Intro
Our series started with the Milesians and their wonderment at existence. Criticized for having their heads stuck in the clouds, philosophers slowly started to move their gazes from the sky back down to earth. Whether we ultimately know what the universe is made of or not, the pressing concern for philosophy became the urge to know what is wise a life. This was a concern for Xenophanes of Colophon who became an influence for later Greek philosophers.
Xenophanes of Colophon
South of port Izmir, lies the scant remnants of the ancient city of Colophon. There began the life of the traveling philosopher, Xenophanes (570 – c. 475 BC). The Milesian school in our prior episodes ushered in for the West an attitude that demanded people explain the phenomena of the world with rational thought coming from one’s own reasoning, not from inherited tradition. Like with those philosophers Xenophanes had to collect worldly knowledge from many people and sources. He traveled for most of his life and fortunately his text fragments that were left behind survived a little bit better than his predecessors, and they continued the focus on challenging myths, but they also allowed themselves the opportunity to speculate with a child-like wonder. From what we know Xenophanes lived a long life. “Already there are sixty-seven years tossing my speculation throughout the land of Greece, and from my birth there were twenty-five in addition to these…” When the Median General Harpagus conquered Colophon in 546 BC, who was famous for using earthwork ramps to surmount city walls, many Ionians escaped to areas of southern Italy and Sicily already occupied by Greek colonists. Xenophanes moved to many settlements in those areas including Elea, modern day Velia, which became famous for Eleatic philosophers Parmenides, Zeno, and Melissus. He also lived in Zancle, the modern day Sicilian port Messina, and Catana, modern day Catania, south of Mt. Etna. Throughout his travels Xenophanes would be able to compare local cultures and develop a philosophy of his own, and like his predecessors, traditional beliefs were criticized.
Limits of Human Knowledge
Like Anaximander’s problem of positing an origin for all things Xenophanes looked for the answer to the question, similar to Homer ironically, “who is the God on whom hang all the other Gods, Goddesses, lands and oceans?” He aimed this question at the Greek belief that Gods could be born and live in a hierarchy like humans do. It made no sense to him. “Mortals believe that the gods are born and have human clothing, voice, and bodily form…beliefs that gods physically resemble humans are questionable…It is unholy for any of the gods to have a master…He always remains in the same place, moving not at all, nor is it fitting for him to come and go to different places at different times…God is one, greatest among gods and men, not at all like mortals in bodily form or thought…All of him sees, all of him thinks, all of him hears…But without effort he shakes all things by the thought of his mind.” His monotheism was more efficient, but still hard to define. God moves with what’s “fitting” but it’s hard to say if this is a causal point of view of God acting in all movements in the universe with his thought, or something else. It didn’t help that he also interchanged the singular God with the plural Gods in different texts. The advantage of not defining God with particular attributes is that one can study the phenomenon themselves and watch how they operate. It also allows one to avoid having to explain gaps in knowledge, and Xenophanes was okay with that. “No man has seen nor will there be anyone who knows the clear truth about the gods and about all the things I speak of. For even if a person should in fact say what has come to pass, nevertheless he himself does not know, but in all cases it is opinion that has been wrought.” Truth is independent of our experience and imagination. Truth can be counterintuitive so human truths are always tentative. “Let these things be believed as resembling the truth…By no means did the gods intimate all things to mortals from the beginning, but in time, by searching, they discover better.” This attitude towards knowledge and discovery opened up features of human perception that Heraclitus developed further. We can only perceive when we have something to compare to, and with scientific discoveries, they reshuffle the perception of everything else already known. “If god had not created yellow honey, they would say that figs are far sweeter.”
The Importance of Wonder
With all this skepticism, the limitations of human knowledge couldn’t stop the natural curiosity of philosophers, and Xenophanes was no different. He also had theories of the composition of the universe. “The upper limit of earth is seen here at our feet, in contact with air; below it stretches on and on…Everything that is born and growing is earth and water…For all things are from earth and into earth all things come to their end…The sea is the source of water and the source of wind; for without the great sea there would be no wind nor flowing rivers nor rain from the sky, but the great sea is the father of clouds and winds and rivers…stars come to be from burning clouds; being quenched every day they catch fire at night, like coals; their risings and settings are kindlings and quenchings…The sun comes from burning clouds…is composed of tiny sparks being gathered together from the moist evaporation, and gathering together the sun…There are many suns and moons according to the regions, sections, and zones of the earth, and at a certain time the disk falls into a section of the earth not inhabited by us, and just as if it were ‘walking on nothing’ it produces an eclipse…The sun goes on without end but it seems to circle around because of its distance.”
