The first philosophers of Greece : $b An edition and translation of the remaining fragments of the pre-Sokratic philosophers, together with a translation of the more important accounts of their opinions contained in the early epitomes of their worksFairbanks, Arthur
Philosophy
The first philosophers of Greece : $b An edition and translation of the remaining fragments of the pre-Sokratic philosophers, together with a translation of the more important accounts of their opinions contained in the early epitomes of their works
Fairbanks, Arthur
Philosophy, Ancient
From Parmenides four passages are quoted; strangely enough three of them
are passages that had been quoted by Plato. Lines 52-53 in our texts
of Aristotle repeat the same error that appears in our texts of Plato;
ll. 103-105 are not so near to what seems to be the original (judged
by the quotation in Simplicius) as is the Platonic version. Unless our
MSS. are greatly at fault, two of the four passages were very carelessly
reproduced, and we have reason to believe that they were drawn from
Plato. The fourth passage, given by Aristotle and Theophrastos, has the
appearance of careful quotation, though one verb has an unmetrical form
in our Aristotle (where Theophrastos gives a correct form). Aristotle
does not quote directly from either Zeno or Melissos.
Coming now to Empedokles, we find two extended passages which can only be
regarded as genuine quotations, namely ll. 287-311 and 316-325. On the
other hand several phrases (ll. 208, 326, 443) give only a general idea
of the language of Empedokles. Most of the quotations consist of from one
to four lines preserving their metrical form, so that they deserve the
name of quotations; but their accuracy is doubtful in matters of detail.
This is most clearly seen by an examination of the ten cases where the
same passage is quoted twice by Aristotle, namely: lines 36-39, 104-107,
146-148, 167, 208, 244, 270-271, 330-332, 333-335. In only three of
these instances (38-39, 270-271, 333-335) is the quotation identical; in
the other cases there is some slight difference in the text, although
commonly both versions scan correctly. An examination of the lines quoted
only once in Aristotle shows very frequent deviation from the same lines
as quoted by others. In two instances a line is omitted from the context
(37 and 99); a case is changed, a connecting particle changed or omitted
entirely, a common word is substituted for a rarer one (236-237) or an
Aristotelian word for the word required by the full context (e.g. _Meta._
1015 a 1), or finally only the substance of the line is given (e.g. lines
91, 92). These variations are so numerous as to justify the conclusion
that the text furnished by Simplicius or by Sextus Empiricus deserves
quite as much weight as that furnished by Aristotle, since the latter
cares only for the thought and not at all for the exact language in which
the thought had been clothed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account