Xenophanes

No human being will ever know the Truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even known they had done so.

2 thoughts on “Xenophanes

  1. shinichi Post author

    Fragments of Xenophanes

    https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fragments_of_Xenophanes

    **

    Fragment 34

    There never was nor will be a man who has certain knowledge about the gods and about all the things I speak of. Even if he should chance to say the complete truth, yet he himself knows not that it is so. But all may have their fancy.

    **

    Fragment 15

    Yes, and if oxen and horses or lions had hands
    and could paint with their hands
    and produce works of art as men do
    horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses
    and oxen like oxen
    and make their bodies in the image of their several kinds

    **

    But if cattle and horses and lions had hands
    or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,
    horses like horses and cattle like cattle
    also would depict the gods’ shapes and make their bodies
    of such a sort as the form they themselves have.

    ἀλλ᾽ εἰ χεῖρας ἔχον βόες <ἵπποι τ᾽> ἠὲ λέοντες
    ἢ γράψαι χείρεσσι καὶ ἔργα τελεῖν ἅπερ ἄνδρες,
    ἵπποι μέν θ᾽ ἵπποισι βόες δέ τε βουσὶν ὁμοίας
    καί <κε> θεῶν ἰδέας ἔγραφον καὶ σώματ᾽ ἐποίουν
    τοιαῦθ᾽ οἷόν περ καὐτοὶ δέμας εἶχον <ἕκαστοι>.

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  2. shinichi Post author

    クセノファネス

    「哲学史の旅(4)」  希・哲学
    http://happy.ap.teacup.com/togenuki/635.html

    人の身で確かなことを見た者は誰もいないし
    これから先も
    知っている者は
    誰もいないだろう
    神々についても、私の語るすべてのことについても
    かりに本当のことを言い当てたとしても
    彼自身がそれを知っている訳ではないのだ
    ただすべてにつけて思惑があるのみ

    **

    岩波講座 哲学04
    知識/情報の哲学
     I 知の起源と挑戦
      4 知の創発性(納富信留)

    そして、精確なことは誰も見た者はなく
    誰一人知ってもいない
    神々についても
    すべてにわたって私が語ることについても
    というのは、もし最大限、目指すものを言い当てたとしても
    その者は知ってはいないのだから
    そうでなく、重いがすべてを覆っている

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