Arche

Last updated

In Ancient Greek philosophy, an arche is a first principle from which other principles are derived. The concept of an arche was adapted from the earliest cosmogonies of Hesiod and Orphism, through the physical theories of Pre-Socratic philosophy and Plato before being formalized as a part of metaphysics by Aristotle.

Contents

Etymology

Arche [1] sometimes also transcribed as arkhé) is an Ancient Greek word with primary senses "beginning", "origin" or "source of action": [2] from the beginning, οr the original argument, [3] and later "first principle" or "element". By extension, it may mean "first place", "method of government", "empire, realm", "authorities" [4] "command". [5] The first principle or element corresponds to the "ultimate underlying substance" and "ultimate indemonstrable principle". [6]

Mythical cosmogonies

The heritage of Greek mythology already embodied the desire to articulate reality as a whole and this universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first projects of speculative theorizing. It appears that the order of "being" was first imaginatively visualized before it was abstractly thought. [7]

In the mythological cosmogonies of the Near East, the universe is formless and empty and the only existing thing prior to creation was the water abyss. In the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish, the primordial world is described as a "watery chaos" from which everything else appeared. [8] This watery chaos has similarities in the cosmogony of the Greek mythographer Pherecydes of Syros. [9] In the mythical Greek cosmogony of Hesiod (8th to 7th century BC), the origin of the world is Chaos, considered as a divine primordial condition, from which everything else appeared. In the creation "chaos" is a gaping-void, but later the word is used to describe the space between the earth and the sky, after their separation. "Chaos" may mean infinite space, or a formless matter which can be differentiated. [10] The notion of temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the religious conception of immortality. [11] The conception of the "divine" as an origin influenced the first Greek philosophers. [12] In the Orphic cosmogony, the unaging Chronos produced Aether and Chaos and made in divine Aether a silvery egg, from which everything else appeared. [13]

Ionian school

The earliest Pre-Socratic philosophers, the Ionian material monists, sought to explain all of nature (physis) in terms of one unifying arche. Among the material monists were the three Milesian philosophers: Thales, who believed that everything was composed of water; Anaximander, who believed it was apeiron ; and Anaximenes, who believed it was air. This is considered as a permanent substance or either one or more which is conserved in the generation of rest of it. From this all things first come to be and into this they are resolved in a final state. This source of entity is always preserved. [14] Although their theories were primitive, these philosophers were the first to give an explanation of the physical world without referencing the supernatural; this opened the way for much of modern science (and philosophy), which has the same goal of explaining the world without dependence on the supernatural. [15]

Thales of Miletus (7th to 6th century BC), the father of philosophy, claimed that the first principle of all things is water, [16] and considered it as a substance that contains in it motion and change. His theory was supported by the observation of moisture throughout the world and coincided with his theory that the earth floated on water. His ideas were influenced by the Near-Eastern mythological cosmogony and probably by the Homeric statement that the surrounding Oceanus (ocean) is the source of all springs and rivers. [17]

Anaximander argued that water could not be the arche, because it could not give rise to its opposite, fire. Anaximander claimed that none of the elements (earth, fire, air, water) could be arche for the same reason. Instead, he proposed the existence of the apeiron, an indefinite substance from which all things are born and to which all things will return. [18] [19] Apeiron (endless or boundless) is something completely indefinite; and, Anaximander was probably influenced by the original chaos of Hesiod (yawning abyss).

Anaximander was the first philosopher that used arche for that which writers from Aristotle onwards called "the substratum" (Simplicius Phys. 150, 22). [20] He probably intended it to mean primarily "indefinite in kind" but assumed it also to be "of unlimited extent and duration". [21] The notion of temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the religious conception of immortality and Anaximander's description was in terms appropriate to this conception. This arche is called "eternal and ageless". (Hippolitus I,6,I;DK B2) [22]

Anaximenes, Anaximander's pupil, advanced yet another theory. He returns to the elemental theory, but this time posits air, rather than water, as the arche and ascribes to it divine attributes. He was the first recorded philosopher who provided a theory of change and supported it with observation. Using two contrary processes of rarefaction and condensation (thinning or thickening), he explains how air is part of a series of changes. Rarefied air becomes fire, condensed it becomes first wind, then cloud, water, earth, and stone in order. [23] [24] The arche is technically what underlies all of reality/appearances.

