Lecture 19: Early Developments in Greek Rational Thought
Early on Greek thinkers of Ionia (the Aegean coast of Anatolia) began to question the viability
of the traditions for the Olympic deities. Partly this resulted from contact with older civilizations that demonstrated
the naiveté of Greek "folk" traditions; partly it arose from a failure to find moral value to
myths about deities who raped, stole, and otherwise acted like children. Ionians of the 6th century BC, particularly
those from the great colonizing and trading community of Miletus, also traveled to Egypt and Mesopotamia, gaining
scientific information from priests and scribes. In part the commercial success and contacts of these trading communities
and their lack of true political autonomy (being subject states of the Lydians and then the Persians) presented
their wealthy inhabitants with the opportunities and leisure time (otium) to explore the physical and metaphysical
universe.
Ionian thinkers in particular developed a love for collecting facts and for systematizing phenomena on a rational
basis. In a rudimentary manner they devised an empirical method of inquiry by insisting that one must ignore the
myths and trust nothing but what one can observe with one's own senses. They conducted inquiries based largely
in inductive reasoning, gathering data through observations, analyzing this "data", and formulating general
conclusions from their results.
This insistence on individual inquiry and self-awareness naturally compelled many to question the traditions of
Greek religion, placing Greek thinkers on a collision course with political and religious hierarchies, and in the
case of Socrates, with the religious attitudes of their communities as a whole. The inevitable result was conflict
between the individual and the state. Another consequence was a highly articulated investigation of ethics. The
overriding question raised by intellectuals throughout Greco-Roman antiquity was simply put -- how did an honorable person live a "just life" in an "unjust world"? A third innovation followed up on that of Indian culture -- the development of the "dialectic" or the process of intellectual inquiry through reasoning
debate. In its simplest form the dialectic was a process of intellectual inquiry by which the teacher led the student
to a desired conclusion by asking a sequence of questions gauged to instruct the student through the logic of his
or her own answers. The key was to know how to pose questions capable of leading the student along the desired
path of inquiry. The 5th century Athenian Socrates was generally recognized as the greatest practitioner of the
dialectic.
The "father of Greek science" was the 6th century Milesian, Thales. He made significant breakthroughs in natural sciences, the practice of rational criticism and debate,
and distinctions between the natural and supernatural. He visited Egypt and learned arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,
architecture and civil engineering from Egyptian priests. Through logical analysis alone and by ignoring the multi-layered
accumulation of myth, legend, and superstition by which people explained the mysteries of the universe, he contemplated
what is (being), how it came to be, and how it changes (becoming). Although Thales was not an atheist, he argued
that while all things were full of gods, the supernatural played no part in the explanation of natural phenomena
observed by humans. His conclusion, that there was unity to everything and that the unifying substance was water,
demonstrates the limitations of Greek rational inquiry. Nevertheless, Greek scientists succeeded at laying the
methodological foundation by which the investigative process could proceed. His contribution and those of other
Greek thinkers was not so much the discovery of theorems as it was their proofs.
Pythagoras of Samos, mid 6th century BC, remains
celebrated for his breakthroughs in math and geometry as well as his exactness in science. Pythagoras was forced
into exile at Croton in Italy to escape the tyranny of Polycrates of Samos. A curious result of his investigations
was his devotion to metaphysical pursuits. Pythagoras devised a doctrine of immortality and the transmigration
of the soul similar to that propounded in India, engaging in elements of asceticism based on the Orphic mystery
cult. He explained his worldview by introducing a component of living according to the harmony of natural laws
as expressed by mathematical truths. He insisted that the principles of mathematics were the principles of all
things, and that all things were modeled on numbers. He perceived the elements of numbers to exist in all things
and the whole heaven to be a musical scale and hence a number. For Pythagoras numbers represented formal aspects
of phenomena. Pythagoras gave his knowledge of nature a quantitative mathematical foundation; numbers themselves
equal concrete material objects. Justice, for example, he associated with the number 4; marriage with 5. Number
10 was the emblem of perfection itself (being divisible by 1, 2, and 5), and comprised the whole nature of numbers.
These he equated with heavenly bodies, though visible bodies equaled the number 9. His vision amounted to a crude
sort of number mysticism. He argued that the heavenly bodies emitted sound and that the soul itself existed in
harmony with the universe. The welfare of the latter depended on its being well tuned and orderly, in harmony with
the cosmos. He helped to develop acoustics, the discussion of ratios of musical harmonies, the pitch of a note
and its speed. He helped as well to develop deductive methods of reasoning in mathematics. He was likewise credited
for the Pythagorean theorem (a2 + b2 = c2), though the theorem was apparently previously known to the Babylonians. This and his belief in the transmigration
of souls would seem to indicate that he was exposed to and greatly influenced by ideas moving west from the Mesopotamia
and India.
