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

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The New Conception of Change of the Pluralists.

The New Conception of the Unchanging of the Pluralists—The Element.

The Introduction of the Conception of the Efficient Cause.

Summary of Similarities and Differences in the Theories of the Reconcilers.

The general common characteristics of the theories of the Reconcilers:—

1. A plurality of the elements.

2. An efficient cause which explains the shifting of the elements in causing the origin, growth, and decay of the world of nature.

The general differences between the theories of the Reconcilers:—

1. In the number and quality of the elements.

2. In the number and quality of the causes.

The Pluralistic Philosophers: Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, and the Later Pythagoreans.

Empedocles11 (490 to 430 B.C.) was the first Dorian philosopher, a partisan of the democracy, and belonged to a rich family of Agrigentum. He became a distinguished statesman, but he later fell from popular favor. Then, in the garb of a magician, he traveled as physician and priest through Magna Græcia. His political affiliations would prevent his direct connection with the Pythagoreans, but he showed that the Pythagoreans influenced him, and his career is an imitation of that of Pythagoras. He was acquainted with the theory of Heracleitus, and he knew Parmenides personally. He was one of the first rhetoricians, and was probably connected with a large literary circle. He is the first and most imperfect representative of the reconciliation. The story of his suicide by leaping into Mt.Ætna is supposed to be a myth.