In this part of the History, the Timæus of Plato is referred to as an example of the loose notions of the Greek philosophers in their physical reasonings. And undoubtedly this Dialogue does remarkably exemplify the boldness of the early Greek attempts at generalization on such subjects. Yet in this and in other parts the writings of Plato contain speculations which may be regarded as containing germs of true physical science; inasmuch as they assume that the phenomena of the world are governed by mathematical laws;—by relations of space and number;—and endeavor, too boldly, no doubt, but not vaguely or loosely, to assign those laws. The Platonic writings offer, in this way, so much that forms a Prelude to the Astronomy and other Physical Sciences of the Greeks, that they will deserve our notice, as supplying materials for the next two Books of the History, in which these subjects are treated of. [494]
CHAPTER III.
Failure of the Greek Physical Philosophy.
Francis Bacon’s Remarks.
THOUGH we do not accept, as authority, even the judgments of Francis Bacon, and shall have to estimate the strong and the weak parts of his, no less than of other philosophies, we shall find his remarks on the Greek philosophers very instructive. Thus he says of Aristotle, (Nov. Org. 1. Aph. lxiii.):
“He is an example of the kind of philosophy in which much is made out of little; so that the basis of experience is too narrow. He corrupted Natural Philosophy by his Logic, and made the world out of his Categories. He disposed of the distinction of dense and rare, by which bodies occupy more or less dimensions or space, by the frigid distinction of act and power. He assigned to each kind of body a single proper motion, so that if they have any other motion they must receive it from some extraneous source; and imposed many other arbitrary rules upon Nature; being everywhere more careful how one may give a ready answer, and make a positive assertion, than how he may apprehend the variety of nature.
“And this appears most evidently by the comparison of his philosophy with the other philosophies which had any vogue in Greece. For the Homoiomeria[2] of Anaxagoras, the Atoms of Leucippus and Democritus, the Heaven and Earth of Parmenides, the Love and Hate of Empedocles, the Fire of Heraclitus, had some trace of the thoughts of a natural philosopher; some savor of experience, and nature, and bodily things; while the Physics of Aristotle, in general, sound only of Logical Terms.
[2] For these technical forms of the Greeks, see [Sec. 3] of this chapter.
“Nor let any one be moved by this—that in his books Of Animals, and in his Problems, and in others of his tracts, there is often a quoting of experiments. For he had made up his mind beforehand; and did not consult experience in order to make right propositions and axioms, but when he had settled his system to his will, he twisted experience [495] round, and made her bend to his system: so that in this way he is even more wrong than his modern followers, the Schoolmen, who have deserted experience altogether.”
We may note also what Bacon says of the term Sophist. (Aph. lxxi.) “The wisdom of the Greeks was professorial, and prone to run into disputations: which kind is very adverse to the discovery of Truth. And the name of Sophists, which was cast in the way of contempt, by those who wished to be reckoned philosophers, upon the old professors of rhetoric, Gorgias, Protagoras, Hippias, Polus, does, in fact, fit the whole race of them, Plato,[3] Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, Theophrastus; and their successors, Chrysippus, Carneades, and the rest.”