Hippocrates of Cos was a priest of Asclepius, the
Greek god of healing, and descended from a long line of such priests. Cos was the most celebrated of several sanctuaries
of Asclepius where ailing people would come for treatment. Prior to the development of Greek rational thought,
treatment generally entailed being placed in a dormitory and subjected to a rigid dietary regimen in preparation
for "surgery." Surgery required that the patient sleep in a large room and be awakened suddenly to inquire
into the nature of his dreams. On the basis of this information the priests would determine which "evil spirits"
were in possession of the patient's body and causing the pain. Suitable chants and incantations would then be prescribed
to expel these "bad humors" from the person's body.
Over the course of time priests came to discern patterns to the infirmities they saw and that changes in diet and
lifestyle improved health. Through rational observation and deductive reasoning, superstition gave way to medicine,
founded according to tradition by Hippocrates. Greek doctors became recognized throughout the world as nearly monopolistically
expert in medicine. They were employed at the court of the Persian king as well as by the aristocracy at Rome.
They made significant breakthroughs in hygiene, diet, and use of drugs to reduce fever, cauterization of wounds
to prevent infections, likewise, cleanliness and the regular changing of dressings. They were particularly expert
in setting "athletic injuries" sprains, dislocations, and broken limbs.
Other scientific breakthroughs were achieved by Empedocles, who argued that all things were composed of 4 elements -- earth, wind, fire, and air; and Democritus who argued that all matter was composed of tiny particles
called "atoms" and that the differences that appear in physical nature were determined by the varying
arrangement of these particles. This was remarkable reasoning for scientists devoid of the technological means
to support their arguments in any concrete manner.
The greatest contribution of early or "pre-Socratic" thinkers was undoubtedly spiritual, however. The
consistent degree to which Greek thinkers confirmed the existence of unchanging mathematical and physical laws
to the universe convinced them of a similar existence of a higher reasoning power in the universe. So logically
designed an entity required the elaboration of some higher mind. Heracleitus of Ephesus proposed that a divine entity, which he called the "nous," had organized the universe
in a logical manner and that the expression of this divine reason were the many proofs of natural law, which he
described as the "logos," or the demonstration. Belief in the existence a sort of quasi-monotheistic
divine logic laid the foundation for Greek ethical and metaphysical development.
Such arguments inevitably pitted Greek thinkers against the traditional values of the polis. Xenophanes of Colophon, for example, had difficulty accepting the traditional
explanations for the gods, particularly the existence of gods in human form doing evil things. He explained that
during his travels he noticed that Ethiopians described the gods as having dark skin and
snub noses like themselves,
while the Thracians saw them as fair skinned, blue-eyed, and red haired like themselves, and that people throughout
the world tended to see the gods as having the same physical appearance as themselves. He openly asked whether
horses, oxen, or lions, assuming they could draw, would not likewise draw the gods
to resemble horses, oxen, or lions. In
other words, belief in anthropomorphic gods was a fallacy. Instead he proposed that the laws of nature demonstrated
that there could only be one god, eternal, unchangeable, and highly spiritual.
"One god is greatest among gods and men, not at all like mortals in body or in
thought."
The great sophist, Anaxagoras of Miletus, likewise
explained that the divine intellect or the "nous"
was infinite and omniscient and had ordered all things. Not only was Anaxagoras the tutor of young Pericles, but
he reportedly had significant influence on the development of Socrates. He also serves as a useful bridge to explain
how ideas emanating from Ionia made their way to mainland Greece. Those trained in by the pre-Socratics in Ionia
migrated westward, lured by opportunities such as those provided by the burgeoning metropolis of Athens. They taught
at gymnasia for a tuition fee, and thus became known as "sophistai",
sophists, or "wisdom-dealers." What they tried to offer was the dialectic itself, that is, the means
to rational deductive inquiry; however, members of the Athenian democracy were principally interested in knowledge
of neighboring peoples (with whom they were at war, for example), and arguing skills with which to hold the day
in the assembly. Early influence of the sophists in Athens has already been indicated by the political reforms
of Cleisthenes, by all indications influenced by Pythagorean notions about the harmony of numbers. But the ideas
of the pre-Socratics permeated out through society to affect all thinking in nearly all walks of life. The dialectic
became a standard means of political debate as well as of intellectual reasoning, and its patterns of speech are
readily recognizable in Greek literature.
