Before
we start to investigate the key thinkers from the Presocratic era of
Classical Greece, it is important to appreciate the precursor
thinkers that took us from a world governed by 'mythos' to a world of'logos'. Pherecydes of Syros was one of the exemplary representatives
of this group. While many people tended not to count him as a
Presocratic philosopher, his ideas have certainly influenced a number
of Presocratic philosophers and the generations beyond Classical
Greece.
While
the biographical details of Pherecydes were not well-documented, he
was known to exist around the 6th
century BC and there were some writings attributed to his authorship.
It was alleged that Pherecydes lived in a cave for most of his life,
making him an ancient version of the thinking caveman. Pherecydes was
more considered as a theologian than a strict philosopher, because
while his ideas might have led to further development in Greek
philosophy, his motivation was spiritual and religious. Pherecydes
predominantly resorted to mythological explanations in his proposal
of his worldview, yet his ideas were surprisingly forward-thinking
and had some resonance to the 'logos'-oriented philosophy of the
Presocratic era. That brings up a general point I have mentioned in
my first article : that the whole of Greek culture, or indeed any
culture, was shaped as much by rational inquiries of history and also
imaginations provided by myths of the culture. One cannot undermine
the contributions by artists, poets, and mythographers alike because
what they said were 'fictional' and not about 'truths'. While most of
the epic poems by Homer were likely to be fictional, one cannot deny
that his imaginations and caliber with words have moved many and
shaped the culture of Classical Greece. After all, contribution to
knowledge should not only limited to 'thinkers' or 'philosophers'
alike.
Pherecydes
was one of the first ancient Greek thinkers to propose a cosmogony of
universe, where he proposed the origin of cosmos in the world. His
model had a mythological perspective, thus it would be of little
instrumental use for modern audience. Yet, his proposal foreshadowed
the metaphysics of the divine and the elements that comprised his
vision of the universe, all divine by nature, would be secularized
and naturalized by future philosophers when they put forward their
own cosmological theories. The three divine elements were Zeus (the
divine aspect), Earth (the spatial aspect), and Time (the temporal aspect).
Such a conception of the cosmos was no different from many of the
later metaphysical theories, which were more concerned with a
rational argument to arrive at the conclusions.
Pherecydes
was also the first thinker to propose the idea of metempsychosis -
the transmigration of souls. He was among the first thinkers to
assert that the soul was immortal, and could not be destructed like
bodies and material objects. The eternity of the soul meant that it
would travel through the underworld in the afterlife and associated
itself with different bodies. While this idea sounded more like the
plot of an upcoming horror or fantasy movie (with some certain doses
of CGI), the ancient idea has influenced the thoughts of Pythagoras
and his followers – the Pythagoreans. Metempsychosis served as the
central idea of Pythagorean philosophy, and influenced the outlook of
these thinkers. Plato, by adopting the idea of metempsychosis (mainly
attributed to Pythagoras), reinforced the concept of the immortality and timelessness of the soul and its metaphysical importance over the
body and the material realm.
The
thinking caveman could therefore be considered as a proto-philosopher
of the ancient age!
by Ed Law
Conatus Classics
