Giants of Pre-Sophistic Greek Philosophy

Again and again and again: PHILOSOPHIA FIAT, QUAE PHILOLOGIA FUIT! As a consequence of certain developments in these last hundred years, ancient philosophy has been slipping from the hands of philosophers to become finally an almost exclusive domain of philologists. This has been happening not only because a tremendous amount of genuinely philological work had to be done, and still is needed, in collecting and textually adjusting the pertinent material, but also because a thorough knowledge and command of the ancient languages has become ever more and more of a rarity among philosophers, unfortunately. From the viewpoint of philosophical culture, this is disastrous. For most philologists are in a state of innocence as far as philosophy is concerned. Of course, they themselves are not aware of it. But the tragicomical fact remains: They have all the answers and do not know the questions. And so, led astray by philosophical miscon- ceptions, they even commit appalling philological blunders every once in a while.