Aristotle

For Aristotle, the arche is the condition necessary for the existence of something, the basis for what he calls "first philosophy" or metaphysics. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anaximander</span> Pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher

Anaximander was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales. He succeeded Thales and became the second master of that school where he counted Anaximenes and, arguably, Pythagoras amongst his pupils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anaximenes of Miletus</span> Greek Ionian Pre-Socratic philosopher (c.586–c.526 BC)

Anaximenes of Miletus was an Ancient Greek, Pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, active in the 6th century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical element</span> Earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether

Classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Tibet, and India had similar lists which sometimes referred, in local languages, to "air" as "wind" and the fifth element as "void".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empedocles</span> 5th century BC Greek philosopher

Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for originating the cosmogonic theory of the four classical elements. He also proposed forces he called Love and Strife which would mix and separate the elements, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heraclitus</span> Greek philosopher (c. late 6th century BC)

Heraclitus was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parmenides</span> 5th century BC Greek philosopher

Parmenides of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in Magna Graecia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thales of Miletus</span> Ancient Greek philosopher (c. 624 – c. 545 BC)

Thales of Miletus was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition, and he is otherwise historically recognized as the first individual known to have entertained and engaged in scientific philosophy. He is often referred to as the Father of Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Socratic philosophy</span> Greek philosophers active before and during the time of Socrates

Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as Early Greek Philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of these early philosophers spanned the workings of the natural world as well as human society, ethics, and religion. They sought explanations based on natural law rather than the actions of gods. Their work and writing has been almost entirely lost. Knowledge of their views comes from testimonia, i.e. later authors' discussions of the work of pre-Socratics. Philosophy found fertile ground in the ancient Greek world because of the close ties with neighboring civilizations and the rise of autonomous civil entities, poleis.

<i>Theogony</i> Poem by Hesiod

The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed c. 730–700 BC. It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Greek philosophy</span> Philosophical origins and foundation of Western civilization

Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC, marking the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Greek philosophy continued throughout the Hellenistic period and the period in which Greece and most Greek-inhabited lands were part of the Roman Empire. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric and aesthetics.

Diogenes of Apollonia was an ancient Greek philosopher, and was a native of the Milesian colony Apollonia in Thrace. He lived for some time in Athens. He believed air to be the one source of all being from which all other substances were derived, and, as a primal force, to be both divine and intelligent. He also wrote a description of the organization of blood vessels in the human body. His ideas were parodied by the dramatist Aristophanes, and may have influenced the Orphic philosophical commentary preserved in the Derveni papyrus. His philosophical work has not survived in a complete form, and his doctrines are known chiefly from lengthy quotations of his work by Simplicius, as well as a few summaries in the works of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Aetius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xenophanes</span> Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher (c.570–c.478 BC)

Xenophanes of Colophon was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and critic of Homer from Ionia who travelled throughout the Greek-speaking world in early Classical Antiquity.

Chaos is the mythological void state preceding the creation of the universe in Greek creation myths. In Christian theology, the same term is used to refer to the gap or the abyss created by the separation of heaven and earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pherecydes of Syros</span> 6th-century BCE Greek mythographer and proto-philosopher

Pherecydes of Syros was an Ancient Greek mythographer and proto-philosopher from the island of Syros. Little is known about his life and death. Some ancient testimonies counted Pherecydes among the Seven Sages of Greece, although he is generally believed to have lived in the generation after them. Others claim he was either a student of Pittacus, the teacher of Pythagoras, or a well-traveled autodidact who had studied secret Phoenician books.

The Ionian school of Pre-Socratic philosophy was centred in Miletus, Ionia in the 6th century B.C. Miletus and its environment was a thriving mercantile melting pot of current ideas of the time. The Ionian School included such thinkers as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, and Archelaus. The collective affinity of this group was first acknowledged by Aristotle who called them physiologoi (φυσιολόγοι), meaning 'those who discoursed on nature'. The classification can be traced to the second-century historian of philosophy Sotion. They are sometimes referred to as cosmologists, since they were largely physicalists who tried to explain the nature of matter.

