Ekphantos

Ekphantos ( ancient Greek Ἔκφαντος ) was an ancient Greek philosopher ( Pythagorean ) and astronomer. He is sometimes called Ekphantos of Syracuse or Ekphantos of Croton . His lifetime is only known roughly; it apparently falls into the fourth and perhaps even the late fifth century BC. Chr.

Life

The sources given about the origin of the Ekphantos vary. The doxographer Aëtios and the Christian writer Hippolytus of Rome mention a philosopher Ekphantos of Syracuse, Aëtios calls him a Pythagorean (follower of the teachings of the philosopher Pythagoras ). The late antique philosopher Iamblichus also knows of a Pythagorean named Ekphantos; probably the same person. Iamblichus lists him in a list of Pythagoreans who came from the city of Croton (today Crotone in Calabria , southern Italy). It is unclear which of the two indications of origin is more credible.

Otherwise nothing is known from his life. His ideas suggest that he developed his teaching in the 4th century; perhaps its birth can be dated to the late 5th century. In research he is usually considered a contemporary of Archytas of Taranto and Hiketas of Syracuse . The hypothesis that he was a student of Hiketa is based on only weak evidence (in both of them the rotation of the earth's axis plays an important role). After all, this indicates that Ekphantos was probably in contact with Hiketas, who was also a Pythagorean, and that the two did not arrive at their views independently of one another.

Teaching

According to Hippolyte, Ekphantos considered objective knowledge impossible and believed that everyone should determine what he believed to be reality as they saw fit. So he was an epistemological subjectivist . In this his thinking touches the one direction of sophistry ( Protagoras ). In natural philosophy, as Hippolytus and Aëtios report, he represented an atomistic doctrine. In his view, the material world consists of "indivisible bodies" ( atoms ) and empty space between them. There are different types of atoms, the smallest units of matter that make up the things that can be perceived by the senses, which differ in size, shape and force ( dýnamis ). The diversity and changeability of visible things result from the fact that they consist of different combinations of these different atoms.

Ekphantos did not take the weight of the body or an external impact as the cause of the movement, but rather a “divine power” inherent in all things, which he called “spirit” ( nous ) or soul. The cosmos is a manifestation of this divine power and is therefore spherical (the sphere was considered to be the most perfect geometric body); he is being guided by Providence . With his view that the earth is at the center of the universe, Ekphantos agreed with the majority of astronomers and natural philosophers of the time. He assumed an axis rotation of the earth from west to east. He rejected a plurality of universes ( parallel worlds ). It is said to have assumed an unlimited number of atoms; but since this assumption is incompatible with that of a single cosmos limited as a sphere, the textual tradition is obviously flawed, and instead of “unlimited” one should read “not unlimited”.

reception

Johannes Stobaios has handed down four pieces of text from a treatise allegedly written by Ekphantos, Peri basileías (“On kingship”) in Doric dialect . But this writing is certainly not from Ekphantos. It belongs to the pseudepigraphic philosophical treatises whose anonymous authors ascribed their writings to well-known Pythagoreans of the past in order to draw attention to their literary fictions. The dating of the work is controversial; According to one research opinion it belongs to the epoch of Hellenism , according to another, which apparently prevails, to the Roman imperial period . Pseudo-Ekphantos emphasizes the god-like rank of the ruler within the framework of the divine world order. In his view the ruler is to the state what the deity is to the cosmos; he should become as godlike as possible through his virtue, while his subjects align themselves with his example, so that the harmony of the cosmos is reflected in human society. Pseudo-Ekphantos regards the earth as the mother of man; whose father is the "eternal living being", a deity who enables man to stand up. Actually, man is a stranger on earth, his true home is a world beyond.

According to an older research opinion, which has not caught on, Herakleides Pontikos wrote a dialogue, the protagonists of which were Ekphantos and Hiketas; this dialogue is the source of the ancient tradition about the teachings of Ekphantos. This assumption was linked to the assumption that Ekphantos was possibly not a historical figure, but a literary fiction of Herakleides; at least the views ascribed to him are not authentic.

Nicolaus Copernicus mentions Ekphantos among the ancient Pythagoreans who taught the movement of the earth and which he therefore regards as a forerunner of his conception of the mobility of the earth.

swell

• Maria Timpanaro Cardini : Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti . Vol. 2, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1962, pp. 406–412 and 416–421 (Greek source texts with Italian translation and commentary)

literature

• Bruno Centrone: Ecphante de Crotone . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 3, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-271-05748-5 , p. 55
• Leonid Zhmud : Hiketas and Ekphantos from Syracuse (DK 50–51) . In: Hellmut Flashar u. a. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy . The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 1, Schwabe, Basel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7965-2598-8 , pp. 428–429

Remarks

1. ↑ For the interpretation of the relevant tradition, see Maria Timpanaro Cardini: Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti , Vol. 2, Firenze 1962, pp. 418f. (Comment).
2. ^ William KC Guthrie : A History of Greek Philosophy , Vol. 1, Cambridge 1962, p. 325.
3. ↑ Bruno Centrone: Pseudo-Ecphante offers an overview of the research literature on Pseudo-Ecphantos . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 3, Paris 2000, pp. 55–56; he also names the text editions and translations. On the dating, see the argumentation of Walter Burkert : On the historical classification of some pseudopythagorica . In: Pseudepigrapha I , Geneva 1972, pp. 48-55 and Cornelia J. de Vogel: Pythagoras and Early Pythagoreanism , Assen 1966, p. 51.
4. ↑ See also Hans B. Gottschalk: Heraclides of Pontus , Oxford 1980, p. 44f .; Bruno Centrone: Ecphante de Crotone . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 3, Paris 2000, p. 55.
5. ↑ See also Charles H. Kahn: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans , Indianapolis 2001, p. 26 note 5 and p. 67, 160; Bronisław Biliński: Il pitagorismo di Niccolò Copernico , Wrocław 1977, p. 47f., 66.