Xenophanes
Xenophanes | |
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Xenophanes of Colophon (
As a poet, Xenophanes was known for his critical style, writing poems that are considered among the first
Xenophanes is seen as one of the most important
Life
The Ancient biographer
By his own surviving account,[e] he was an itinerant poet who left his native land at the age of 25 and then lived 67 years in other Greek lands, dying at or after the age of 92.[3] Although ancient testimony notes that he buried his sons, there is little other biographical information about him or his family that can be reliably ascertained.[3]
It is considered likely Xenophanes' physical theories were influenced by the
Poems
Knowledge of Xenophanes' views comes from fragments of his poetry that survive as quotations by later Greek writers. Unlike other pre-socratic philosophers such as Heraclitus or Parmenides, who only wrote one work, Xenophanes wrote a variety of poems, and no two of the fragments can positively be identified as belonging to the same text.[5] According to Diogenes Laertius,[g] Xenophanes wrote a poem on the foundation of Colophon and Elea, which ran to approximately 2000 lines.[5] Later testimony also suggests that his collection of satires was assembled in at least five books.[6] Although many later sources attribute a poem titled "On Nature" to Xenophanes, modern scholars doubt this label, as it was likely a name given by scholars at the Library of Alexandria to works written by philosophers that Aristotle had identified as "phusikoi" who studied nature.[5]
Satires
The satires are called
Xenophanes' surviving writings display a skepticism that became more commonly expressed during the fourth century BC. Several of the philosophical fragments are derived from commentators on Homer. He aimed his critique at the polytheistic religious views of earlier Greek poets and of his own contemporaries
To judge from these later accounts,
On Nature
There is no good authority that says that Xenophanes specifically wrote a philosophical poem.[7] John Burnet says that "The oldest reference to a poem Περὶ φύσεως is in the Geneva scholium on Iliad xxi. 196,[i] and this goes back to Crates of Mallus. We must remember that such titles are of later date, and Xenophanes had been given a place among philosophers long before the time of Crates. All we can say, therefore, is that the Pergamene librarians gave the title Περὶ φύσεως to some poem of Xenophanes." However, even if Xenophanes never wrote a specific poem title On Nature, many of the surviving fragments deal with topics in natural philosophy such as clouds or rainbows, and it is thus likely that the philosophical remarks of Xenophanes were expressed incidentally in his satires.[7]
Philosophy
Although Xenophanes has traditionally been interpreted in terms of the
Social criticism
Xenophanes wrote a number of elegiac poems on proper conduct at a symposium,[9] the Ancient Greek drinking parties that were held to commemorate athletic or poetic victories, or to welcome young men into aristocratic society. The surviving fragments stress the importance of piety and honor to the gods,[j] and they discourage drunkenness[k] and intemperance, endorsing moderation and criticism of luxury and excess.[l] Xenophanes also rejected the value of athletic victories, stating that cultivating wisdom was more important.[m][9]
Divine Nature
Orphism and Pythagorean philosophy introduced into the Greek spirituality the notions of guilt and pureness, causing a dichotomic belief between the divine soul and the mortal body. This doctrine is in contrast with the traditional religions as espoused by Homer and Hesiod.[11] God moves all things, but he is thought to be immobile, characterized by oneness[n][12] and unicity, eternity,[o] and a spiritual nature which is bodiless and isn't anthropomorphic.[p] He has a free will and is the Highest Good, he embodies the beauty of the moral perfection and of the absence of sin.[11]
Xenophanes espoused a belief that "
Natural Philosophy
Xenophanes' understanding of divine nature as separate and uninvolved in human affairs motivated him to come up with naturalistic explanations for physical phenomena.[9]
Xenophanes was likely the first philosopher to come up with an explanation for the manifestation of St. Elmo's fire that appears on the masts of ships when they pass through clouds during a thunderstorm. Although the actual phenomenon behind St. Elmo's fire would not be understood until the discovery of static electricity in the modern era, Xenophanes' explanation, which attempted to explain the glow as being caused by agitations of small droplets of clouds[r] was unique in the ancient world.[14]
In Xenophanes' cosmology, there is only one boundary to the universe,[15] the one "seen by our feet".[s] Xenophanes believed that the earth extended infinitely far down, as well as infinitely far in every direction.[15] A consequence of his belief in an infinitely extended earth was that rather than having the sun pass under the earth at sunset, Xenophanes believed that the sun and the moon traveled along a straight line westward,[t] after which point a new sun or moon would be reconstituted after an eclipse.[u][15] While this potentially infinite series of suns and moons traveling would likely be considered objectionable to modern scientists,[15] this means that Xenophanes understood the sun and moon as a "type" of object that appeared in the sky, rather than a specific individual object that reappeared every new day.[15]
Xenophanes concluded from his examination of
Epistemology
Xenophanes is one of the first philosophers to show interest in
His verses on skepticism are quoted by Sextus Empiricus as follows:
Yet, with regard to the gods and what I declare about all things:
No man has seen what is clear nor will any man ever know it.
