The Refutation of All Heresies: Book I.
by Hippolytus
A survey of the Greek philosophers, laying the groundwork for tracing later teachings to their sources.
1. Contents.2. The Proœmium.--Motives for Undertaking the Refutation; Exposure of the Ancient Mysteries; Plan of the Work; Completeness of the Refutation; Value of the Treatise to Future Ages.3. Thales; His Physics and Theology; Founder of Greek Astronomy.4. Pythagoras; His Cosmogony; Rules of His Sect; Discoverer of Physiognomy; His Philosophy of Numbers; His System of the Transmigration of Souls; Zaratas on Demons; Why Pythagoras Forbade the Eating of Beans; The Mode of Living Adopted by His Disciples.5. Empedocles; His Twofold Cause; Tenet of Transmigration.6. Heraclitus; His Universal Dogmatism; His Theory of Flux; Other Systems.7. Anaximander; His Theory of the Infinite; His Astronomic Opinions; His Physics.8. Anaximenes; His System of “An Infinite Air;” His Views of Astronomy and Natural Phenomena.9. Anaxagoras; His Theory of Mind; Recognises an Efficient Cause; His Cosmogony and Astronomy.10. Archelaus; System Akin to that of Anaxagoras; His Origin of the Earth and of Animals; Other Systems.11. Parmenides; His Theory of “Unity;” His Eschatology.12. Leucippus; His Atomic Theory.13. Democritus; His Duality of Principles; His Cosmogony.14. Xenophanes; His Scepticism; His Notions of God and Nature; Believes in a Flood.15. Ecphantus; His Scepticism; Tenet of Infinity.16. Hippo; His Duality of Principles; His Psychology.17. Socrates; His Philosophy Reproduced by Plato.18. Plato; Threefold Classification of Principles; His Idea of God; Different Opinions Regarding His Theology and Psychology; His Eschatology and System of Metempsychosis; His Ethical Doctrines; Notions on the Free-Will Question.19. Aristotle; Duality of Principles; His Categories; His Psychology; His Ethical Doctrines; Origin of the Epithet “Peripatetic.”20. The Stoics; Their Superiority in Logic; Fatalists; Their Doctrine of Conflagrations.21. Epicurus; Adopts the Democritic Atomism; Denial of Divine Providence; The Principle of His Ethical System.22. The Academics; Difference of Opinion Among Them.23. The Brachmans; Their Mode of Life; Ideas of Deity; Different Sorts Of; Their Ethical Notions.24. The Druids; Progenitors of Their System.25. Hesiod; The Nine Muses; The Hesiodic Cosmogony; The Ancient Speculators, Materialists; Derivative Character of the Heresies from Heathen Philosophy.