Wisdom

Whence came this wisdom? This ... philosophy?... I have a friend, a philosopher, and once upon a time we discussed whence the ancient knowledge came from. His 'line' of philosophers were correct, and it is well known that this line descended down to and from:

Isocrates (Socrates)

Platon (Plato)

Aristote (Aristotle)

Alexander (the Great)

But who taught who? As a keen historian and amateur philosopher, I have managed to track down the line of philosophers. Here are my results. They come, as per usual, from Lempriere's Classical Dictionary. (First printed way back in 1788...)

"THALES, one of the seven wise men of Greece born at Miletus in Ionia. He was descended from Cadmus; his father... was Examius, and his mother... Cleobula. Like the rest of the ancients, he travelled in quest of knowledge, and for some time resided in Crete, Phœnecia, and Egypt.

Under the priests of Memphis he was taught geometry, astronomy, and philosophy, and enabled to measure with exactness the vast height and extent of a pyramid.

His discoveries in astronomy were great and ingenious: he was the first who calculated with accuracy a solar eclipse. He discovered the solstices and equinoxes, he divided the heavens into five zones, and recommended the division of the year into 365 days, which was universally adopted by the Egyptian philosophy.

Like Homer, he looked upon water as the principle of every thing. [Max: In science, is it not proven beyond all doubt that water is the source of all life?...]

He was the founder of the Ionic sect, which distinguished itself for its deep and abstruse speculations under the successors and pupils of the Milesian philosopher, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, and Archelaus the master of Socrates.

Thales was never married, and when his mother pressed him to chose a wife, he said he was too young. The same exhortations were afterwards repeated, but the philosopher eluded them by observing, that he was then too old to enter the matramonial state. He died in the ninety-sixth year of his state, about 548... [B. C.]

His compositions on philosophy are lost. [Unfortunately]."

Lempriere, J. (1845 [1788]) ...Classical Dictionary, Allman, London, pages 664-5.

I believe that (non-withstanding the other six wise men and also the priests of Memphis) Thales was the original philosopher...

"ANAXIMANDER, a Milesian philosopher, the companion and disciple of Thales. He was the first who constructed spheres, asserted that the earth was of a cylindrical form, and taught that men were born of earth and water mixed together, and heated by the beams of the sun, [Anaximander also asserted] that the earth moved, and that the moon received light from the sun.

He made the first geographical maps and sun-dials. He died in the sixty-fourth year of his age."

Lempriere, J. (1845 [1788]) ...Classical Dictionary, Allman, London, page 48.

Quite a few achievements so far. Voltaire said of the Greek atomists that 'they stood on the brink of the abyss'. Evidently they had some far-out theories, but I've emboldened the key-note advances that ring true today. Next philosopher from the line of wisdom comes...

"ANAXIMENES, a philosopher, son of Erasistratus. He was the disciple of Anaximander, and succeeded him in his school.

He said that the air was the cause of every created being, and a self-existent divinity, and the sun, the moon, and the stars, had been made from earth. He died [in] 504 years B. C."

Lempriere, J. (1845 [1788]) ...Classical Dictionary, Allman, London, page 48.

"ANAXAGORAS" A Clazomenian philosopher, son of Hegesibulus, disciple to Anaximenes, and preceptor to Socrates and Euripides. He disregarded wealth and honours, to indulge his fondness for meditation and philosophy. He applied himself to astronomy, was acquainted with eclipses, and predicted that one day a stone would fall from the sun, which it is said really fell into the river Ægos.

Anaxagoras travelled into Egypt for improvement, and used to say that he preferred a grain of wisdom to heaps of gold. Pericles was in the number of his pupils, and often consulted him in matters of state; and often dissuaded him from starving himself to death. The ideas of Anaxagoras concerning the heavens the heavens were wild and extravagant.

He supposed that the sun was inflammable matter about the bigness of Peloponnesus, and that the moon was inhabited. The heavens he believed to be of stone, and the earth of similar materials. He was accused of impiety, and was condemned to death: be he ridiculed the sentence, and said it had been long pronounced upon him by nature. Being asked whether his body be carried into his own country, he answered, No, as the road that led to the other side of the grave, was long from one place to another.

When the people of Lampsacus asked him before his death whether he wished any thing to be done in commemoration of him? - Yes, says he, let the boys be allowed to play on the anniversary of my death. This was carefully observed, and that the time dedicated to recreation, was Anaxagoreia. He died in his seventy-second year, [in] 428 B. C. His writings were not much esteemed by his pupil Socrates." (Diogenes in vita. - Plutarch in Nicia & Pericles - Cicero Acad. Q. 4 c. 23. Tusc. 1, c. 23.)

Lempriere, J. (1845 [1788]) ...Classical Dictionary, Allman, London, page 47.

"ARCHELAUS"... A Greek philosopher, who wrote a history of animals, and maintained that goats breathed not through the nostrils, but through the ears." (Pliny 8. c.50)

Lempriere, J. (1845 [1788]) ...Classical Dictionary, Allman, London, page 74.

"ARCHETIMUS", the first philosophical writer in the age of the seven wise men of Greece." (Diogenes) [page 75 of Lempriere...]

So, the historical line of philosophers: pedagogues and pupils runs thus...

The Egyptian priests of Memphis (and Archetimus?)

Thales

Anaximander

Anaximenes

Anaxagoras (and Archelaus?)

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle (and Architas?)

Alexander the Great.

...Interestingly, I found this other philosopher:

"ARCHITAS" The son of Hestiæus of Tarentum, was a follower of Pythagorean philosophy, and an able astronomer and geometrician. He redeemed his master, Plato, from the hands of the tyrant Dionysius, and for his virtues was seven times chosen by his fellow-citizens governor of Tarentum.

He invented some mathematical instruments, and made a wooden pigeon which could fly. He perished in a shipwreck, about 394 years [B. C.]. He is also the reputed inventor of the screw and pulley. [Only] a fragment of his writings have beem preserved by Porphyry." [page 77 Lempriere...]

Another man by the same name was "Architas, a musician of Mitlyene, who wrote treatise on agriculture."

Maximus Fleximus.