Nay, for even should he chance to affirm what is really existent,
He himself knoweth it not; for all is swayed by opining.[z]
Due to the lack of whole works by Xenophanes, his views are difficult to interpret, so that the implication of knowing being something deeper ("a clearer truth") may have special implications, or it may mean that you cannot know something just by looking at it.[18] It is known that the most and widest variety of evidence was considered by Xenophanes to be the surest way to prove a theory.[16]
Legacy and influence
Xenophanes's influence has been interpreted variously as "the founder of epistemology, a poet and rhapsode and not a philosopher at all, the first skeptic, the first empiricist, a rationalist theologian, a reformer of religion, and more besides."
Influence on Eleatics
Many later ancient accounts associate Xenophanes with the Greek colony in the Italian city of
In his ninety-second year he was still, we have seen, leading a wandering life, which is hardly consistent with the statement that he settled at Elea and founded a school there, especially if we are to think of him as spending his last days at Hieron's court. It is very remarkable that no ancient writer expressly says he ever was at Elea, and all the evidence we have seems inconsistent with his having settled there at all.[22]
Influence on Pyrrhonism
Xenophanes is sometimes considered the first skeptic in Western philosophy.[23][ad] Xenophanes's alleged skepticism can also be seen as a precursor to Pyrrhonism. Sextus quotes Pyrrho's follower Timon as praising Xenophanes and dedicating his satires to him, and giving him as an example of somebody who is not a perfect skeptic (like Pyrrho), but who is forgivably close to it.[24]
Eusebius quoting Aristocles of Messene says that Xenophanes was the founder of a line of philosophy that culminated in Pyrrhonism. This line begins with Xenophanes and goes through Parmenides, Melissus of Samos, Zeno of Elea, Leucippus, Democritus, Protagoras, Nessos of Chios, Metrodorus of Chios, Diogenes of Smyrna, Anaxarchus, and finally Pyrrho.[ae]
Pantheism
Because of his development of the concept of a "one god greatest among gods and men," Xenophanes is often seen as one of the first monotheists in Western philosophy of religion. However, the same referenced quotation refers to multiple "gods" who the supreme God is greater than.[25] This god "shakes all things" by the power of his thought alone. Differently from the human creatures, God has the power to give "immediate execution" (in Greek: to phren) and make effective his cognitive faculty (in Greek: nous).[af]
The thought of Xenophanes was summarized as
Xenophanes's view of an impersonal god seemed to influence the pre-socratic Empedocles, who viewed god as an incorporeal mind.
