Anaximander and Dr Dicks

Extract

I am sorry to have annoyed Dr Dicks by criticising two articles of his in one of my footnotes (D. R. Dicks, ‘On Anaximander's figures’, JHS lxxxix [1969] 120: the offending footnote is in JHS lxxxviii [1968] 120 n. 44, referring to Dicks, CQ n.s. ix [1959] 294–309, especially 299 and 301, and JHS lxxxvi [1966] 26–40, especially 30 and 36). I limit myself to the four specific points raised, in the hope that Dr Dicks may one day be kind enough to substantiate his more general criticisms.

Pseudo-Galen

Five separate doxographical sources attribute to Anaxagoras the statement that the sun is larger, or many times larger, than the Peloponnese. Galen, or pseudo-Galen, notes that Anaxagoras' sun is larger than the earth. I suggested that this second formula, although it may not misrepresent the substance of Anaxagoras' theory, was ‘probably in Galen simply a random error, arising from the fact that the preceding sentence, on Anaximander, twice makes a comparison of sun and earth’ (JHS lxxxviii [1968] 124 n. 62). It is hard to know what motivates Dr Dicks to omit my reasoning and to stigmatise my conclusion as ‘curious’ and ‘eccentric’.