Hello,
I'd like for you to consider one premise: Does it matter who actually espoused these beliefs? I believe that we should just be grateful somone wrote them down. Perhaps the original author didn't write it all down or it was lost, and one of his students didn't want the information to be lost forever. Really, what does it matter who wrote the words originally?
If you are in a philosophy class, I believe this question is a "test" question or a term paper, meant for you to do much research. I would suggest to your professor the premise above. He may ridicule you and say "do the assignment as stated," so you still may be stuck with the original assignent because you are in college to "work" and work hard. Hopefully, he'll be open-minded and realize that if the knowledge and wisdom were handed down to us today, we should be grateful, no matter the original author. N'est-ce pas? If you're lucky, he may allow you to do an essay concerning the above premise instead of the original assignment.
If you're not in college and just looking for answers, these are my own thoughts on the matter.
Hope this helps or at least gives you a new avenue to consider.
