Читать книгу A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy онлайн

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3. The third result of the controversy between the Eleatics and Heracleitus was that the peril from the Orphic Mysteries was averted,—not immediately, nor in a year’s time, but after many years. Philosophy became established. The Greek reason now had an object of interest, in a sharp scientific issue. Mystery was not crushed, but subdued. The mental life of the future Greek had a topic for its reflection which supplanted, when the time came, its emotional interest in the supernatural.

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Efforts toward Reconciliation.

Physical theories now began to spring up which modified the metaphysical theories; and these produced results which while not so logical, were less distant from the facts of life. The Eleatics had so conceived Being as to deny the existence of changing phenomena perceived in the world of nature. On the other hand, Heracleitus had so emphasized the universality of change that there was little reality left in the particular changes. The later Heracleitans were Heracleitus gone mad. “We not only cannot step into the same river twice, but we cannot do it once.” All the preceding philosophers had been monists. The time had therefore come for thinkers to abandon monism if thought were to have any usefulness. Monism, whether in the form of Heracleitus’ doctrine of universal change or of Parmenides’ doctrine of universal permanence, had merely set aside the problem about the Many. Of course, a more satisfactory solution of this problem could come only when human life had become riper and had more experiences upon which to draw. It was natural for the Greek philosopher to look now to pluralism for his solution, when he turned away from monism. At the outset pluralism tried to reconcile the two extremes to which the Milesian motifs had gone. Its later development in the doctrine of Protagoras was as extreme as that of the monists.