Cushman - A beginners history of philosophy, Vol. 1

TO

GEORGE HERBERT PALMER, Lrrr.D., LL.D< ALFORD PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY

IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY WHO HAS INTERPRETED LIFE TO

MANY YOUNG MEN BY MAKING I

PHILOSOPHY A LIVING

SUBJECT TO THEM

PREFACE

THIS book is intended as a text-book for sketch-courses in the history of philosophy. It is written for the student rather than for the teacher. It is a history of philosophy upon the background of geography and of literary and political history.

As a text-book for sketch-courses it employs sum maries, tables, and other generalizations as helps to the memory. The philosophical teaching is presented as simply as possible, so as to bring into prominence only the leading doctrines. My own personal criticism and interpretation on the one hand, and explanations in technical language on the other, have been avoided as far as possible. Sometimes I have had to choose between interpretation and technicality, in which case the limita tions of space have determined my choice. Since the book is intended for the student rather than for the teacher, it makes the teacher all the more necessary; for it puts into the hands of the student an outline and into the hands of the teacher the class-room time for inspiring the student with his own interpretations. In making use of geographical maps, contemporary litera ture, and political history, this book is merely utilizing for pedagogical reasons the stock of information with which the college student is furnished when he begins the history of philosophy.

A good many years of experience in teaching the history of philosophy to beginners have convinced me that students come to the subject with four classes of

ideas, with which they can correlate philosophic doc trines: good geographical knowledge, some historical and some literary knowledge, and many undefined per sonal philosophical opinions. Of course, their personal philosophical opinions form the most important group, but more as something to be clarified by the civilizing influence of the subject than as an approach to the sub ject itself. The only "memory-hooks" upon which the teacher may expect to hang philosophic doctrines are the student's ideas of history, literature, and geography. If the history of philosophy is treated only as a series of doctrines, the student beginning the subject feels not only that the land is strange, but that he is a stranger in it. Besides, to isolate the historical philosophical doc trines is to give the student a wrong historical perspec tive, since philosophic thought and contemporary events are two inseparable aspects of history. Each interprets the other, and neither can be correctly understood with out the other. If the history of philosophy is to have any significance for the beginner, it must be shown to give a meaning to history.

So far as the materials that form any history of phi losophy are concerned, I have merely tried to arrange and organize them with reference to the student and with reference to the history of which they form an in tegral part. I am therefore overwhelmingly indebted to every good authority to whom I have had access, but in the main I have followed the inspiring direction of the great Windelband. Many willing friends have read parts of the manuscript and offered suggestions and criticisms. I am particularly indebted to Professors C. P. Parker, Ephraim Emerton, A. O. Norton, and J. H. Ropes, and Dr. B. A. G. Fuller of Harvard University;

to Professor Mary W. Calkins of Wellesley College ; to Professors C. S. Wade and D. L. Maulsby of Tufts Col lege ; and to my wife, Abby B. Cushman. However, for all the faults of the book, which has been many years in preparation, I am alone responsible.

Instead of lists of books for collateral reading, placed at the end of chapters or of the book, the student will find references in the footnotes to the exact pages of many helpful books. I should like to call the student's attention to an appendix to the discussion of Plato. This is a complete selection of passages from Plato made by the late Professor Jowett for English readers. This selection Professor Jowett was accustomed to dis tribute to his Oxford class, of which I was once fortu nate to be a member.

Philosophical terms have been defined either in the text or in the footnotes. Such definitions must neces sarily have as their aim their usefulness to the student, rather than their completeness.

TUFTS COLLEGE, June, 1910.

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

THE only change which the reader will find in the revision of this volume is in the form of presentation of the philosophies of the earlier cosmologists (Chap-ter II).

HERBERT E. CUSHMAN.

WEST NEWTON, February, 1918.

CONTENTS

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COSMOLOGISTS 18

TABLE OF COSMOLOGISTS .. 20

How THE PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION AROSE .... 20

MAP SHOWING THE ClTIES WHERE THE COSMOLOGISTS

91 LIVED

SUMMARY COMPARISON OF THE MONISTIC PHILOSOPHIES 22

1. THE MILESIAN SCHOOL 24

THE MILESIAN PHILOSOPHY 25

2. XENOPHANES, THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHER ... 26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF XENOPHANES 27

3. HERACLEITUS, "THE MISANTHROPIST" AND "THE

OBSCURE " 28

a. Heracleitus' Doctrine of Absolute and Universal

Change 28

b. Fire is the Cosmic Substance 29

c. The Definite Changes of Fire 30

d. The Practical Philosophy of Heracleitus .... 31

4. THE ELEATIC SCHOOL 32

a. PARMENIDES 32

(1) The Cosmic Substance is Being 33

(2) Other Tbiugs than the Cosmic Substance (Being)

have no Real Existence 34

b. ZENO 35

THE PHILOSOPHY OF ZENO 36

THE RESULTS OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN HERACLEITUS AND PARMENIDES 37

CHAPTER III. PLURALISM 39

EFFORTS TOWARD RECONCILIATION 39

THE NEW CONCEPTION OF CHANGE OF THE PLURALISTS 40 THE NEW CONCEPTION OF THE UNCHANGING OF THE

PLURALISTS THE ELEMENT 40

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE CONCEPTION OF THE EFFI CIENT CAUSE 41

SUMMARY OF SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN THE

THE PLURALISTIC PHILOSOPHERS : EMPEDOCLES, ANAXA-

GORAS, LEUCIPPUS, AND THE LATER PYTHAGOREANS . 42

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EMPEDOCLES 44

THE PHILOSOPHY OF ANAXAGORAS 45

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ATOMISTS LEUCIPPUS AND

THE SCHOOL AT ABDERA 47

THE LATER PYTHAGOREANS 48

1. The Pythagorean Conception of Being .... 49

2. The Pythagorean Dualistic World 51

3. Pythagorean Astronomy 52

HISTORICAL RETROSPECT 53

CHAPTER IV. THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERIOD: THE

PHILOSOPHY OP MAN 55

AN HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL

PERIOD 55

THE PERSIAN WARS AND THE RISE OF ATHENS ... 56

THE GREEK ENLIGHTENMENT 58

1. The Impulse for Learning 58

2. The Practical Need of Knowledge 59

3. The Critical Attitude of Mind 61

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SOPHISTS 64

THE PROMINENT SOPHISTS 67

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOPHISTS 68

1. The Relativism of Protagoras 69

2. The Nihilism of Gorgias 70

THE ETHICS OF THE SOPHISTS. THE APPLICATION OF

THEIR CRITICAL THEORY TO POLITICAL LIFE ... 71

SUMMARY 73

CHAPTER V. SOCRATES 74

SOCRATES AND ARISTOPHANES 74

THE PERSONALITY AND LIFE OF SOCRATES 75