THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS

OF GREECE

THE

FIRST PHILOSOPHERS

OF GREECE

AN EDITION AND TRANSLATION OF THE

REMAINING FRAGMENTS OF THE PRE-SOKRATIC
PHILOSOPHERS, TOGETHER WITH A TRANSLATION OF THE
MORE IMPORTANT ACCOUNTS OF THEIR OPINIONS
CONTAINED IN THE EARLY EPITOMES

OF THEIR WORKS

BY

ARTHUR FAIRBANKS

LONDON

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO. LTD.

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD

1898

(The rights of translation and of reproduction are

reserved)

NOV 20 1916 BBA 9F15

PREFACE

THE Hegelian School, and in particular Zeller, have shown us the place of the earlier thinkers in the history of Greek thought, and the importance of a knowledge of their work for all who wish to understand Plato and Aristotle. Since Zeller's monumental work, several writers (e.g. Benn, Greek Philosophers, vol. i. London 1883; Tannery, Science hellène, Paris 1887; Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, London 1892) have traced for us the history of this development, but the student who desires to go behind these accounts and examine the evidence for himself still finds the material difficult of access. This material consists of numerous short fragments preserved by later writers, and of accounts of the opinions of these thinkers given mainly by Aristotle and by the Greek doxographists (i.e. students of early thought who made epitomes of the opinions of the masters). The Greek text of the doxographists is now accessible to students in the admirable critical edition of H. Diels (Berlin 1879). The Greek text of the fragments has been published in numerous short monographs, most of which are not readily accessible to the student to-day; it is contained with a vast deal of other matter in Mullach's Fragmenta Graecorum Philosophorum (Paris 1883-1888, vol. i.-iii.), but the text