The mind continues its curiosity, trying to figure out existence, each philosopher at a time. For many people, it is agitating to always question theories, so it takes a particular mind that agrees to the challenge. The fuel that propels the curiosity is the pleasure of wonder. Aristotle perceived how to maintain that sense of wonder. “People both now start and in the beginning started to do philosophy out of wonder. At first they wondered about the obvious difficulties, and then they gradually progressed to puzzle about the greater ones, for example, the behavior of the moon and sun and stars and the coming to be of the universe. Whoever is puzzled and in a state of wonder believes he is ignorant.”
This is important, because wonder is the basis of development. The Romans conquered Greek civilization but were intellectually conquered. Horace said “Captive Greece captured her rude conqueror.” The problem with predatory behaviours of conquering empires are that once you run out of stocks to exploit, all you are left with is the knowledge of how these goods were produced. You either drain resources or you learn from your defeated foe how they developed such amazing skills in the first place.
Anthropomorphism and projection
For religious people today, Freud’s atheism appears dangerous, but in truth his insights are not new. When investigating transference with Freud, there is a therapeutic result when one catches yearning for a parental God figure to save us from our problems. We see the wasted energy and realize that we have to rely on ourselves much more in order to solve our problems. This increases self-esteem and reduces debasement. There’s an inherent human tendency for insecurity, and to demand that society invent institutions of safety, including religions, and expect social cooperation. Some of this can’t be avoided, for example medical care, but transference can go into extremes where flawed humans are worshiped, and they endlessly disappoint when they abuse their power position. Our worship can turn into rivalry when our need for help turns into a need to replace who we worship when our imitation of them increases. If we can’t be God, we can represent God. Gods are a projection of powerful caregivers that we wish would exist to help us, and also are deities in positions we would like to occupy, but as with many Greek Gods, the projections includes human flaws. If we imitate the Gods, we may unconsciously be imitating their bad qualities as well. “Both Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all deeds which among men are matters of reproach and blame: thieving, adultery, and deceiving one another.” Xenophanes deplored the Greek Gods who sometimes had less morals than many humans did. For him, God must move beyond the human form.
Freud – Love: https://rumble.com/v1gv5pd-love-freud-and-beyond.html
Violence and the Sacred – René Girard: https://rumble.com/v1gsnwv-the-origin-of-envy-and-narcissism-ren-girard.html
Historically we needed the Gods to look like us to feel that we were being taken care of, and our human concerns can only be believably supported if our caregivers resembled us. The fear of people who are different is similar to the fear of other predatory animals. If an entity is not cooperating with us, they must be competing with us. Even in politics, there is a temptation to vote on lines of human identity instead of policies and the reasons behind them. There is also a narcissistic pressure to force religious figures to appear in the same ethnicity of worshipers. Familiarity is comfortable and difference uncomfortable. Like a sports team where the members wear the same jersey, we naturally cooperate with those who look like us. “Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black, Thracians that theirs are blue eyed and red haired…But if oxen or horses or lions had hands or were able to draw with their hands and accomplish the same works as men, horses would draw the figures of gods as resembling horses and oxen as resembling oxen, and each would make the gods’ bodies have the same bodily form as they themselves had.”
The social aspect of religion and the worry of how to maintain individual happiness while conserving social harmony is intimated by Xenophanes. Around his time, the Lydians developed coinage and gained efficiencies of a monetary economy compared to the old barter economy. The results could be seen in increased wealth, but also envy, jealousy, rivalry and tyranny. When the people of Colophon, who normally lived an austere lifestyle, started imitating the Lydians, with their perfume and beautiful purple robes, Xenophanes looked at these luxuries as “unprofitable.” He pointed out the danger of imitation in a way Plato would later say that “we should be justified in not admitting the mimetic poet into a well-ordered city…” The stories of the Gods that many poets would tell would be about desire, riches, lust, pride, envy and rivalry. These of course could be good lessons for the audience to learn, but many others would prefer to imitate those tempting behaviours. What Xenophanes valued was public harmony, order and wisdom. The competition for wealth was also mirrored in sports. He criticized athletic games for being over-rewarded, since the public good wasn’t really developed. Winners in these games could sow envy and resentment. This hinted at the problem of wealth that Plato later explained of how a lavish city would need a large army to defend it’s goods. The prideful “haves” and envious “have nots” are involved in “furious conflicts,” as Xenophanes decribed in his first fragment.
