CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY, MIDDLE AGES i} 



determined. It should be remembered that antiquity knew nothing whatever 

 of chemistry, so that the ideas of chemical association and affinity were en- 

 tirely lacking as a basis for the changes in nature, and for these ideas the 

 vague and dogmatic theory of vortical motion was of course a very poor 

 substitute. Generally speaking, there did not exist in antiquity the ideas of 

 force and energy in the modern sense, but philosophers had to be content 

 with motion as an explanation of all changes. And, finally, they drew no 

 definite line between objective facts and subjective opinions; they had no 

 idea whatever of hypothesis. The whole of Democritus' cosmology was 

 purely dogmatic and was condemned to give way to other similarly dog- 

 matic explanations of the universe, which, though more attractive to his 

 contemporaries, nevertheless proved fatal to the future development of 

 natural science. 



Reaction against natural philosophy 

 The first sign of the coming reaction is given by the philosophy of Anaxag- 

 ORAs. This thinker was a contemporary of Democritus, probably born 

 somewhat earlier than the latter, at Clazomenas in Asia Minor. His activi- 

 ties, however, were pursued in Athens in the time of Pericles — thus in the 

 community which proved to be the first great power of Greek nationality. 

 This is the first time in Greek scientific history that the town is mentioned 

 which was afterwards to become for nearly a thousand years the centre of 

 thought of classical antiquity. Athens was a city with an extremely mixed 

 population and an equally diverse intellectual life: side by side with the most 

 daring novelties in the region of thought dwelt crass superstition and fanati- 

 cal intolerance — to which latter Anaxagoras fell a victim. Accused of 

 "godlessness," hewas first cast into prison and then had to flee from Athens. 

 Nevertheless, his philosophy, as compared with that of Democritus, must 

 be regarded as idealistic. He conceived that the driving force in the universe 

 is what he calls the cosmic reason or the cosmic soul; a kind of spiritual 

 power to which he ascribes unity, omnipotence, and omniscience. This same 

 power is part of all living creatures and in them represents life itself. Matter 

 he believed to consist of an endless number of primary elements — that is, in 

 the same sense as that in which the old lonians conceived this idea. He does 

 not appear to have gone in for biological research, nor do his natural-scientific 

 views in general show any advance over those of Democritus. But he was 

 not without influence upon the succeeding ages and is therefore worthy of 

 mention. 



The Sophists 

 Of far greater influence on the general course of development, however, 

 was a school of philosophers which appeared contemporaneously with him 

 and which began to lead Greek thought along entirely different channels. 

 These were the famous Sophists, whose founder and leading personality was 



