В начале был Фалес? Рецензия на книгу: Maria Michela Sassi. The Beginnings of Philosophy in Greece. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.

Платоновские исследования. 2020. Т. 12. С. 350–355.

Alieva O.

The question of the “beginnings” of philosophy in Greece is inseparable from that of the nature of philosophy itself and its relation to wisdom, science, and even religion. When it comes to the so-called “Presocratics”, a clear demarcation of these notions is not possible. M.M. Sassi depicts the multidimensional process of knowledge differentiation, doing justice to its complexity and non-linear character. However, the reviewer believes that this task is somewhat hindered by the author’s reliance on Aristotle’s doxography. For instance, although the reviewer agrees with Sassi’s construal of Metaph. Α.3, 984a1-3, it is argued that this passage is not a sufficient ground for naming Thales “the father of philosophy” alongside Aristotle. Of course, whether we do so or not depends on whether we decide to apply the anachronistic term “philosophy” to the early Greek thinkers, which many scholars now believe we are justified in doing. It is argued, however, that such a move inevitably leads to an aprioristic definition of philosophy in terms of either “rationalism” or “naturalism” (or both). Within such a perspective, other aspects of the early Greek thought, even if expertly and benevolently presented by Sassi in connection with Parmenides and Empedocles, turn out to be philosophically irrelevant.

Keywords: Thales, Presocratics, Фалес, досократики