The infusion of this new way of thinking coincided with Greek success during the Persian Wars. The resulting cocktail
manifested itself as an aura of "Greek Positivism" during the 5th century BC. Greek thinkers and politicians
became convinced that they had defeated the Persians because of the superiority of the Greek way of life, its reasoning
power, its polis system, and its gods. A love of reasoning permeated through to the democracy in Athens, convincing
many that all ailments of the world would ultimately be solved through reason. As the empirical method became applied
to various intellectual disciplines, breakthroughs occurred in fields such as the plastic arts (sculpture), architecture,
as well as in philosophy, science, and medicine. The new ideas rippled through society to reach the masses most
particularly through drama. The centrality of Athenian dramatic festivals to its culture meant that ideas expressed
in the theater of Dionysus were certain to reach the widest possible audience. One can gauge the progression of
Greek rational thought in mainstream Athenian society through a generationally evolving expression of its tragedians,
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Aeschylus (524-456 BC), a contemporary of the Persian
War, tried to rehabilitate the gods in the Oresteia by infusing
them with Greek rational spirit. Aeschylus presented a rational view of right and wrong and of reward and punishment.
Apollo he portrayed as the god of wisdom; Athena the goddess of justice. Contemporary trends were visible in the
dedication of the gate to the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi with the inscription read by all those entering, "Know
thyself." His plays express the positivism that pervaded Greek attitudes at the conclusion of the Persian
Wars. An Athenian patriot, he himself fought at the Battle of Salamis and lost a brother at the Battle of Marathon.
Sophocles, the contemporary and friend of Pericles,
presented a more existential interpretation of the universe in the Oedipus trilogy. In Oedipus the King, he portrays the Bronze Age king of Thebes as an overly confident, even
arrogant investigator, employing the dialectic to cross examine witnesses one by one to learn ultimately of his
own unintended but divinely fated crimes against nature. It is tempting to place this performance during the year
of the Great Plague, 429, and to see in Oedipus a facsimile of Pericles, whose logically ordered geopolitical strategy
had led Athens down a very uncertain path. The Antigone, on the other hand, squarely framed the conflict between
the state and the individual -- whether one should abide by the laws of society or one's moral obligations. In
the works of Sophocles, humankind was confronted by a chaotic universe that placed it in circumstances beyond its
control and from which there was no suitable escape. His plays successfully revealed the quandary of the existentialistic
condition humaine.
Euripides (480-406), a contemporary of the Peloponesian
War, expressed a more controversial and pessimistic outlook on life. He was the great exponent of the new spirit
of individualism invading Greek attitudes at that time. A wealthy aristocrat, he was credited with having purchased
an extensive library. He strove particularly to acquire scrolls containing the more obscure traditions of the Homeric
"cycle" of Bronze Age heroes, those myths that portrayed the gods and the heroes in their worst possible
light. For Euripides, a skeptic and a realist, man was the measure of all things. His objective was apparently
to shock his audience in order to wake them up from their complacency and to compel them to think of things in
fresh ways. As a result his drama was extremely controversial, allegedly capable of provoking riots during performances.
Perhaps the most challenging of these was the Medeia,
the story of the mistress of the Bronze Age hero Jason, who used witchcraft to enable him to steal the Golden Fleece
and killed her own father and brothers to make this possible. However, Euripides preferred not to revisit this
part of the tradition; rather, he picked up the story much later in life when Jason, now a middle-aged, out-of-shape
hero seeks a secure means of retirement by abandoning his mistress in order to marry the daughter of the King of
Corinth. Medea responds by depriving Jason of all that he cherished, killing his bride, her father, and the children
she herself had reared for Jason out of wedlock. In Athenian eyes, Jason had not treated Medea all too shabbily,
for it was not possible for a Greek and a barbarian to marry. Euripides would apparently disagree. For the Athenian
audience, however, the most shocking aspect of the play was the manner in which Euripides portrayed the principal
characters - Jason as an self-absorbed but middle-aged hero, Medea as a gifted, intellectually superior, if emotionally
deranged barbarian woman capable of magic. For a woman to be portrayed as superior to a man was one thing; for
a barbarian woman to receive such a portrayal was quite another.
Similar use of intellectual reasoning can be seen in the works of other writers, the comedy writer, Aristophanes, and the historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon.
Unquestionably, the turning point in this development was marked by the Athenian citizen and thinker, Socrates (470-399 BC), about whom more will be said when discussion
resumes in a later lecture.