Notes
- ^ (DK 21A1)
- ^ Diogenes Laertius, ix. 18-20 (DK 21A1)
- ^ Diogenes Laertius
- ^ Diogenes Laertius, ix. 1; Aristotle, Metaphysics
- ^ (DK 21B8)
- ^ (DK 21B8)
- ^ DK 28A1
- ^ Diogenes Laertius, ix. 18-20 (DK 21A1)
- ^ DK 21B30
- ^ To hymn the praises of the Gods; and so / With pure libations and well-order'd vows / To win from them the power to act with justice / For this comes from the favour of the Gods;(DK 21B1)
- ^ And never let a man a goblet take / And first pour in the wine; but let the water / Come first, and after that, then add the wine.(DK 21B5)
- ^ They learnt all sorts of useless foolishness / From the effeminate Lydians, while they / Were held in bondage to sharp tyranny / They went into the forum richly clad / In purple garments, in numerous companies / Whose strength was not less than a thousand men / Boasting of hair luxuriously dress'd / Dripping with costly and sweet-smelling oils.(DK 21B3)
- ^ For wisdom far exceeds in real value / The bodily strength of man, or horses' speed;/ But the mob judges of such things at random; / Though 'tis not right to prefer strength to sense:(DK 21B2)
- ^ "One god, the greatest among gods and men, neither in form like unto mortals nor in thought." (DK 21B23)
- ^ DK 21B26
- ^ DK 21B14-15, DK 21B16
- ^ Diogenes Laertius, ix. 18-20 (DK 21A1)
- Dioskouroi—they are in reality clouds: small ones that glow because of some agitation."
- ^ DK 21A28
- ^ DK 21 A41a
- ^ DK 21 A41a
- ^ DK 21A33
- ^ (DK 21B18)
- ^ DK 21B34
- ^ DK 21B34
- ^ quoted by Sextus Empiricus,(DK 21B34)
- ^ DK 28A1
- ^ A8,30,36
- ^ A2, A30, A31
- ^ DK 21B49
- ^ DK 21A49
- ^ DK 21B25
- ^ DK 21A30
- ^ DK 21A28
- ^ "Pandeistisch ist, wenn der Eleate Xenophanes (aus Kolophon um 580-492 v. Chr.) von Gott gesagt haben soll: "Er ist ganz und gar Geist und Gedanke und ewig", "er sieht ganz und gar, er denkt ganz und gar, er hört ganz und gar."[27]
References
- ^ "Xenophanes" entry in Collins English Dictionary.
- ^ Sound file
- ^ a b c d e f Lesher 1992, p. 3-4.
- ISBN 9780802085085.
- ^ a b c Mackenzie 2021, p. 24-27.
- ^ DK 21B21a.
- ^ a b c Burnet 1892.
- ^ Barnes 1982, p. 40.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lesher 2019.
- ^ Johansen 1999, p. 49.
- ^ a b Meza 2010, p. 55-57.
- ^ Burnet 1892, p. 119.
- ^ a b McKirahan 1994, p. 60-62.
- ^ a b Mourelatos 2008, p. 134.
- ^ a b c d e Mourelatos 2008, p. 138-139.
- ^ a b c McKirahan 1994, p. 66.
- ^ a b c McKirahan 1994, p. 65-66.
- ^ a b Osborne 2004, p. 66-67.
- ^ Is God In the Clouds?: A Note on Xenophanes by Michael Sevel
- ^ Popper 1998, p. 46.
- ^ Lesher 1992, p. 102.
- ^ Burnet 1892, p. 115.
- ^ Xenophanes' Scepticism by James H. Lesher, Phronesis Vol. 23, No. 1 (1978), pp. 1-21
- ^ A. A. Long. From Epicurus to Epictetus. p. 86.
- ^ Lesher 2021.
- ^ Bayle, Critical Dictionary, p. 574
- ^ Weinstein 1910, p. 231.
- ^ "Empedocles" Cambridge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1961) by Charles Kahn, p. 498
- ^ DK 21B28
- ^ DK31B39
Bibliography
Ancient Primary Sources
In the
The most recent edition of this catalogue is Diels, Hermann; Kranz, Walther (1957). Plamböck, Gert (ed.). Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (in Ancient Greek and German). Rowohlt.
Biography
- A1. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- A2. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- A3. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- A4. Cicero. Academica. II.118.
- A5. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:8. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- A6. Pseudo-Lucian. Macrobii. 20.
- A7. Censorinus (1900). "On Old Age". De Die Natali. 15, 3.
- A8. Clement of Alexandria. . Stromata – via Wikisource.
- A9. Eusebius. Chronicon Paschale. Ol. 56.
- A10. Iamblichus. Iamblichi Theologoumena arithmeticae (in Latin).
Apothegems
- A11. Plutarch. "Sayings of Kings and Commanders". Moralia. Stephanus p.175c.
