HOMER THE PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHER

(See my several other Homer entries, posted at different times on this blog.)

Let us first dispense with the nonsense that either Homer was not a person, but a multitude of poets, spread over several centuries; or--- as the young Nietzsche confusingly puts it--- that he was a person, only his name was not Homer, but what it was we do not know. Well, Homer is a bona fide wholesome person to me, and his name is Homer. For more on this, see my Homeric entries in the Sonnets and in other sections, where my reasoning is amply provided, so that I would not have to do it again and again each time I say Homer. It is for the reason of those other Homeric entries, of course, that the present entry is so brief, to avoid multiple repetitions.

We ended the last entry by asking the question what is philosophy? and answering it to the effect that on the most basic level philosophy is the study of certain questions addressing human conduct and existence, while examining reality, causality, and the concepts of good and evil, freedom, etc.

Talking about Good and Evil is the bread and butter of philosophy, and one of the most popular questions, which defines philosophical reflection, particularly, in the modern era, is Why does God who is good allow so much evil in His creation? Now, in the first book of the Odyssey, we come across the following passage, where Homer answers it in a way, which immediately establishes his solid philosophical credentials:

“In the bright hall of Zeus upon Olympos

“the other gods were all at home, and Zeus,

“the father of gods and men, made conversation…

“and spoke his thought aloud before them all:

“‘My word, how mortals take the gods to task!

“All their afflictions come from us, we hear.

“And what of their own failings? Greed and folly

“double the suffering in the lot of man.’”

It is true, of course, that an overwhelming majority of all afflictions from which the human race is suffering comes from man’s own failings, rather than from a force majeure. Thus, even on the strength of this single excerpt, Homer comes forth as a bona fide homo philosophicus.

(This is a wonderful opportunity for me to reiterate my previously-stated conclusion that evil is just a bad-alternative effect of a good cause, and not a state-in-eternity. God’s Absolute Goodness is an axiom, whereas the practical good of our existence is related to His incomprehensible goodness, but cannot serve us as a practical foundation of morality: the latter is only made comprehensible through the opposition of choices: good choice-bad choice. The absence of choice might have gotten us rid of evil, but of good as well, in the same fell swoop… But it is always nice to quote someone as great and as ancient as Homer.)

Having said all that, it remains to mention that no serious book on the history of Greek philosophy ever fails to prominently include Homer among its preeminent persons of interest. Quod erat demonstrandum… (Need I also mention that of my two most esteemed sources on the pre-Socratics, both Nietzsche and Russell readily give Homer a most honorable mention, even if their individual perceptions of the persona of Homer are questionable, to say the least?)