosopher, founder of Epicurean school; 4th–3rd c. BC. Works
cited: Letter to Menoeceus, On Nature. Ed. G.Arrighetti, Epicure, Opere, Turin,
Giulio Einandi, 1960. Trans. in C.Bailey, Epicurus, Oxford, Clarendon Press,
1926, repr. Hildesheim and New York, Georg Olms Verlag, 1970, and in

A.A.Long andD. N.Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1987, Vol. 1.
Etymologicum Magnum. 12th c. AD Greek dictionary.
Eusebius. Historian and chronologist; 3rd–4th c. AD. Works cited:
Preparation for the Gospel, Chronicles.
Eutocius. Mathematician; 6th c. AD. See [8.44].
Heraclitus. Interpreter of Homer; 1st c. AD.
Hesychius. Lexicographer; 5th c. AD(?).
Hippolytus. Bishop of Rome; 3rd c. AD. Work cited: Refutation of All
Heresies (see [3.13]).
Iamblichus. Neoplatonist philosopher; 4th c. AD. See [8.52].
Lactantius. Ecclesiastical writer; 3rd–4th c. AD. Work cited: Divine
Institutions, (in Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vol. 19).
Lucretius. Epicurean philosopher and poet; 1st c. BC. Work cited: De Rerum
Natura (L).
Marcus Auretius. Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher; 2nd c. AD. Work
cited: Meditations (L).
Maximus of Tyre. Moralist and lecturer; 2nd c. AD.
Nicomachus of Gerasa. Mathematician; 1st–2nd c. AD. See [8.55–8].
Olympiodorus. Neoplatonist philosopher; 6th c. AD. Work cited:
commentary on Aristotle’s Categories.
Origen. Theologian; 2nd–3rd c. AD. Work cited: Against Celsus, trans.
H.Chadwick, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953.
Pappus. Mathematician; 4th c. AD. See [8.60].
Pausanias. Geographer and antiquarian; 2nd c. AD. Work cited: Description
of Greece (L).
Philoponus (John). Aristotelian commentator; 6th c. AD. Works cited:
commentaries on Physics
and on On Generation and Corruption.
Philostratus. Biographer; 2nd–3rd c. AD. Work cited: Lives of the Sophists

(L).
xxii
Plotinus. Neoplatonist philosopher; 3rd. c. AD. Work cited: Enneads (L).
Plutarch. Philosopher, historian and essayist; 1st–2nd c. AD. The various
works cited, apart from the Lives, are all included in his collected works, entitled
Moralia (L). (Lives also (L)).
[Plutarch] (1) Epitome, a summary of philosophical history; 2nd c. AD. See
Aetius.
[Plutarch] (2) Miscellanies, a collection of miscellaneous scientific
information preserved by Eusebius (q.v.).
[Plutarch] (3) Consolation to Apollonius. Date uncertain.
Porphyry. Philosopher and polymath; 3rd c. AD. Works cited: Homeric
Questions, commentary on Ptolemy Harmonics (see [8.73]).
Proclus. Neoplatonist philosopher; 3rd c. AD. Works cited: commentary on
Euclid Elements Book 1 (see [8.75]), commentary on Plato Parmenides,
commentary on Plato, Alcibiades I.
scholium (pl. scholia). A marginal note in an ancient manuscript. Scholiast. A
writer of scholia.
Sextus Empiricus. Sceptical philosopher; 2nd c. AD. Works cited: Outlines
of Pyrrhonism, Adversus Mathematicos (L).
Simplicius. Aristotelian commentator; 6th c. AD. Works cited: commentaries
on On the Heavens and Physics.
Stobaeus (John of Stobi). Anthologist; 5th c. AD.
Suda, The (also known as Suidas). 10th c. AD Greek lexicon. See [8.87].
Themistius. Rhetorician and Aristotelian commentator; 4th c. AD. Works
cited: Orations, commentary on Physics.
Theodoretus. Ecclesiastical writer; 5th c. AD.
Theodorus Prodromos. Polymath; 12th c. AD.
Theon of Smyrna. Mathematician; 1st c. AD. See [8.93].
Theophrastus. Aristotle’s successor as head of the Lyceum; 4th–3rd c. BC.

Work cited: On the Senses, Trans. in G.M.Stratum, Theophrastus and the Greek
Physiological Psychology Before Aristotle, London, Allen and Unwin, 1917,
repr. Bonset/P.Schippers, Amsterdam, 1964 [2.43].
Tzetzes (John). Commentator on Homer and polymath; 12th c. AD.
xxiii
Introduction
C.C.W.Taylor
In the two and a half centuries covered by this volume, from the beginning of the
sixth century BC to the death of Plato in 347, Western philosophy developed
from infancy to adulthood, from the earliest stage at which it can be recognized
as an intellectual activity in its own right to a state in which most of its principal
branches had been articulated from one another, major advances had been made
in some of those branches, and some enduring masterpieces had already been
written. The several chapters in this volume describe this astonishing process in
detail; it is the task of this introduction to attempt an overview of the main
developments.
The tradition of beginning the history of Western philosophy with the Ionian
theorists of the sixth century (see Chapter 2) is as old as the history of philosophy
itself; Aristotle, the earliest historian of philosophy whose work survives,
describes Thales (Metaphysics 983b20–1) as ‘the founder of that kind of
philosophy’, i.e. the enquiry into the basic principles of the physical world. Yet
in the same passage Aristotle admits some uncertainty as to whether ‘the men of
very ancient times who first told stories about the gods’ should not be counted as
pioneers of that kind of enquiry (b27–30). This brings out the fact that Ionian
speculation about the nature and origins of the physical world itself arises from
an older tradition of cosmology, represented in Greek thought by Homer, Hesiod
and the so-called ‘Orphic’ poems, a tradition which has considerable affinities
with the mythological systems of Egypt and the Near Eastern civilizations (see
Chapter 1, and, for detailed discussion KRS [1.6], ch. 1). While it is traditional to
contrast the ‘mythological’ thought of the poets, who explained the genesis and

nature of the world via the activities of divinities, with the ‘physical’ or
‘materialistic’ thought of the Ionians, who appealed to observable stuffs such as
water or air, that contrast is somewhat misleading, since on the one hand many
of the divinities of the poets were themselves identified with components of the
world such as the sea or the earth, while on the other the Ionians appear to have
regarded their basic components as alive, and to have given them some of the
attributes of divinity, such as immortality. None the less there are certain features
of Ionian cosmological speculation which justify the traditional claim that it
marks an unprecedented step in human thought. While the mythical cosmologies