- A12. Aristotle. Rhetoric. Bekker 1399b.
- A13. Aristotle. Rhetoric. Bekker 1400b.
- A14. Aristotle. Rhetoric. Bekker 1377a.
- A15. Aristotle. Metaphysics. Bekker 1399b.
- A16. Plutarch. "On Compliancy". Moralia. 530e.
- A17. Plutarch. "On Common Conceptions against the Stoics". Moralia. Archived from the original on 2019-07-15.
Descriptions of Poems
- A18. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- A19. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- A20. Geography.
- A21. Apuleius. Florida.
- A22. Proclus. Commentary on Hesiod's Works and Days.
- A23. Scholia.
- A24. Arius Didymus. Doxographi Graeci.
- A25. Cicero. Academica. II.74.
- A26. On Providence.
- A27. Athenaeus. Deipnosophistae. 632cd.
Doctrines
- A28. Pseudo-ISBN 978-0-674-99338-9. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- A29. .
- A30. Aristotle. Metaphysics. Bekker 986b.
- A31. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics.
- A32. Pseudo-Plutarch. "Opinions of the Philosophers". Moralia. Book II.4.
- A33. Hippolytus of Rome. Refutation of All Heresies. p. – via Wikisource.
- A34. Cicero. Academica. II.118.
- A35. Pseudo-Galen. History of Philosophy.
- A36-46. Aetius. Placita.
- A47. Aristotle. On the Heavens. Bekker 294a.
- A48. Pseudo-Aristotle. On Marvellous Things Heard. Bekker 833a.
- A49. Praeparatio Evangelica Book 14 Chapter XVII.
- A50. Macrobius. Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis (in Latin). – via Wikisource.
- A51. Tertullian. Treatise On the Soul. Chapter XLIII.
- A52. Cicero. De Divinatione.
Fragments - Elegies
- B1. Athanaeus. Deipnosophistae. 11.462c.
- B2. Athanaeus. Deipnosophistae. 10.413f.
- B3. Athanaeus. Deipnosophistae. 12.526a.
- B4. Julius Pollux. Onomasticon.
- B5. Athanaeus. Deipnosophistae. 11.782a.
- B6. Athanaeus. Deipnosophistae. 9.368e.
- B7. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:8. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- B8. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:9. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- B9. Etymologicum Genuinum. γῆρας.
Fragments - Silloi
- B10. Aelius Herodianus. On Doubtful Syllables. 296.6.
- B11. Against the Physicists. Book I.193.
- B12. Against the Grammarians. Book I.289.
- B13. Attic Nights. 3.11.
- B14-15. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata. p. – via Wikisource.
- B16. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata. p. – via Wikisource.
- B17. Scholia to Aristophanes Knights.
- B18. Stobaeus. Eclogues. Book I/8/2.
- B19. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 1:1. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- B20. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 1:1. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- B21. Scholia to Aristophanes Peace.
- B21a. Oxyrhynchus Papyri. 1087.40.
- B22. Athenaeus. Deipnosophistae. 2.54e.
Fragments - On Nature
- B23. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata. 5.109.
- B24. Against the Physicists. Book I.144.
- B25. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 23.19.
- B26. Simplicius of Cilicia. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 23.10.
- B27. Theodoretus. Treatment of Greek Conditions.
- B28. Achilles Tatius. Introduction to the Phaenomena of Aratus.
- B29. John Philoponus. Commentary on Aristotle's Physics. 1.5.125.
- B30. Geneva Scholia to Iliad. 21.196.
- B31. ISBN 978-1-58983-122-3. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
- B32. Allen, Thomas William (1931). The Homeric Scholia. H. Milford. BLT Iliad 11.27.
- B33. Against the Physicists. Book II.314.
- B34. Against the Logicians. Book I.49.
- B35. Plutarch. "Table Talk". Moralia. Stephanus p.746b.
- B36. Aelius Herodianus. On doubtful syllables. 296.9.
- B37. Aelius Herodianus. On peculiar style. 30.
- B38. Aelius Herodianus. On peculiar style. 41.5.
