Xenophanes philosophy of religion

Mythological Origins. Pherecydes of Syros. Heraclitus of Ephesus Xenophanes of Colophon. Life and Work Xenophanes c. Religion Criticism Xenophanes is well-known for his criticism of the traditional view-image of the Gods. Single God For Xenophanes there is one single god beyond any human or physical description. Cosmology Xenophanes asserts that all natural phenomena are not divine deities but formations of material substances the rainbow is not Iris but a special cloud formation.

New York : Scribner. Graham, Daniel W. Cambridge University Press. Kirk, G. Lesher, James H. McKirahan, Richard D. Hackett Publishing Company. Trzaskoma, Stephen M. Hackett Publishing. Weinstein, Max Bernhard Extended studies and reviews [ edit ]. Barnes, Jonathan The Presocratic Philosophers. Dalby, Andrew Rediscovering Homer. New York, London: Norton.

Edwards, M. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies.

Xenophanes philosophy of religion: Xenophanes explored, so far

Duke University Press : ISSN OCLC Archived from the original on March 1, Johansen, Karsten Friis A history of ancient philosophy: from the beginnings to Augustine. Lesher, James In Zalta, Edward N. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Summer ed. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.

Retrieved Luchte, James Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Mackenzie, Tom Poetry and poetics in the Presocratic philosophers : reading Xenophanes, Parmenides and Empedocles as literature. Meza, Carlos Gustavo Carrasco Santiago: University of Chile : 55, Archived from the original on September 17, The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Osborne, Catherine 22 April OUP Oxford. Warren, James Further reading [ edit ]. Library resources about Xenophanes. Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries. By Xenophanes Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries. External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Xenophanes.

Wikisource has original works by or about: Xenophanes. Wikiquote has quotations related to Xenophanes. Ancient Greek schools of philosophy. Epimenides Pherecydes. Thales Anaximander Anaximenes. Heraclitus Cratylus. Xenophanes Xeniades. Parmenides Zeno Melissus. Anaxagoras Archelaus Metrodorus of Lampsacus. Empedocles Acron Pausanias.

Leucippus Democritus. Protagoras Prodicus Hippias Thrasymachus Damon more Gorgias Callicles Lycophron Dionysodorus Euthydemus more Socrates students Xenophon. Antisthenes Diogenes Crates Menippus more Phaedo of Elis Menedemus Asclepiades of Phlius. Xenophanes is prepared to offer a positive account of the nature of the deity see the following section but his position appears to be that while no mortal being will ever know about the gods with any degree of certainty, we can at least avoid adopting beliefs and practices clearly at odds with the xenophanes philosophy of religion nature any divine being must be assumed to possess.

So far as is known, Xenophanes was the first Greek thinker to offer a complex and at least partially systematic account of the divine nature. We have already noted how an implicit assumption of divine perfection may underlie his criticisms of Homer, Hesiod, and the tendency to imagine the gods in human form. Of the positive characterizations of the divine made in B23—26, perhaps the most fundamental is B Iliad 2, ; 2, ; 4, ; Od.

Greatness in power would in turn explain the characterizations of the divine as perceptive and conscious in all its parts B24able to shake all things by the exercise of his thought B25and able to accomplish everything while remaining forever in the same place or condition B It is unclear, however, how far Xenophanes himself realized the xenophanes philosophies of religion among the different divine attributes or sought to exploit those connections for didactic purposes.

At least as they have come down to us, none of the remarks on the divine nature B23—26 contains any of the inferential particles gar, epei, oun, hotietc. Some later writers A Five fragments touch on traditional subjects of Greek sympotic verse—on proper conduct at symposia drinking partiesthe measures of personal excellence, and the existence of various human foibles or failures.

Xenophanes appears to have been particularly interested in identifying and discouraging conduct that failed to pay due honor to the gods or posed a risk to the stability and well-being of the city or perhaps both. Apology 30b. We may reasonably conclude from several surviving fragments and a large number of testimonia that Xenophanes was well aware of the teachings of the Milesian philosopher-scientists Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenesand sought to improve on them.

A33 credits Xenophanes with a view of the sea as containing many mixtures, while B37 notes the presence of water in rocky caves, and A50 reports a view of the soul as earth and water. Xenophanes appears to have explored many of the same phenomena studied at an earlier date by the Milesians. Hippolytus A33 credits Xenophanes with a theory of alternating periods of world-wide flood and drought that was inspired, at least in part, by the discovery of fossilized remains of sea creatures at inland locations.

Whether or not Xenophanes himself traveled to Syracuse, Paros, and Malta where these remains were found, his use of this information as the basis for a broad explanation of phenomena is an implicit testimonial to the heuristic value of information gained through travel and observation. Many testimonia credit Xenophanes with an interest in meteorological and astronomical phenomena.

Not only are these comments of interest in their own right, they also present us what was arguably his single most important scientific contribution--his contention that clouds or cloud-like substances play a basic role in a great many natural phenomena. Having accounted for the formation of clouds in mechanistic terms through processes of vaporization and compression Xenophanes proceeds to make use of clouds to explain a large number of meteorological and astronomical phenomena.

The sort of fires that appear on ships--whom some call the Dioscuri [St. The sun consists of burning clouds…a mass of little fires, themselves constructed from the massing together of the moist exhalation A All things of this sort [comets, shooting stars, meteors] are either groups or movements of clouds A Flashes of lightning come about through the shining of the clouds because of the movement A As it happens, clouds are natural candidates for the explanans in a scientific account.

Since they are midway in form between a solid and gaseous state they are easily linked with solids, liquids, and gases of various kinds.

Xenophanes philosophy of religion: Some scholars have maintained

And since they occupy a region midway between the surface of the earth and the upper regions of the heavens, they are well positioned to link the two basic substances of earth and water with many astronomical phenomena. He claims that just like the Greeks Ethiopians and Thracians believe their gods look like themselves frag. He reproaches the revered poets Homer and Hesiod for ascribing to the gods actions humans consider immoral frag.

He does not argue that these diverse accounts of the divine are false or even contradictory, but the remark about animals seems intended to ridicule the differing human including Greek beliefs about the gods. Nor is the reproach about the gods' behavior an argument, but it further undermines tradition: Greeks not only think the gods are like humans, they think they are immoral too!

Abandoning the Olympian gods led Xenophanes not to atheism but to new opinions on the nature of the divine and a new way of apprehending it.

Xenophanes philosophy of religion: So far as is known,

God "always remains in the same place, moving not at all" frag. Fragments 24 and 25 probably assert omniscience and omnipotence. Xenophanes presents a nonanthropomorphic god possessing cognitive abilities corresponding to human ones but far exceeding humans in power. It is a theistic account since "shakes all things" seems to mean that god controls and causes all events in the cosmos.

Xenophanes philosophy of religion: Xenophanes espoused a belief

Xenophanes may also have been a monotheist. If so, he was the first Greek to adopt this revolutionary view. The relevant text is fragment 23, whose opening words can be translated either "god is one" or "one god. But it can be objected that his criticisms of the traditional anthropomorphic gods and his belief in a supreme god that governs everything tell against polytheism.

This objection is reinforced by the report that he said it is unholy for any god to have a master and that no god is deficient in anything at all Testimony 32claims hard to square with a belief that combines polytheism with a single supreme deity. These are strong motives for taking "among gods and men" not to imply polytheism. One way is to take it as a polar expressionas if an atheist said that there is no god in heaven or earth, using "in heaven or earth" ironically to mean simply "anywhere.

Xenophanes gives no argument for the existence or the nature of his supreme deity.