古希臘早期哲學
• 或名「先蘇哲學」Pre-Socratic philosophy
「這條魚是在一次大戰結束後一年捕獲而後放生的」？
• Aristotle 所建構之歷史？
Milesian
School
Eleatic
School
Pythagorean
Xenophanes
580-480
Pythagoras
580-500
Pluralist
School
Atomist
School of
Pluralists
Thales
624-546
Anaximander
610-546
Solon
580-570
Cleisthenes
Anaximenes
585-525
Parmenides
539-469
Heraclitus
540-475
520 in
Crotona
established a
secret religious
society
Zeno
490-430
Empedocles
493-433
Melissus
480-400
Anaxagoras
500-438
Leucippus
ca.450
Democritus
460-370
460-430
Sophists
Gorgias
483-375
Cratylus
Protagoras
484-411
Socrates
469-399
米利都學派
Milesian School, School of Miletus
• 米利都（Milet, Miletus）位於
小亞細亞 Ionia地區，乃希臘
殖民地。亦為科學、數學（航
海…）、 醫學、經濟與文化中
心（與中亞、埃及文化接觸頻
繁）。
• “米利都啟蒙”
• Thales (624-546 BC)
• Anaximander (610-547 BC)
• Anaximenes (585-525 BC)
Thales
• 624-546 BC
• water is substance
佚聞
• 經濟：曾預言氣候變化，因此輸入橄欖壓
榨機
• 政治：曾預言日蝕，因此戰勝Iranians
• 科學：曾測量金字塔高度
• 希臘七賢之一
希臘七賢（Seven Sages ）
• Solon of Athens – "Nothing in excess"
過猶不及、寧缺勿濫
• Chilon of Sparta – "Know thyself"
認識你自己、撒泡尿照照鏡子
• Thales of Miletus – "To bring surety brings ruin"
求治反亂 Cf. Edmund Burke (1729-17977)
• Bias of Priene – "Too many workers spoil the work"
人多口雜、人多難辦事（ vs.人多好辦事 ）
• Cleobulus of Lindos – "Moderation is impeccable"
事緩則圓
• Pittacus of Mytilene – "Know thine opportunity"
把握機會、洞燭機先
• Periander of Corinth – “Forethought in all things”
凡事三思、謀定而後動
Thales之格言
– Of all things that are, the most ancient is God,
for he is uncreated. (岳不群與藍鳳凰之對話）
– The most beautiful is the universe, for it is
God's.
– The greatest is space, for it holds all things.
– The swiftest is mind, for it speeds everywhere.
– The strongest, necessity, for it masters all.
– The wisest, time, for it brings everything to
light.
water is substance
• Thales所問的問題：變化從何而來？
• Thales 之前，希臘人以神話、英雄與擬人化的神來解釋
自然現象。
• Thales之改變：from which is everything that exists and
from which it first becomes and into which it is rendered
at last, its substance remaining under it, but transforming
in qualities, that is the element and principle of things
that are.
• For it is necessary that there be some nature, either one
or more than one, from which become the other things of
the object being saved... Thales the founder of this type
of philosophy says that it is water.
• Thales drew his conclusion from seeing moist substance
turn into air, slime and earth. It seems clear that Thales
viewed the Earth as solidifying from the water on which it
floated and which surrounded Ocean
Anaximander
• 610-547 BC
• Apeiron is substance
• Thales之同鄉與學生
• 製作過世界地圖
• 曾擔任某城邦之領導人
• Anaximander argues that water cannot embrace
all of the opposites found in nature — for
example, water can only be wet, never dry —
and therefore cannot be the one primary
substance; nor could any of the other candidates.
• He postulated the apeiron (limitless) as a
substance that, although not directly perceptible
to us, could explain the opposites he saw
around him.
• According to him, the Universe originates
in the separation of opposites in the
primordial （原本的）matter. It embraces the
opposites of hot and cold, wet and dry,
and directs the movement of things; an
entire host of shapes and differences then
grow
• （實體不能是對立中之經驗物或有限者）
• Anaximander maintains that all dying things are
returning to the element from which they came
(apeiron).
