Title: Presocratic philosophy and the origins of religion
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2013, vol. 18, iss. 1, pp. [57]-74
Extent
[57]-74
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/127196
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Even though there is a large body of scholarly articles devoted to individual Presocratic philosophers and their reflections on the nature of Olympic gods and Greek religion, as well as some good general monographs mapping the "theology" of Greek philosophers (e.g., Jaeger's Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers or, more recently, Drozdek's Greek Philosophers as Theologians), Presocratic hypotheses focused on the origin of religion have received comparatively minor attention. This paper examines the thoughts of Xenophanes, Democritus, Prodicus and the author of the Sisyphus-fragment (traditionally identified as Critias but also more recently as Euripides) in regard to the origin of religious belief while attempting to sketch some connections and similarities between ancient hypotheses and modern theories developed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
References
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[2] Euripidis fabulae, vol. III. Diggle, J. [ed.]. 1994. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[3] Herodoti Historiae, vol. I. Hude, C. [ed.]. 1927. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[4] Homeri Ilias, vol. II. Allen, T. W. [ed.]. 1931. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[5] Lucreti De rerum natura. Bailey, C. [ed.]. 1921. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[6] Minucius Felix. Octavius. Kytzler, B. [ed.]. 1982. Leipzig: Teubner.
[7] Platonis opera, vol. I. Burnet, J. [ed.]. 1900. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[8] Platonis opera, vol. V. Burnet, J. [ed.]. 1907. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[9] Vulgata sacra. Weber, R. – Gryson, R. [eds.]. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.
[10] Bańkowski, Andrzej. 1962. Prodikos z Keos i jego teoria religii. Euhemer. Przeglad Religioznawczy – Zeszyty Filozoficzne., vol. 3, 8–22.
[11] Barkow, Jerome H. – Cosmides, Leda – Tooby, John [eds.]. 1992. The Adapted Mind. Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. New York – Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[12] Barnes, Jonathan. 1982. The Presocratic Philosophers. London – New York: Routledge.
[13] Boyer, Pascal 2001. Religion Explained. The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York: Basic Books.
[14] Bremmer, Jan N. 2007. Atheism in Antiquity. In: Martin, Michael [ed.] (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 11–26.
[15] Brisson, Luc. 2004. How Philosophers saved Myths. Allegorical Interpretation and Classical Mythology. Chicago – London: Chicago University Press.
[16] Burkert, Walter. 1996. Creation of the Sacred. Tracks of Biology in Early Religions. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
[17] Burnet, John. 1920. Early Greek Philosophy. London: Adam & Charles Black.
[18] Davies, Malcolm. 1989. Sisyphus and the Invention of Religion ('Critias' TrGF 1 (43) F 19 = B 25 DK). Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, vol. 36, 16–32.
[19] Dihle, Albrecht. 1977. Das Satyrspiel "Sisyphos". Hermes, vol. 105, no. 1, 28–42.
[20] Detienne, Marcel. 2000. Mistři pravdy v archaickém Řecku [Les maîtres de vérité dans la Grèce archaïque]. Praha: Oikoymenh.
[21] Drozdek, Adam. 2007. Greek Philosophers as Theologians. The Divine Arche. Burlington: Ashgate.
[22] Durkheim, Émile. 1960. Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
[23] Eisenberger, Herbert. 1970. Demokrits Vorstellung vom Sein und Wirken der Götter. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, vol. 113, 141–158.
[24] Eisenstadt, Michael. 1974. Xenophanes' Proposed Reform of Greek Religion. Hermes, vol. 102, 142–150.
[25] Eliot, Thomas S. 1957. The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909–1950. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.
[26] Feyerabend, Paul K. 1986. Eingebildete Vernunft. Die Kritik des Xenophanes an den Homerischen Göttern. In: Lenk, Hans [ed.] Zur Kritik der wissenschaftlichen Rationalität. Zum 65. Geburtstag von Kurt Hübner. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber, 205–223.
[27] Fowler, Robert L. 2011. Mythos and Logos. Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 131, 45–66. | DOI 10.1017/S0075426911000048
[28] García López, José. 1986. Interpretación y crítica del mito en los primeros filósofos griegos. Myrtia. Revista de Filología Clásica de la Universidad de Murcia, vol. 1, no. 1, 43–64.
[29] Geertz, Clifford. 1993. The Interpretation of Cultures. London: Fontana Press.
[30] Gemelli Marciano, M. Laura. 2005. Xenophanes: Antike Interpretation und kultureller Kontext. Die Kritik an den Dichtern und der sogenannte ›Monismus‹. In: Rechenauer, Georg[ed.]. Frühgriechisches Denken. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 118–133.