In Greek mythology, the primordial deities are the first generation of gods and goddesses. These deities represented the fundamental forces and physical foundations of the world and were generally not actively worshipped, as they, for the most part, were not given human characteristics; they were instead personifications of places or abstract concepts.

Philosophy of matter is the branch of philosophy concerned with issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology and character of matter and the material world. The word matter is derived from the Latin word materia, meaning "wood", or “timber”, in the sense "material", as distinct from "mind" or "form". The image of wood came to Latin as a calque from the ancient Greek philosophical usage of hyle (ὕλη).

Apeiron is a Greek word meaning "(that which is) unlimited," "boundless", "infinite", or "indefinite" from ἀ- a-, "without" and πεῖραρ peirar, "end, limit", "boundary", the Ionic Greek form of πέρας peras, "end, limit, boundary".

<i>Exhortation to the Greeks</i>

The Exhortation to the Greeks is an Ancient Greek Christian paraenetic or protreptic text in thirty-eight chapters.

Charles H. Kahn was a classicist and professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focused on early Greek philosophy, up to the times of Plato. His 1960 monograph on Anaximander was still as of 2020 the most important reference work on the subject, and his 1979 edition of the Heraclitus fragments likewise remained the most widely cited English translation of Heraclitus, more or less representing the 'standard interpretation' for non-expert scholars.

References

  1. ↑ ( /ˈɑːrki/ Ancient Greek : ἀρχή ;
  2. ↑ ἐξ ἀρχῆς
  3. ↑ ἐξ ἀρχῆς λόγος:
  4. ↑ (in plural: ἀρχαί),
  5. ↑ ἀρχή, A Greek-English Lexicon
  6. ↑ Peters Lexicon:1967:23
  7. ↑ Barry Sandywell (1996). Presocratic Philosophy vol.3. Routledge New York. ISBN   9780415101707. p.28,42
  8. ↑ William Keith Chambers Guthrie (2000). A History of Greek Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 58, 59. ISBN   9780521294201.
  9. ↑ West, Martin Litchfield (1984). The Orphic Poems. Clarendon Press. pp. 104–107.
  10. ↑ This is described as a large windy-gap, almost unlimited (abyss) where are the roots and the ends of the earth, sky, sea and Tartarus: online The Theogony of Hesiod. Translation H.G.Evelyn White (1914): 116, 736-744
  11. ↑ William Keith Chambers Guthrie (2000). A History of Greek Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521294201. p 83
  12. ↑ The phrase: "Divine is that which had no beginning, neither end" is attributed to Thales
  13. ↑ G.S.Kirk,J.E.Raven and M.Schofield (2003). The Presocratic Philosophers. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521274555. p.24
  14. ↑ Aristotle-Metaph.A, 983, b6ff).
  15. ↑ Lindberg, David C., The Beginnings of Western Science (University of Chicago Press, 2010), pp. 28–9.
  16. ↑ <DK 7 B1a.>
  17. ↑ G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven and M. Schofield (2003). The Pre-socratic Philosophers. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521274555. p 89, 93, 94
  18. ↑ Simplicius, Comments on Aristotle's Physics (24, 13).<DK 12 A9, B1>
  19. ↑ Curd, Patricia, A Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia (Hackett Publishing, 1996), pp. 9, 11 & 14.
  20. ↑ William Keith Chambers Guthrie (2000). A History of Greek Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521294201. p 55, 77
  21. ↑ G.S.Kirk, J.E.Raven and M.Schofield (2003). The Pre-socratic Philosophers. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521274555. p 110
  22. ↑ William Keith Chambers Guthrie (2000). A History of Greek Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521294201. p 83
  23. ↑ Daniel.W.Graham. The internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Anaximenes.
  24. ↑ C.S.Kirk, J.E.Raven and M.Schofield (2003). The Pre-socratic Philosophers. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521274555. p 144
  25. ↑ Barry Sandywell (1996). Presocratic Philosophy. Vol 3. Routledge New York. ISBN   9780415101707. pp. 142–144
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.