- B39. Julius Pollux. Onomasticon.
- B40. Etymologicum Genuinum. βάτραχος.
- B41. John Tzetzes. Scholia to Dionysius Periegetes. 940.
- B42. Aelius Herodianus. On peculiar style. 41.5.
- B45. Scholia to On Epidemics. 1.13.3.
Imitation
- C1. Euripides. Herakles (Euripides).
- C2 Athanaeus. Deipnosophistae.
Modern Criticism
- Popper, Karl (1998). The World of Parmenides: Essays on the Presocratic Enlightenment. Psychology Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-415-17301-8. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
Modern Scholarship
Translations of the Fragments with Commentary
- Burnet, John (1892). "Science and Religion". Early Greek Philosophy. A. and C. Black. pp. 83–129. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- Fairbanks, Arthur (1898). The first philosophers of Greece. New York : Scribner. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- Graham, Daniel W. (2010). "Xenophanes". The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy: The Complete Fragments and Selected Testimonies of the Major Presocratics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 95–134. ISBN 978-0-521-84591-5. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- Kirk, G. S.; Raven, J. E.; Schofield, M. (29 December 1983). The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27455-5. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- Lesher, James H. (1992). Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments : a Text and Translation with a Commentary. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-8508-5. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- McKirahan, Richard D. (1994). "Xenophanes of Colophon". Philosophy Before Socrates: An Introduction with Texts and Commentary. Hackett Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-87220-175-0. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- Trzaskoma, Stephen M.; Smith, R. Scott; Brunet, Stephen; Palaima, Thomas G. (1 March 2004). Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation. Hackett Publishing. p. 433. ISBN 978-1-60384-427-7. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- Weinstein, Max Bernhard (1910). Welt- und Lebenanschauungen; hervorgegangen aus Religion, Philosophie und Naturerkenntnis (in German). Litres. p. 231. ISBN 978-5-04-120710-6. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
Extended Studies and Reviews
- Barnes, Jonathan (1982). The Presocratic Philosophers. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-05079-1. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- Dalby, Andrew (2006). Rediscovering Homer. New York, London: Norton. p. 123. ISBN 0-393-05788-7.
- Edwards, M. J. (2005). "Xenophanes Christianus?". OCLC 8162351763. Archivedfrom the original on March 1, 2014.
- Johansen, Karsten Friis (1999). A history of ancient philosophy: from the beginnings to Augustine. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780203979808.
- Lesher, James (2019). "Xenophanes". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Lesher, James (2021). "Xenophanes". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
- Luchte, James (2011). Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0567353313.
- Mackenzie, Tom (2021). "Xenophanes". Poetry and poetics in the Presocratic philosophers : reading Xenophanes, Parmenides and Empedocles as literature. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 24–64. ISBN 9781108843935.
- Meza, Carlos Gustavo Carrasco (2010). "La tradición en la teología de Jenófanes" [Tradition in Xenophanes' theology] (PDF). Byzantion nea hellás (in Spanish and English) (29). Santiago: OCLC 7179329409. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020.)
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: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link - Mourelatos, Alexander (2008). "The Cloud - Astrophysics of Xenophanes and Ionian Material Monism". The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 134–168. ISBN 978-0-19-514687-5.
- Osborne, Catherine (22 April 2004). Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. OUP Oxford. pp. 61–79. ISBN 978-0-19-157822-9. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- Warren, James (2007). Presocratics. Acumen. ISBN 978-1-84465-091-0. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
Further reading
- Curd, Patricia (2020). "Presocratic Philosophy". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Classen, C. J. 1989. "Xenophanes and the Tradition of Epic Poetry". In Ionian Philosophy. Edited by K. Boudouris, 91–103. Athens, Greece: International Association for Greek Philosophy.
- "Xenophanes". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
External links
- Xenophanes of Colophon by Giannis Stamatellos
- Xenophanes of Colophon - Primary and secondary resources (link broken, June 9, 2019, archived page)
- J. Lesher, Presocratic Contributions to the Theory of Knowledge, 1998
- U. De Young, "The Homeric Gods and Xenophanes' Opposing Theory of the Divine", 2000