[31] Guthrie, Steward. 1993. Faces in the Clouds. A New Theory of Religion. Oxford: University Press.
[32] Guthrie, William K. C. 1962. A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. I. The earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[33] Guthrie, William K. C. 1965. A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. II. The Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[34] Guthrie, William K. C. 1971. The Sophists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[35] Halfwassen, Jens (2008). Der Gott des Xenophanes: Überlegungen über Ursprung und Struktur eines philosophischen Monotheismus. Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, vol. 10, 275–294.
[36] Harrison, Stephen J. 1990. Lucretius, Euripides and the Philosophers: De Rerum Natura 5.13–21. The Classical Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 1, 195–198. | DOI 10.1017/S0009838800026884
[37] Henrichs, Albert 1975. Two Doxographical Notes: Democritus and Prodicus on Religion. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. 79, 93–123.
[38] Henrichs, Albert 1976. The Atheism of Prodicus. Cronache ercolanesi, vol. 6, 15–21.
[39] Henrichs, Albert. 1984. The Sophists and Hellenistic Religion: Prodicus as the Spiritual Father of the Isis Aretalogies. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. 88, 139–158.
[40] Herschbell, Jackson P. 1983. The Oral-Poetic Religion of Xenophanes. In: Robb, Kevin [ed.]. Language and Thought in Early Greek Philosophy. La Salle: Hegeler Institute, 125–133.
[41] Hobbes, Thomas. 1994. Leviathan [ed. Curley, Edwin]. Cambridge – Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
[42] Jaeger, Werner. 1947. The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers. The Gifford Lectures 1936. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[43] Kahn, Charles H. 1997. Greek Religion and Philosophy in the Sisyphus Fragment. Phronesis, vol. 42, no. 3, 247–262. | DOI 10.1163/15685289760518153
[44] Kirk, Geoffrey S. – Raven, John E. – Schofield, Malcolm. 2002. Předsókratovští filosofové [The Presocratic Philosophers]. Praha: Oikoymenh.
[45] Lawson, E. Thomas – McCauley, Robert N. 1990. Rethinking Religion. Connecting Cognition and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[46] Lebedev, Andrei. 2000. Xenophanes on the Immutability of God: A neglected Fragment in Philo Alexandrinus. Hermes, vol. 128, no. 4, 385–391.
[47] Lefkowitz, Mary R. 1989. 'Impiety' and 'Atheism' in Euripides' Dramas. The Classical Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 1, 70–82. | DOI 10.1017/S0009838800040489
[48] McGibbon, Donal. 1965. The Religious Thought of Democritus. Hermes, vol. 93, no. 4, 385–397.
[49] Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1999. Kritische Studienausgabe [ed. Colli, G. – Montinari, M.]. Berlin – New York: Walter de Gruyter.
[50] Palmer, John A. 1998. Xenophanes' Ouranian God in the Fourth Century. In: Taylor, C. C. W. [ed.]. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy. Volume XVI. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1–34.
[51] Santoro, Maria Carolina. 1994. Sisifo e il presunto ateismo di Crizia. Orpheus, vol. 15, no. 2, 419–429.
[52] Sutton, Dana. 1981. Critias and Atheism. The Classical Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 1, 33–38. | DOI 10.1017/S0009838800021054
[53] Tremlin, Todd. 2006. Minds and Gods. The Cognitive Foundations of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[54] Tylor, Edward B. 1883. Primitive Culture. Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom. vol. I. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
[55] Vlastos, Gregory. 1945. Ethics and Physics in Democritus. The Philosophical Review, vol. 54, no. 6, 578–592. | DOI 10.2307/2181547
[56] Vlastos, Gregory. 1952. Theology and Philosophy in Early Greek Thought. The Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 7, 97–123. | DOI 10.2307/2216899
[57] Voltaire 1877. Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire. Vol. 10. Contes en vers – Satires – Épitres – Poèsies mêlées [ed. Moland, L.]. Paris: Garnier.
[58] Winiarczyk, Marek. 1987. Nochmals das Satyrspiel "Sisyphos". Wiener Studien, vol. 100, 35–45.
[59] Winiarczyk, Marek. 1990. Metodisches zum antiken Atheismus. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, vol. 133, 1–15.
[60] Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 2001. Philosophical Investigations [ed. Anscombe, G. E. M. – Rhees, R.]. Malden – Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[61] Yamagata, Naoko. 1994. Homeric Morality. Leiden: Brill.
[62] Yunis, Harvey. 1988. The Debate on Undetected Crime and an Undetected Fragment from Euripides' Sisyphus. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, vol. 75, 39–46.