• The one surviving fragment of Anaximander‘s
writing deals with this matter：
• “Whence things have their origin, Thence also
their destruction happens, According to
necessity; For they give to each other justice
and recompense（報償）for their injustice In
conformity with the ordinance of Time.”生即有滅，
斯為必然。償善懲惡，時不寬貸。
Anaximenes
• 585-525 BC
• Aer is substance
• He held that the air, with its variety of contents,
its universal presence, its vague associations in
popular fancy with the phenomena of life and
growth, is the source of all that exists.
• Everything is air at different degrees of density,
and under the influence of heat, which expands,
and of cold, which contracts its volume, it gives
rise to the several phases of existence. The
process is gradual, and takes place in two
directions, as heat or cold predominates. In this
way was formed a broad disk of earth, floating
on the circumambient air.
• Similar condensations produced the sun and
stars; and the flaming state of these bodies is
due to the velocity of their motions. He states:
• “Just as our soul, being air, holds us together（人
要一口氣）, so do breath and air encompass the
whole world."
• It was actually "aer" which he believed to be the
common characteristic between all things. "Aer"
is the Greek word for a mist rather than just pure
air.
• 綜合Thales 與Anaximanders
Milesian School 之意義
• The theoretical human has become a reality.
The way of thinking has in its basic form moved
away from the mythological thinking (or mythos)
and into the domain of the theoretical thinking
(or logos).
• From now on it is about explaining the universal
and the general. Everything in the universe can
now be approached by the thoughts of humans.
• 開啟「變／不變」之討論
變與不變、一與多、普遍與特殊
• 一或多
• Eleatic School：不變-一-普遍
• Heraclitus：莫不變-多-特殊
•
•
•
•
多-多間關係
Pythagorean：數字和諧
Pluralist School：質
Atomist School of Pluralists：量
Eleatic School之先驅:
Xenophanes
• 570 – 480 BC （約與
Anaximenes同時）
• 波斯征服Ionia後，遷
往大希臘，在Elea定
居。
• 詩人，以批評希臘多
神教與真理觀著稱
知識論立場
Xenophanes
• there actually exists a truth of reality, but that
humans as mortals are unable to know it.（生也有
涯，知也無涯） Therefore, it is possible to act only
on the basis of working hypotheses - we may act
as if we knew the truth, as long as we know that
this is extremely unlikely.
• This aspect of Xenophanes was brought out
again by the late Sir Karl Popper and is a basis
of Critical rationalism.
Xenophanes
• Before Xenophanes, the method of the natural
philosophers was inductive. That is, their ideas
were based on observations of the world. And,
their proofs were empirical and direct. However,
Xenophanes pointed out that these sorts of
ideas were relative. That is, different people had
different perceptions of the world; therefore, they
had different ideas of the world. Their ideas
about the world may be true, but they could not
know it. So, according to Xenophanes, we
cannot be sure that ideas about the world that
are inductively derived are true. That is, we
cannot be sure that ideas about the world that
are based on our perceptions of the world are
true. This posed a problem for the presocratics.
Xenophanes
• Heraclitus的回答： He looked at what we
can all agree to, that all is change.
Inductively, if we look at the world,
everything changes.
• But, this is still induction, based on our
perceptions of the world.
• Parmemides 的回答：the only truth is that
that is deductively determined. Therefore,
inductive "truths" are only opinions.
神是人之投射
Xenophanes
• The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed
and black,
While the Thracians say that theirs have blue
eyes and red hair.
Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and
could draw,
And could sculpture like men, then the horses
would draw their gods
Like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they
would shape
Bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of
their own
Xenophanes
• there was only one god -- namely, the
world. God is one incorporeal（至神無形）
eternal being, and, like the universe,
spherical in form（圓融）; that he is of the
same nature with the universe,
comprehending all things within himself; is
intelligent, and pervades all things (泛神論
Pan-theism), but bears no resemblance to
human nature either in body or mind.
