SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION 



less than all sciences, have ever worn the im- 

 print of this struggle. It is seen in the writings 

 of Confucius. It cries out from the mouths of 

 the Jewish prophets. And it has left its mark 

 on the philosophies of ancient Greece and Rome. 



IV. A STEP FORWARD IN GREECE 



In ancient Greece, it is the time from about 

 750 to 450 B. C, which gives expression in phi- 

 losophy to the transition from primitive society 

 to early class rule. And among the materialist 

 philosophers of those 300 years of primitive Gre- 

 cian history, none are more interesting for the 

 modern proletarian than Anaximander, Herakli- 

 tos, and Empedokles. 



These philosophers were the first among an- 

 cient Greeks to seek for a natural explanation of 

 the universe. Their philosophy was a natural 

 philosophy and was logically limited by the scien- 

 tific knowledge of their period. This knowledge, 

 in its turn, was limited by the development of the 

 tools and the corresponding process of produc- 

 tion. With the tools of that period, and with 

 slave labor for a basis of society, natural philoso- 



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