porary creativity with lists of major or secondary philosophers who are vertical
isolates from significant master-pupil chains:China:
Shen Pu-Hai
Shang Yang
Tao Te Ching author
Wang Ch’ung
Greece:
Melissus
Lucretius
Numenius of Apamea
Mani
Pseudo-DionysiusThe Tao Te Ching author may not belong on this list. That person, I would
conjecture, was probably in the network of the followers of Chuang Tzu and
those around Kung-sun Lung, most likely at the court of Wei; but I will not
press the point. The anonymous Mohist Canons, however, were surely pro-
duced in the network of known figures of the Mohist schools.
There are relatively few and unimportant figures who are isolated from
significant master-pupil chains or other personal ties among well-known intel-
lectuals. Lucretius is perhaps the most notable exception here.
The network patterns of Greek and Chinese philosophers are representative
of what we find throughout world history. In medieval Islam, Judaism, Chris-
tendom and modern Europe, episodes of creativity occur among contemporary
rivals and in significant intergenerational chains. There are relatively few
exceptions. Among philosophers listed as major, we find only the following:
Horizontal isolates (lack of significant rivals):
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) 1120 c.e. Iran
Al-Ghazali 1180 Iraq, IranVertical isolates (lack of intellectual network ties):
NoneThe major Jewish philosopher-scientist Levi ben Gerson (early 1300s), as far
as we know, was not directly connected with the minor Jewish philosophers
in southern France of his day; but he was connected with the papal court at
Avignon at just the period when it was the center for numerous Christian
philosophers, and thus probably had an indirect connection to the latter
network (DSB, 1981: 8:279–280).
Even these may not be so very exceptional. Ibn Sina lacks significant philo-
886 •^ Appendix 1