Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy [35-36]
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§12. The question of the causes in the previous philosophy
a) The working out of the ἀρχή-character of ὕλη in the previous philosophy.
There indeed a questioning of the ἀρχαί ["principles"], but the problem is not explicitly formulated as such; left implicit. περὶ φύσεως (983a34f.): beings in themselves, whence and how they are, beings in their Being. περὶ φύσεως,38 περὶ φύσεως ἱστορία [" research into nature"],39 οἱ ἀρχαίοι φυσιολόγοι ["the ancient investigators into nature"] (cf. 986b14). λόγος-φύσις, exhibition of beings in themselves; not a consideration of the possibility and necessity of a knowledge of nature, but a consideration of nature itself. Not simply the reason and cause of the world. Mythical genealogies and cosmologies.40 The theogony of Hesiod, the cosmogony in Pherecydes of Syros: telling stories about beings; succession.
φύσις: φύειν—"to engender," φύεσθαι—" to grow." 1. the ever enduring.41 2. the becoming.42 Both.43 The essential: what of itself is always already present without human or divine involvement. The first-named meaning comes closest to the philosophical-ontological signification.
Cause:44 what is already, first and foremost; what always is. 1. sought in general; 2. what is taken for such. ὕδως ["water"]—Thales; ἄπειρον ["the indeterminate"]—Anaximander; ἀήρ ["air"]—Anaximenes. Here cause comes into question in the sense of what is, and remains, always already; but without a concept of cause, without being able to decide what would satisfy this sought cause, and without understanding whether thereby the question of the Being of beings has already been answered or indeed has even merely been posed. ὡς τῆς τοιαύτης φύσεως ἀεὶ σωζομένης φύσις σώζεται, "a being which, from out of itself, is always already there saves itself ever," (983b12f.), the constancy of what is always already present. The gaze of those who were seeking was aimed at that (though without genuinely seeing it), intended
38. See Morchen transcription, no. 10, p. 174f
39. Cf. Plato, Phaedo, 96a.
40. Cf. E. Cassirer, Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, vols. 1-3. Berlin, 1923ff. Vol. 1: Die Sprache, p. 13; vol. 2: Das mythische Denken, p. 57.
41. J. Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 3d ed. London, 1920 (henceforth, Burnet), p. 10: "everlasting"; p. 206 and n. 4, p. 205: "which does not pass away"; p. 228. [These quotes from Burnet are in English in Heidegger's text. -Trans.]
42. K. Joel, Geschichte der antiken Philosophie. Vol. 1 (Grundriß der philosophischen Wissenschaften). Tübingen, 1921, p. 256. Also Joel, Der Ursprung der Naturphilosophie aus dem Geiste der Mystik. Basel, 1903 (henceforth, Joel, Ursprung), p. 44.
43. A. Lasson, Über den Zufall. Berlin, 1918, pp. 52, 58ff.
44. See Morchen transcription, no. 10, p. 174f.