• There is no evidence that Xenophanes
regarded this 'god' with any religious
feeling, and all we are told about him (or
rather about it) is purely negative. He is
quite unlike a man, and has no special
organs of sense, but 'sees all over, thinks
all over, hears all over' (fr. 24). Further, he
does not go about from place to place (fr.
26), but does everything 'without toil (fr.
25).
Xenophanes
• if there had ever been a time when nothing
existed, nothing could ever have existed.
Whatever is, always has been from
eternity, without deriving its existence from
any prior principles.
• Nature, he believed, is one and without
limit; that what is one is similar in all its
parts, else it would be many; that the one
infinite, eternal, and homogeneous
universe is immutable and incapable of
change.
Eleatic School之主角:
Parmenides
• 539-469 BC
• 或為Elea貴族
• On Nature餘150行殘
篇論aletheia 與 doxa
有 vs. 沒有
• there are two ways of inquiry: that it is,
that it is not. He said that the latter
argument is never feasible because
nothing can not be:
– For never shall this prevail, that things
that are not are.
• For this view, that That Which Is Not
exists, can never predominate. You must
debar your thought from this way of search,
nor let ordinary experience in its variety
force you along this way, (namely, that of
allowing) the eye, sightless as it is, and the
ear, full of sound, and the tongue, to rule;
but (you must) judge by means of the
Reason (Logos) the much-contested proof
which is expounded by me.
Zeno of Elea
• ca. 490BC-430BC?
• SOPHIST之先驅
Zeno’s Paradox
• Achilles and the tortoise
• "You can never catch up.“
•
In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must
first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold
a lead
• The dichotomy paradox
• "You cannot even start.“
•
That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the
goal.
• The arrow paradox
• "You cannot even move.“
•
If everything when it occupies an equal space is at rest, and if that which is in
locomotion is always occupying such a space at any moment, the flying arrow is
therefore motionless.
Heraclitus：變動
• 540-475BC
• Ephesus in Ionia
• The weeping philosopher
哭與笑
• Democritus had gone insane and was laughing at
everything obsessively, including weddings and funerals.
Hippocrates found him surrounded by books and the
bodies of animals which he had dissected to examine
their bile. He said he was investigating the causes of
insanity. On being questioned as to why he found the
matters at which he laughed comical, he replied with the
vanity argument, that all is "folly and baseness" and a
waste of time, which is essentially what Heraclitus had
said. Hippocrates gave him a "passing" on mental health
and went away.
• 八大山人？
• CHANGE is real, and stability illusory
• the nature of everything is change itself
殘篇
• Everything flows and nothing is left
(unchanged), or
Everything flows and nothing stands still,
or
All things are in motion and nothing
remains still.
• “By cosmic rule, as day yields night, so
winter summer, war peace, plenty famine.
All things change. Air penetrates the lump
of myrrh, until the joining bodies die and
rise again in smoke called incense."
殘篇
• “Men do not know how that which is drawn
in different directions harmonises with
itself. The harmonious structure of the
world depends upon opposite tension like
that of the bow （弓） and the lyre（琴）."
• "This universe, which is the same for all,
has not been made by any god or man,
but it always has been, is, and will be an
ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular
measures and going out by regular
measures“
最著名的話
• "Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ
οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."
"We both step and do not step in the same
rivers. We are and are not.“
• Or：”No man ever steps in the same river
twice, for it is not the same river and he is
not the same man .“
Logos
• The idea of the logos （道）is also credited
to him, as he proclaims that everything
originates out of the logos. Further,
Heraclitus said "I am as I am not", and "He
who hears not me but the logos will say:
All is one."
• 此亦一是非、彼亦一是非
Pythagoreanism
• Pythagoras of
Samos
• Between 580 and 572
BC –between 500-490
BC
• Ionia
• 520 in Crotona
established a secret
religious society
• 名字： Pyth-ian乃Delphi之Apollo神廟，
agor-意為「說」， "He spoke (agor-) the
truth no less than did the Pythian (Pyth-)."
• 與「佛」同義，皆有「大覺」、「智慧」
之意。
2
2
2
• Pythagorean theorem: a ＋b =c
• 早年曾遊歷西亞與埃及，或因此而有宗教
與數學傾向
• number is the ruler of forms and ideas and
the cause of gods and demons.
• Pythagoras and his students believed that
everything was related to mathematics
and that numbers were the ultimate reality
and, through mathematics, everything
could be predicted and measured in
rhythmic patterns or cycles.
• Knowledge of the essence of being can be
found in the form of numbers. If this is
taken a step further, one can say that
because mathematics is an unseen
essence, the essence of being is an
unseen characteristic that can be
encountered by the study of mathematics.
• One of Pythagoras' beliefs was that the
essence of being is number. Thus, being
relies on stability of all things that create
the universe.
• Things like health relied on a stable
proportion of elements; too much or too
little of one thing causes an imbalance that
makes a being unhealthy.
• 靈魂轉世：the soul were located in the
brain and not the heart. He himself
claimed to have lived four lives that he
could remember in detail, and heard the
cry of his dead friend in the bark of a dog.
• 苦行僧、食素、冥想（靜坐）、戒律
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
到神廟時要先敬神，路途中不要說話，不要做與日常生
活有關的事物。
切莫穿著鞋向神獻祭和禮拜。
避免走大路，要走小道。
聽命於神靈，最重要的是保持緘默。
切勿用鐵器撥火。
幫助負重的人，不要幫卸重的人。（雪裡送炭 vs.錦上添花）
穿鞋從右腳開始，洗腳從左腳開始。
不准碰獻祭的魚。
從家中出門後切莫向後看，因為復仇女神緊跟著你。
飼養白公雞，但切忌以白公雞祭祀。
切勿讓燕子在屋簷下築巢。
切莫吃豆子、心臟。
桌上掉下來的東西不要吃。
Pluralist School:
Empedocles
• 493-433 BC
• citizen of Agrigentum, a
Greek colony in Sicily
• the origin of the cosmogenic theory of the four classical
elements
• all matter is made up of four elements: water, earth, air
and fire. Empedocles called these the four "roots"; the
term "element" (στοιχεῖον)
• Apart from these four roots, Empedocles postulated
something called Love (φιλία) to explain the attraction of
different forms of matter, and of something called Strife
(νεῖκος) to account for their separation
• Love and Strife explain their variation and harmony
Pluralist School:
Anaxagoras
• 500-438 BC
• Ionia， 定居雅典
• he may have been a soldier of the Persian army when Clazomenae
was suppressed during the Ionia Revolt
• 定居雅典。與Pericles相善
• He attempted to give a scientific account of eclipse, meteors,
rainbows and the sun, which he described as a mass of blazing
metal, larger than the Peloponnese. The heavenly bodies, he
asserted, were masses of stone torn from the earth and ignited by
rapid rotation. However, these theories brought him into collision
with the popular faith; Anaxagoras' views on such things as
heavenly bodies were considered "dangerous."
• About 450 Anaxagoras was arrested by Pericles' political opponents
on a charge of contravening the established religion (some say the
charge was one of Medism). It took Pericles' power of persuasion to
secure his release. Even so he was forced to retire from Athens to
Lampsacus in Ionia (c. 434-433 BC).
• All things have existed from the beginning. But originally they
existed in infinitesimally small fragments of themselves, endless in
number and inextricably combined.
• All things existed in this mass, but in a confused and
indistinguishable form. There were the seeds (spermata) or
miniatures of corn and flesh and gold in the primitive mixture; but
these parts, of like nature with their wholes had to be eliminated
from the complex mass before they could receive a definite name
and character.
• Mind arranged the segregation of like from unlike. This peculiar thing,
called Mind (Nous), was no less illimitable than the chaotic mass,
but, unlike the logos of Heraclitus, it stood pure and independent
(mounos ef eoutou), a thing of finer texture, alike in all its
manifestations and everywhere the same. This subtle agent,
possessed of all knowledge and power, is especially seen ruling in
all the forms of life.
