Philosophy, in fact, is a form of poesy; it is, if one pleases so to call
it, ‘fiction founded upon fact.’ It is not for that reason the less noble a
form of human thought, rather is it the more noble, in the same way as
poetry is nobler than mere narrative, and art than representation, and
imagination than perception. Philosophy is indeed one of the noblest forms
of poetry, because the facts which are its basis are the profoundest, the
most eternally interesting, the most universally significant. And not only
has it nobility in respect of the greatness of its subject matter, it has
also possibilities of an essential truth deeper and more far-reaching and
more fruitful than any demonstrative system of fact can have.
A great poem or work of art of any kind is an adumbration of truths which
transcend any actual fact, and as such it brings us nearer to the underlying
fundamentals of reality which all actual occurrences only by accumulation
tend to realise. Philosophy, then, in so far as it is great, is, like
other great art, prophetic in both interpretations of the word, both as
expounding the inner truth that is anterior to actuality, and also as
anticipating that final realisation of all things for which ‘the whole
creation groaneth.’ It is thus at the basis of religion, of art, of morals;
it is the accumulated sense of the highest in man with respect to what is
greatest and most mysterious in and about him.
A History of Greek Philosophy /
THE ATOMISTS /
EMPEDOCLES
