Page 20 - STOLEN LEGACY By George G. M. James

Here again those who went out in search of "peri physeos" or its remnants were the alumni of
Aristotle's school and its friends: but their efforts to establish authorship was a failure.

(a) Theophrastus found only two lines of peri physeos, supposed to have been written by
Anaximander.

(b) Sextus and Proclus of the fifth century A.D., and Simplicius of the sixth century A.D. are said
to have found a copy of "peri physeos" supposed to have been produced by Parmenides.

(c) In addition, the name of Simplicius is also associated with a copy of "peri physeos", which is
supposed to have been produced by Anaxagoras.

So much for "peri physeos and the Fragments," and so much for the attempt of "The Learned
Association" for the study of Aristotle's works; which has failed because of lack of evidence, as
has elsewhere been pointed out.

The recovery of two copies and two lines of "peri physeos" is not proof that all Greek
Philosophers wrote "peri physeos", or even that the names assigned to them were their bona fide
authors. It certainly would appear that the object of the Learned Association was to beat
Aristotle's own drum and dance. It was Aristotle's idea to compile a history of philosophy, and it
was Aristotle's school and its alumni that carried out the idea, we are told.

Chapter II: So-called Greek Philosophy was Alien to the Greeks and their
Conditions of Life

1. The Period of Greek Philosophy (640–322 B.C.) was a Period of Internal and External
Wars, and was therefore Unsuitable for Producing Philosophers

History supports the fact that from the time of Thales. to the time of Aristotle, the Greeks were
victims of internal disunion, on the one hand, while on the other, they lived in constant fear of
invasion from the Persians who were a common enemy to the city states.

Consequently when they were not fighting with one another they found themselves busy fighting
the Persians, who soon dominated them and became their masters. From the 6th century B.C. the
territory from the coast of Asia Minor to the Indus Valley became united under the single power
of Persia, whose central territory Iran has survived as a national unit to the present day. Persian
expansion was like a nightmare to the Greeks who dreaded the Persians on account of their
invulnerable navy, and organized themselves into leagues and confederacies in order to resist
their enemy. (C. 12 p. 195; Sandford's Mediterranean World). There are three sources which
throw light on the chaotic and troublesome conditions of this period in Greek history.

19

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