On one hand there is a benefit of acquiring and saving money because of the obvious good results, but it can easily be that saving money becomes a way of gaining attention from others to feel superior. That kind of boasting attracts the wrong attention, resentment. Plato’s Republic described Socrates’ annoyance with the rich, their tunnel vision and how they were fond of money as “fathers of their children…They are hard..to be with because they are willing to praise nothing but wealth.” The difficulty of this conundrum is still with us today. How are rewards to be distributed in a society? How much individual self-interest is too much?
Of course there are two sides to the argument. There are those who abuse their financial power, but having public officers lavished with rewards, instead of private citizens, has its own hypocrisy. Criticizing private wealth, and prescribing that it should be public wealth, has the possibility of corruption with those individuals working for the public good who are on the receiving end of this wealth. When people criticize the wealth of others, how can we be sure that they are they not unconsciously envious in some instances? In those cases, they are the predatory ones, as can be seen in kleptocracies where power literally equals consumption. The leaders end up with their hands in all of the cookie jars. All humans are individuals, and have the same temptations. Can a person truly be a public individual? Plato wanted a non-appetitive leader, or a leader who doesn’t give into craving, to run his ideal state, but failed in every attempt to make it happen in real life. Leaders of the public have the same difficulty in letting go of their craving, and maybe even more temptation because of their powerful position and access to consumption. Plato and Xenophanes were trying to describe an alternate kind of pleasure for people to enjoy, that almost no one can maintain on a consistent basis. These leaders would have to enjoy doing things for the public good at the same level or more than for themselves. With Fragment 1, Xenophanes attempts to describe the proper balance between individual and society.
If you want to get drunk, do it properly!
“For now the floor is clean as are the cups and hands of all.
One puts on the woven garlands;
another passes along a fragrant ointment in a bowl.
The mixing bowl stands full of cheer
and another wine, flower fragrant in the jars, is at hand –
which says it never will give out.
In the midst frankincense gives forth its sacred scent,
and there is cold water, sweet and pure.
Golden loaves lie near at hand and the noble table
is loaded down with cheese and rich honey.
An altar in the centre is covered all about with flowers
while song and festive spirit enfold the house.
But first glad-hearted men must hymn the god
with reverent words and pure speech.
And having poured a libation and prayed to be able to do
what is right – for these are obvious –
it is not wrong to drink as much as allows any but an aged man
to reach his home without a servant’s aid.
Praise the man who when he has taken drink brings noble deeds to light,
as memory and a striving for virtue bring to him.
He deals neither with the battles of Titans nor Giants
nor Centaurs, fictions of old,
nor furious conflicts – for there is no use in these.
But it is good always to hold the gods in high regard.”
Fragment 1 of Xenophanes’ banquet is a vivid meditation on how one has to balance both private enjoyment and appreciation of others. Here, the reverence of Gods can easily be seen as reverence for the community, since for Xenophanes, we are not to recount the “fictions of old” with all their squabbles. His banquet requires a clean floor, clean hands, sweet and pure water. There is fragrant ointment and frankincense. The alter is covered with flowers, and people speak with “reverent words and pure speech.” After the appropriate praise, guests are allowed to drink enough to be influenced, but not so much that they become lame with drink. It’s similar to Plato’s Symposium where Socrates drank his companions under the table, maintained his composure and “spent the rest of the day in his ordinary fashion.”
Legolas and Gimli drinking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDSFTugAlf4
The message is consistent in that it’s good to enjoy bread, cheese, wine and honey, but the conversation among the party goers should be devoid of envy, rivalry, and violence, imitated from the tales of the Greek Gods for example. We must be sensitive to the needs of others, instead of only focusing on our own. Our happiness is best protected when it does not conflict with another’s happiness. Another way of looking at it, is that if you are around someone very happy, that person is more likely to leave you alone with your happiness. This then would extend to as many people as possible surrounding you. The more people surrounding you that are happy, the more peaceful your enjoyment will be in a human group. Rewards that are not fought over are divine, and a sign that one is following what is divine and proper in the universe.
Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments – James Lesher: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780802085085/
Philosophy Before Socrates – McKirahan, Richard D.: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781603841825/
Introduction to Presocratics: A Thematic Approach to Early Greek Philosophy with Key Readings by Giannis Stamatellos: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780470655030/
Explaining the Cosmos: The Ionian Tradition of Scientific Philosophy – Daniel Graham: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780691125404/
Republic – Plato: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780141442433/
Symposium – Plato: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780226042756/
Philosophy: https://psychreviews.org/category/philosophy03/