Initiation into Philosophy — Émile Faguet
Initiation Into Philosophy, by ©mile Faguet You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Initiation into Philosophy Author : Émile Faguet Translator : Home Gordon Release date : November 1, 2005 [eBook #9304] Most recently updated: May 9, 2013 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9304 Credits : Text file produced by Ted Garvin, Thomas Hutchinson and PG Distributed Proofreaders HTML file produced by David Widger *** START OF Translated from the French by Sir Homer Gordon, Bart. 1914 CONTENTS PREFACE INITIATION INTO PHILOSOPHY PART I. ANTIQUITY CHAPTER I. BEFORE SOCRATES CHAPTER II. THE SOPHISTS CHAPTER III. SOCRATES CHAPTER IV. PLATO CHAPTER V. ARISTOTLE CHAPTER VI. VARIOUS SCHOOLS CHAPTER VII. EPICUREANISM CHAPTER VIII. STOICISM CHAPTER IX. ECLECTICS AND SCEPTICS CHAPTER X. NEOPLATONISM CHAPTER XI. CHRISTIANITY PART II. IN THE MIDDLE AGES CHAPTER I. FROM THE FIFTH CENTURY TO THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER II. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER III. THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES CHAPTER IV. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY PART III. MODERN TIMES CHAPTER I. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER II. CARTESIANS CHAPTER III. THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE CHAPTER V. FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER VI. KANT CHAPTER VII. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: GERMANY CHAPTER VIII. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND CHAPTER IX. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE INDEX OF NAMES PREFACE This volume, as indicated by the title, is designed to show the way to the beginner, to satisfy and more especially to excite his initial curiosity. It affords an adequate idea of the march of facts and of ideas. The reader is led, somewhat rapidly, from the remote origins to the most recent efforts of the human mind. It should be a convenient repertory to which the mind may revert in order to see broadly the general opinion of an epoch—and what connected it with those that followed or preceded it. It aims above all at being a frame in which can conveniently be inscribed, in the course of further studies, new conceptions more detailed and more thoroughly examined. It will have fulfilled its design should it incite to research and meditation, and if it prepares for them correctly. E. FAGUET. INITIATION INTO PHILOSOPHY PART I. ANTIQUITY CHAPTER I. BEFORE SOCRATES Philosophical Interpreters of the Universe, of the Creation and Constitution of the World. PHILOSOPHY.—The aim of philosophy is to seek the explanation of all things: the quest is for the first causes of everything, and also how all things are, and finally why , with what design, with a view to what, things are. That is why, taking "principle" in all the senses of the word, it has been called the science of first principles. Philosophy has always existed. Religions—all religions—are philosophies. They are indeed the most complete. But, apart from religions, men have sought the causes and principles of everything and endeavoured to acquire general ideas. These researches apart from religious dogmas in pagan antiquity are the only ones with which we are here to be concerned. THE IONIAN SCHOOL: THALES.—The Ionian School is the most ancient school of philosophy known. It dates back to the seventh century before Christ. Thales of Miletus, a natural philosopher and astronomer, as we should describe him, believed matter—namely, that of which all things and all beings are made—to be in perpetual transformation, and that these transformations are produced by powerful beings attached to every portion of matter. These powerful beings were gods. Everything, therefore, was full of gods. His philosophy was a mythology. He also thought that the essential element of matter was water, and that it was water, under the influence of the gods, which transformed itself into earth, air, and fire, whilst from water, earth, air, and fire came everything that is in nature. ANAXIMANDER; HERACLITUS.—Anaximander of Miletus, an astronomer also, and a geographer, believed that the principle of all things is indeterminate —a kind of chaos wherein nothing has form or shape; that from chaos come things and beings, and that they return thither in order to emerge again. One of his particular theories was that fish were the most ancient of animals, and that all animals had issued from them through successive transformations. This theory was revived for a while about fifty years ago. Heraclitus of Ephesus (very obscure, and with this epithet attached permanently to his name) saw all things as a perpetual growth—in an indefinite state of becoming. Nothing is; all things grow and are destined to eternal growth. Behind them, nevertheless, there is an eternal master who does not change. It is our duty to resemble him as much as we can; that is to say, as much as an ape can resemble a man. Calmness is imperative: to be as motionless as transient beings can. The popular legend runs that Heraclitus "always wept"; what is known of him only tends to prove that he was grave, and did not favour emotionalism. ANAXAGORAS; EMPEDOCLES.—Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, above all else a natural philosopher, settled at Athens about 470 B.C.; was the master and friend of Pericles; was on the point of being put to death, as Socrates was later on, for the crime of indifference towards the religion of the Athenians, and had to take refuge at Lampsacus, where he died. Like Anaximander, he believed that everything emerged from something indeterminate and confused; but he added that what caused the emergence from that state was the organizing intelligence, the Mind, just as in man, it is the intelligence which draws thought from cerebral undulations, and forms a clear idea out of a confused idea.