• Mind causes motion. It rotated the primitive
mixture, starting in one corner or point, and
gradually extended until it gave distinctness and
reality to the aggregates of like parts, working
something like a centrifuge, and eventually
creating the known cosmos. But even after it had
done its best, the original intermixture of things
was not wholly overcome. No one thing in the
world is ever abruptly separated, as by the blow
of an axe, from the rest of things.
from original chaos to
present arrangements
• Anaxagoras proceeded to give some account of the
stages in the process. The division into cold mist and
warm ether first broke the spell of confusion. With
increasing cold, the former gave rise to water, earth and
stones. The seeds of life which continued floating in the
air were carried down with the rains and produced
vegetation. Animals, including man, sprang from the
warm and moist clay.
• If these things be so, then the evidence of the senses
must be held in slight esteem. We seem to see things
coming into being and passing from it; but reflection tells
us that decease and growth only mean a new
aggregation (sugkrisis) and disruption (diakrisis). （生滅即
聚散）Thus Anaxagoras distrusted the senses, and gave
the preference to the conclusions of reflection.
地位
• Anaxagoras marked a turning-point in the history
of philosophy. With him speculation passes from
the colonies of Greece to settle at Athens. By the
theory of minute constituents of things, and his
emphasis on mechanical processes in the
formation of order, he paved the way for the
atomic theory.
• However, his enunciation of the order that
comes from an intelligent mind suggested the
theory that nature is the work of design.
Atomist School of Pluralists
Leucippus
• 約與Empedocles、
Anaxagoras同時，
Abdera
• Nothing happens at
random (maten), but
everything from reason
(ek logou) and by
necessity.
Atomist School of Pluralists
Democritus
•
•
•
•
460-360 BC
Abdera in Thrace
Atoma
'he prefers to discover a
causality rather than
become a king of Persia'.
兩種知識
• Of knowledge there are two forms, one legitimate, one
bastard. To the bastard belong all this group: sight,
hearing, smell, taste, touch. The other is legitimate and
separate from that.
• When the bastard can no longer see any smaller, or hear,
or smell, or taste, or perceive by touch, but finer matters
have to be examined, then comes the legitimate, since it
has a finer organ of perception.” (Fr. 11 Sextus, Adv.
Math. VII, 138).
• But we in actuality grasp nothing for certain, but what
shifts in accordance with the condition of the body and of
the things (atoms) which enter it and press upon it. (Fr. 9
Sextus Adv. Math. VII 136).
感覺
• different tastes were a result of differently
shaped atoms in contact with the tongue.
• Smells and sounds could be explained similarly.
Vision works by the eye receiving "images" or
"effluences" of bodies that are emanated.
• Sweet exists by convention, bitter by convention,
color by convention; but in reality atoms and the
void alone exist.
• senses could not provide a direct or certain
knowledge of the world. In his words, "It is
necessary to realize that by this principle man is
cut off from the real."
靈魂
• Though intelligence is allowed to explain the
organization of the world, according to
Democritus, he does give place for the existence
of a soul, which he contends is composed of
exceedingly fine and spherical atoma.
• He holds that, "spherical atoma move because it
is their nature never to be still, and that as they
move they draw the whole body along with them,
and set it in motion."
• In this way, he viewed soul-atoma as being
similar to fire-atoma: small, spherical, capable of
penetrating solid bodies and good examples of
spontaneous motion.
