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Essay on The Early Greeks
Among the nations which stand out in the course of history as having done most to promote human knowledge, human art, and human culture, the Greeks are first in the judgment of all competent observers.--J. P. MAHAFFYThe early Greek philosophers are often regarded as only forerunners of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and their more highly developed philosophies. For this reason, they are often referred to as the Pre-Socratics, although, strictly speaking, the later members of this group were contemporaries of Socrates and Plato.
From a distance of twenty-five hundred to three thousand years, the Pre-Socratics are but a pinpoint on the horizon of philosophical thought--a pinpoint so far removed that it is easy either to ignore or to forget them. Yet it is from this pinpoint that Western thought developed. And if we should sometimes feel pangs of guilt for what might appear to be a chauvinistic concern with Western philosophy, the Greeks, who were, after all, Westerners, are the first men anywhere from whom we have any historical record of philosophical thought. If it is true that before the Greeks there was no philosophy, the natural question is, "Why the Greeks?" There just isn't any satisfactory answer. It is, of course, important to consider the general conditions of Greek life, times, and thought, which supported the Greek contribution. But these factors remain only favorable conditions under which it flowered, when what is needed is an appreciation of how the Greek intellect expressed itself.
For more than two thousand years, the intellectual activity of succeeding generations in the Western world has continued to express wonder and admiration for the promethean creativity of these ancient Greeks. We are here concerned with a part of this creation, the part which is basic to the intellectual foundations of our civilization.......
