128 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



well singling out the physical cause (ttjv ahiav) the other the purpose 

 (to reAos) ; for the former was, by hypothesis, inquiring from what phy- 

 sical conditions it sprung and how it came about in the course of nature 

 (in tlvwv yeyove koI ttws irtyvKe), whereas the latter was predicting to 

 what purpose it came about and what it signified " (7rpos ti yeyove kol tI 



<rr]fJLau>ei). 



Democritus is reported to have said that he would rather make one 

 contribution to the causal explanation of things than be made King of 

 the Persians. 188 Surely this does not mean that he wanted to discover 

 an atom ; he was in search of the causal nexus in whatever form, and 

 his atoms and void were only the last link in the chain. Men knew 

 what it meant to explain : they did not confuse explanation with de- 

 scription, although they might content themselves with the latter, in 

 default of the former. This was often the attitude of the physician, 

 aware of, his ignorance of the real cause. The words of Thucydides 

 about the great plague well illustrate this point. " As to its probable 

 origin," he says, 187 "or the causes which might or could have produced 

 such a disturbance of nature, every man, whether a physician or not, 

 may give his own opinion. But I shall describe its actual course, and 

 the symptoms by which any one who knows them beforehand may 

 recognize the disorder should it ever reappear." 



It would be easy to multiply witnesses proving that the pre-Socratic 

 philosophers aimed at nothing short of a complete understanding of the 

 world in terms of its physical causes ; but enough has been said. There 

 is, however, one passage in Plato to which reference should be made. 

 In the Phaedo 188 Socrates sets forth, as only Plato could do it, the 

 difference in point of view between the Socratic and the pre-Socratic 

 philosophies. No contrast could be more clearly or sharply drawn : on 

 the one hand we find an explanation of things beginning with matter 

 and operating with mechanical causes, for which Socrates declares him- 

 self by nature unfitted ; on the other stands the teleological conception 

 of the world for which Socrates is sponsor. Socrates tells how eagerly 

 he took up the book of Anaxagoras in the hope of finding a real antici- 

 pation of his view, but only to meet with utter disappointment. Plato 

 does not often touch directly upon the earlier philosophies, but here he 

 has drawn a picture of their aims and methods which leaves nothing 

 to be desired. Perhaps its full significance is hardly realized. 



186 Fr. 118. 



187 ii. 48, 3, transl. Jowett. In Hippocrates, especially in the works which may 

 be classed as note-books, explanation commonly yields to description of the disease 

 and its symptoms. 



188 96 A foil. 