Sophists
• Kleisthenes之改革(509-507)：取消自然關
係與財產身份，人人平等、允許平民任官
• 波斯戰爭後Pericles之黃金時代(460-430)：
知識突進、經濟繁榮、社會分裂、爭訟增
加
• 販售知識、以便買者獲利（法庭勝訴、議
場雄辯…）
• 智者、「吹毛求疵者」
古代 vs.「啟蒙」
• 1. 法律是合法的、應
被遵守的
• 2. 服從法律有利、不
服從有害。
• 憲法常變、法律權威
不再。民主問：法律
之合法性何在？是否
有普遍適用的法律規
範？→與自然哲學搭
上線
• Sophist： 法律：利益
創造法律、法律保障
利益。
道德：符合利益則守
法，否則則否。。
Sophist之始：
Protagoras
• 484-411 BC
• 因瀆神被逐出ATHEN
• Man is the measure of all
things
• Man is the measure of all things: of things which
are, that they are, and of things which are not,
that they are not （物之是其所是、非其所非，率以個人為衡 ）
• “Man”：單數個人
• Concerning the gods, I have no means of
knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort
they may be, because of the obscurity of the
subject, and the brevity of human life
Gorgias
• 483-375
Nihilistic arguments
• Nothing exists;
• Even if something exists, nothing can be
known about it; and
• Even if something can be known about it,
knowledge about it can't be communicated
to others.
• der erste, dass nichts ist; der zweite, dass, auch wenn ist, es dem
Menschen nicht erfassbar ist, und drittens, dass, auch wenn es
erfassbar ist, nicht dem anderen mitteilbar und erklärbar ist.
Socrates
• 484-411 BC
• Sophist or philosopher
• virtue is Knowledge
• Xenopon & Plato之記載
• 凱勒豐（Chaerephon）在Delphi的神諭處詢問是
否有人比蘇格拉底更聰明；神諭處的回答是否定
的。蘇格拉底解釋：這個答案是另一個謎題——
要他開始尋找比他更聰明的人。他質問雅典的人
們有關他們對於至善、美麗、和美德的看法，發
現他們其實根本一無所知，但卻以為他們知道的
很多，蘇格拉底於是總結道：他比其他人聰明的
地方僅只在於他體認到他什麼也不知道（he was
wise only insofar as "that what I don't know, I
don't think I know." ）。
• 蘇格拉底的智慧使得當時那些被他質疑愚蠢的雅典政治人
物轉而對付他，導致了這場不敬神的審判。
• 蘇格拉底最後被判有罪，並被判處死刑。蘇格拉底拒絕了
他的學生們試圖安排他逃跑的計畫，飲下毒菫汁而死。依
據《婓多篇》記載，蘇格拉底死時相當平靜，堅忍地接受
了他的判決。
• 依據色諾芬和柏拉圖的記載，蘇格拉底原本有機會逃跑，
他的學生們已經準備好賄賂監獄守衛，在逃跑後蘇格拉底
將會逃離雅典。蘇格拉底拒絕逃跑的原因是因為他了解到
他必須遵守這個城邦的法律，服從這個城邦的公民和法官、
以及陪審團所審判的結果。否則他便會違反他與這個城邦
的「契約」，而這樣做是違背了蘇格拉底所提倡的原則的。
• Methode：Dialectics、問定義。
• 助產士（μαῖα） 之說
• 有道德觀念藏人胸中。Virtue is knowledge 知道，
即能做事更完善。
• 估量人的行為，有客觀標準→需定義，由「洞見」
提供。各行各業需對對象瞭解，故公民生活亦應
瞭解其對象：自己。
• 德性：對「適合自己目的」的東西之認識；有德
性的人：按自己認識行事的人，無人明知故犯，
除非認識錯誤。
弟子
• Aristippus of Cyrene（非洲、東利比亞）早年師
Protagras，快樂主義(Hedonism)。I own, I’m not owned.
繼者：Theodorus, Annikeris, Hegesias, Euemerus＿＿伊
壁鳩魯派
• Antistenes of Athen, 創Cynic school (在Kynosarges體育
館講學故)，弟子Diogenes of Sinope最有名。為德性而德
性，拒絕快樂、享受＿＿回到自然狀態（古代盧梭）＿＿
斯多葛派。。
• Euclid of Megara。Socrtaes + Eleatic school
(Parmenides)。「德」為「唯一存在」。又承Zeno辯論
術。扯謊者自承說謊、一粒穀不成堆。