Page 120 - STOLEN LEGACY By George G. M. James

2. The Eleatic philosophers have been named as (i) Zenophanes who was a satirist (ii) Zeno
whose treatment of space and time led to a reductio ad absurdum and (iii) Parmenides who alone
deserves notice. He has been credited with the definitions of Being and non-Being, which he
expressed as 'that which is' and 'that which is not'. In other words, nature or reality consists of
two properties, i.e., a positive and a negative. But Parmenides introduced no new doctrine, when
he defined the principle of opposites. This principle was used by Pythagoras in his theory of
numbers; by Socrates in his proof of the immortality of the Soul; by Plato in his Theory of Ideas
and the distinction between phenomena and noumena; and by Aristotle in his definition of the
attributes of Being. In all these instances it has been shown that the doctrine of opposites
originated from the Egyptian Mystery System, in connection with which Gods were represented
as male and female, and temples carried double pillars in front of them to indicate positive and
negative principles of nature.

3. The late Ionic philosophers have been named as (i) Heracleitus who taught that the world was
produced by fire, through a process of transmutation; and that since all things originate from
Fire, then Fire is the Logos.

(ii) Anaxagoras, who taught that Mind or Nous is the source of life in the Universe and

(iii) Democritus, who taught that atoms underlie all material things; that life and death are merely
changes brought about by variation in the mixture of atoms, which do not die because they are
immortal. Now, taking these doctrines in the order in which they come, their Egyptian origin has
been fully established.

(a) The doctrine of Fire has been traced to the Egyptians, whose Mystery System was a Fire
Philosophy and who worshipped the God of Fire in their pyramids. The word pyramid is a Greek
word, whose derivative pyr means fire. This doctrine takes us back to the pyramid age in Egypt
33 hundred B.C. when, of course, the Greeks were unknown.

(b) It must be noted that the doctrine of the Logos has been identified by Heracleitus with the
doctrine of Fire. This is as it should be, because (c) in the doctrine of the created Gods which has
been ascribed to Plato, Atom the Sun God or Fire performs the function of Demiurge in creating
the Gods. (d) Similarly in the doctrine of the Unmoved Mover ascribed to Aristotle, the Fire God
Atom while unmoved and sitting upon the Primeval Hill, creates the Gods by commanding them
to proceed from various parts of His own body. In this way Atom also became the Unmoved
Mover. This makes it clear that the Logos of Heracleitus is identical with the Demiurge of Plato
and the Unmoved Mover of Aristotle. The function of Atom as Demiurge and the method of His
creation are found in the Memphite Theology of the Egyptians. Here

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Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy by George G. M. James
The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook