A SHORT HISTORY OF FREETHOUGHT ANCIENT AND MODERN BY JOHN M. ROBERTSON THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND EXPANDED IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. I (ISSUED FOR THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED) London: WATTS & CO., JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C. 1915 TO SYDNEY ANSELL GIMSON CONTENTS VOLUME I PAGE Preface xi Chap. I--Introductory § 1. Origin and Meaning of the word Freethought 1 § 2. Previous histories 10 § 3. The Psychology of Freethinking 15 Chap. II--Primitive Freethinking 22 Chap. III--Progress under Ancient Religions § 1. Early Association and Competition of Cults 44 § 2. The Process in India 48 § 3. Mesopotamia 61 § 4. Ancient Persia 65 § 5. Egypt 69 § 6. Phoenicia 78 § 7. Ancient China 82 § 8. Mexico and Peru 88 § 9. The Common Forces of Degeneration 91 Chap. IV--Relative Freethought in Israel § 1. The Early Hebrews 97 § 2. The manipulated prophetic literature 104 § 3. The Post-Exilic Literature 109 Chap. V--Freethought in Greece 120 § 1. Beginnings of Ionic Culture 123 § 2. Homer, Stesichoros, Pindar, and Æschylus 126 § 3. The Culture-Conditions 134 § 4. From Thales to the Eleatic School 136 § 5. Pythagoras and Magna Graecia 148 § 6. Anaxagoras, Perikles, and Aspasia 152 § 7. From Demokritos to Euripides 157 § 8. Sokrates, Plato, and Aristotle 168 § 9. Post-Alexandrian Greece: Ephoros, Pyrrho, Zeno, Epicurus, Theodorus, Diagoras, Stilpo, Bion, Strato, Evêmeros, Carneades, Clitomachos; The Sciences; Advance and Decline of Astronomy; Lucian, Sextus Empiricus, Polybius, Strabo; Summary 180