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| Summary of the Opinions of Philosophers.
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Chapter II.—Summary of the Opinions of
Philosophers.
Having, therefore, embraced (a consideration of)
the tenets of all the wise men among the Greeks in four books, and the
doctrines propounded by the heresiarchs in five, we shall now exhibit
the doctrine concerning the truth in one, having first presented in a
summary the suppositions entertained severally by all. For
the dogmatists of the Greeks, dividing philosophy into three parts, in
this manner devised from time to time their speculative
systems;1035
| 1035
Hippolytus in what follows is indebted to Sextus
Empiricus.—Adv. Phys., x. | some denominating
their system Natural, and others Moral, but others Dialectical
Philosophy. And the ancient thinkers who called their
science Natural Philosophy, were those mentioned in book
i. And the account which they furnished was after this
mode: Some of them derived all things from one, whereas
others from more things than one. And of those who
derived all things from one, some derived them from what was
devoid of quality, whereas others from what was endued with
quality. And among those who derived all things from
quality, some derived them from fire, and some from air, and
some from water, and some from earth. And among those who
derived the universe from more things than one, some
derived it from numerable, but others from infinite
quantities. And among those who derived all things from
numerable quantities, some derived them from two, and others
from four, and others from five, and others from six. And among
those who derived the universe from infinite quantities, some
derived entities from things similar to those generated, whereas
others from things dissimilar. And among these some derived
entities from things incapable of, whereas others from things
capable of, passion. From a body devoid of quality and endued
with unity, the Stoics, then, accounted for the
generation of the universe. For, according to them, matter devoid
of quality, and in all its parts susceptible of change, constitutes an
originating principle of the universe. For, when an alteration of
this ensues, there is generated fire, air, water, earth. The
followers, however, of Hippasus, and Anaximander, and Thales the
Milesian, are disposed to think that all things have been
generated from one (an entity), endued with quality. Hippasus of
Metapontum and Heraclitus the Ephesian declared the origin of things
to be from fire, whereas Anaximander from air, but Thales from
water, and Xenophanes from earth. “For from earth,”
says he, “are all things, and all things terminate in the
earth.”1036
| 1036
See Karst., Fragm., viii. 45. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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