Xenophanes and His Philosophies

Greek Philosopher, Religious Thinker and Poet

Jul 5, 2009 Tel Asiado

The philosophies of Xenophanes of Colophon, 6th century Greek thinker.

Xenophanes was a Greek philosopher, poet and religious thinker during the 6th century. He wrote poetry, fragments of which survive. He attacked the anthropomorphism of popular religion.

Xenophanes Life in a Nutshell

The exact dates of the birth and death of Xenophanes are uncertain, like other presocratic great thinkers. He lived sometime in the 6th century between c.570-475BC. What is known is that since Heraclitus mentions him as a contemporary and critic of Pythagoras, and it can be roughly dated that he lived around the same time.

Exiled by the Persian wars in Ionia to southern Italy, Xenophanes wandered in Ancient Greece as a poet and freethinker.

Influence of Thales on Xenophanes

Like his predecessor, Thales, Xenophanes criticized the Homerian concept of anthromorphic gods, arguing that Homer's gods had all the disgraceful traits of flawed human beings and should not be objects of veneration.

Also like Thales, Xenophanes speculated about the underlying principles of natural phenomena. However, whereas Thales conceived the first principle to be water, Xenophanes proposed the possibility of mud. His basis was his observation as he noticed the fossil remains of sea-creatures embedded in the earth, and conjectured that perhaps the world periodically dried up, and then later returned to its original muddy state.

Criticism of Pythagoras

Xenophanes also criticized the doctrine of the soul's transmigration of Pythagoras. He made fun of the idea that a human soul could inhabit another animal. Although vaguely, Xenophanes strongly held some concept of a single deity that was "in no way like men in shape or in thought" but rather "causing all things by the thought of his mind."

Anticipated Caution of a Socratic Claim

Xenophanes as a thinker anticipated the caution of Socrates regarding claims of certain knowledge. According to him, philosophical certainties can never be, for even if people chance to hit upon the truth, there is no way of knowing with certainty that things are they are from what people think.

However, Xenophanes concurred that this does not make philosophical inquiry useless, since exposing errors in thinking can at least tell what is certainly not the case even if it cannot tell what certainly is the case.

Legacy of Xenophanes

There seems a little coherence or underlying structure to his thought. It's also probably his criticism of the revered Homeric gods throughout the Hellenistic world that attracted a great deal of attention to him. Clearly however, Xenophanes had enough influence to be remembered and mentioned by those who followed him.

Suggested Reading

Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments: A Text and Translation with Commentary, 1992. This contains the Greek texts of the existing fragments of his philosophy, together with an English translation, commentary and notes.

Sources:

• Clark, John, Ed. Illustrated Biographical Dictionary. London: Chancellor Press, 1978.
• McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers, 2002.
• Stokes, Philip. Philosophy: The Great Thinkers. London: Arcturus Publishing, 2007.

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Xenophanes, Gree Philosopher Poet