Search -
The history of philosophy, from the earliest periods
The history of philosophy from the earliest periods Author:William Enfield Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: For no one would assert, that the barbaric nations were wholly inattentive to wisdom, or strangers to every kind of knowledge, human or divine. On the other side... more », it cannot be questioned that they became possessed of knowledge rather by simple reflection than by scientific investigation, and that they transmitted it to posterity rather by tradition than by demonstration. Whereas, the Greeks, as soon as they began to be civilized, discovered a general propensity to inquiry, and made use of scientific rules and methods of- reasoning. Hence it is easy to perceive, that though the improvement of philosophy is to be ascribed to the Greeks, its origin is to be sought for among the barbaric nations. f CHAPTER II. OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS. Among the barbaric nations (using the term barbaric in the sense before explained) the most ancient people, concerning whom any authentic records remain, are the Hebrews. We shall inquire into the state of philosophy among this people, from the earliest period of their history to the time of their return from their Babylonish captivity; after which, the Jewish philosophy will be more properly considered in connexion with the Grecian. From the praises which are bestowed, in the Jewish history, upon some of their more illustrious ancestors, patriarchs, prophets, and princes, some have been induced to place them upon a level, in respect of speculative wisdom, with the philosophers of Greece, and even with those of modern times. But that this is a misconception, must be evident to every one who recollects the state of science, and of general civilization at that early period. A better or more certain judgment concerning the wisdom of the ancient Hebrews cannot be formed, than from the monuments which they themselves, or thei...« less