Physis in Thucydides’ Historical Thought

Abstract

This paper seeks to determine the meaning and narrative function of the concept of φύσις in Thucydides’ work. Our interpretation of his text is based on Heinrich Patzer’s semantic analysis, one that distinguishes three connotative categories: outlook, being of itself, and the manner of behaviour. This research procedure is supposed to qualify the concept under study to a respective connotative group by determining its semantic value. In the category “being of itself,” φύσις has been used to denote inborn oral values, such that are manifested in action and are passed on through inheritance. They are linked with the inborn traits of intellect, a fact that makes it possible to control external circumstances. In the meaning of a genius, an innate talent, the historian pays attention to the role of the individual’s mental skills in the historical process and confers on them a causative function in historical changes. In the meaning a “true character” reveals its motivation; it is stated that nature determines human action, and is a necessary factor in history, such that is being revealed in deeds. The historian indicates also the qualitative inequality of intellectual predisposition: innate mental skills allow us to recognise situation and action free from error, whereas a weaker intellectual constitution evokes the force of human passion. In the extraordinary natural predisposition that is distinguished in a community, φύσις has a myth-making function. The historian uses this concept in his justification of the meaning of eminent historical figures, and it is the basic component of the historiographic creation of heroes. Φύσις functions in this case as the archetype of a hero “integrator,” i.e., it is an individual that composes the prototype of a hero in a historiographic construction on the basis of concrete, always repetitive and intellectual inborn traits.

Category of the manner of behaviour.
a) Human nature. The historian observes social conduct in critical moments, a fact that makes him conclude that the factor accountable for the disintegration of social structures is φύσις with its predilection to give in to passions. In this social determinism of behaviour, imposed by human nature, we implicitly observe the law of self-destruction of societies and states. When the logical factor is missing our decision is erroneous and brings disaster on those overwhelmed by passion.
Another aspect of this category is the natural law of the stronger, the law that is inherent in the manner of behaviour. Activity is manifested in acts and passion is combined with the faculties of the mind. Therefore it is possible to control circumstances and such representatives of φύσις may be included in the group of stronger individuals who in the conception of historiography are factors that direct history according to their own intention and they are authors of the development of mankind.
Thucydides accounts for the process of social disintegration during a war by the immutability of human nature. In this description he turns our attention to the emotional masses revealed in action. Social reactions to events are devoid of the rational factor (γνώμη), therefore, according to the historian, the non-human τύχη enters the historical process. He also notices that the human law and morality are conventional and their function is marked with the absence of their foundations in human nature.
b) The law of nature. Man is a part of the world of nature affected by the laws of nature. The polis are also under the pressure of natural factors. In this respect it is difficult to distinguish between the external manifestation of this law and its function in the sense of human nature. They are combined in the historical process by causal and effectual ties (the law of nature affects human nature). Hence we see Thucydides’ view about nature as a factor determining the world of human acts. In the historical reality under study we observe an element profoundly inherent in his narration. It accounts for the facts by referring to the categories superior to the internal world presented in the work. These categories become over the world of narration and affect its course from without. One of them is necessity. It is linked with human nature as an effect of action coming from this nature, hence it is applied in the work and becomes points of the historical process (in the form of concrete events submitted to explication). The most distinct common course of human and cosmic nature is found in the law to give in to the belittling of beings. Each being has in itself the element of dissolution, and at the same time dissolution results from the predilection to give in to passion, so characteristic of human nature. Passions introduce into the world of human actions yet another cosmic factor, i.e., τύχη. There are also three factors that belong to the manner of behaviour of human nature, and they are linked with nature so broadly understood, i.e., fear, benefit, honour as a reaction to given circumstances (manifestations of the historical process). The historical process itself, according to Thucydides, is a visible manifestation of two factors: cosmic nature and human nature.
It has been settled then that φύσις s an essential element of the intellectual layer of the work. This concept is a construct for the historian that explains the historical reality along two levels: as a set of events that come from the external and non-human world (τύχη, the law of nature), and directly linked with man’s action (γνώμη, passions controlled by reason); and it is a set of potentially actualised traits of human nature that constitute a certain norm of the individual’s behaviour (φύσις here is manifested through rational abilities) and mass (manifested in through passions). Moreover, it has been noticed how this concept is applied in the model of causative explication of the historical facts and phenomena created by Thucydides and referring to the essence of things.