History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2): Revised EditionDraper, John William
History
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2): Revised Edition
Draper, John William
Europe -- Civilization
he explains it on his doctrine of dualism between mind and matter; he
teaches that sleep is produced by the reaction of the latter on the
former. Even plants he regards as only rooted animals, motionless, but
having sensations and desires; he imputes the superiority of man to the
mere fact of his having hands. He explains our mental perceptions upon
the hypothesis that we have naturally within us the contraries of all
the qualities of external things; and that, when we consider an object,
we become aware of the preponderance of those qualities in our mind
which are deficient in it. Hence all sensation is attended with pain.
His doctrine of the production of animals was founded on the action of
the sunlight on the miry earth. The earth he places in the centre of
the world, whither it was carried by a whirlwind, the pole being
originally in the zenith; but, when animals issued from the mud, its
position was changed by the Intellect, so that there might be suitable
climates. In some particulars his crude guesses present amusing
anticipations of subsequent discoveries. Thus he maintained that the
moon has mountains, and valleys like the earth; that there have been
grand epochs in the history of our globe, in which it has been
successively modified by fire and water; that the hills of Lampsacus
would one day be under the sea, if time did not too soon fail.
[Sidenote: Doubts whether we have any criterion of truth.]
As to the nature of human knowledge, Anaxagoras, asserted that by the
Intellect alone do we become acquainted with the truth, the senses being
altogether untrustworthy. He illustrated this by putting a drop of
coloured liquid into a quantity of clear water, the eye being unable to
recognize any change. Upon such principles also he asserted that snow is
not white, but black, since it is composed of water, of which the colour
is black; and hence he drew such conclusions as that "things are to each
man according as they seem to him." It was doubtless the recognition of
the unreliability of the senses that extorted from him the well-known
complaint: "Nothing can be known; nothing can be learned; nothing can be
certain; sense is limited; intellect is weak; life is short."
[Sidenote: Anaxagoras is persecuted.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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