Pre-Socratic
Philosophers
Reality is One
Thales
Anaximander
Anaximenes
Pythagoras
Heraclitus
Parmenides
Zeno
Reality is Many
Introduction
Thinkers from the Greek world (sixth and
fifth centuries BC)
Attempted to create general theories of the
cosmos (world)
Mythos
Logos
There must be a good explanation to the appearances of
the world beyond the tales of how the god’s had created
everything. Ex: Before philosophy, myths explained natural phenomena (the sun was carried around the
heavens by Apollo’s chariot; Zeus hurled thunder and
Thales of Miletus
(624-545 B.C.E)
• Sought a common
source, a single substance underlying all things.
• Believed that substance was water: all things are water.
Anaximander of Miletus
(611-546 B.C.E)
• Earth (a cylinder) rests where it does because of its equidistance from
everything else.
• The “stuffs” of the world come in opposites
(hot-cold, dry-wet, hard-soft) from a vast “Indefinite-Infinite” called apeiron
Anaximenes of Miletus
(died 500 B.C.E)
• Believed the first, universal, underlying element is air (pneuma).
• Proposed two opposing processes of change: condensation and rarefaction.
• Through condensation, pure air becomes denser: air - fire - wind - cloud - water - earth - stone; Matter becomes
Pythagoras (572-500 BC)
The ultimate stuff is not some material
element like water or fire
All things are numbers and a correct
description of reality must be express
in terms of mathematical formulas
Totality of reality can be explained by
Pythagoras was a numerologist
interested in the mystical
significance of numbers
Eg. Is there something to the fact
Empedocles
(5th c. B.C.E)
• One of the first Pluralists (those who
believed that there exist many realities or substances).
• Reality must be “completely full,” a
plenum, without any gaps; all motion and
changes take place within existing reality.
• Reality consists of six basic
components: four basic “roots” (earth, air, fire, water) and two basic “motions” (Love, which unites different things and
Anaxagoras
(500 - 428 B.C.E)
•
Nous is the all-pervading
“mind” which imposes an
intelligible pattern in an
otherwise unintelligible
universe; nous affects things
without being in them.
Heraclitus of Ephesus
(510-480 B.C.E)
• Logos is the rule according to which all things are accomplished and the law which is found in all things.
• Everything is always changing.
• Distinguished between
appearance and reality in a way that contrasted apparent
Parmenides of Elea
(5th c. B.C.E)
• Transformed philosophers interest in cosmology (the study of the universe as a rationally ordered system) into
ontology (the study of “being”).
• “What is, is” (being can be conceived of and expressed) and “What is not, is not” (not-being is incomprehensible and inexpressible).
Zeno (490 BC-?)
A disciple of Parmenides
wrote a series of famous paradoxes
“proving” that motion is impossible
Is motion really impossible?
Are all things One and thus are motion
One could never move from point A to B
In order to get to point B you must go half
way, but before you can go halfway you
must go halfway of the remaining halfway,
but first you must go halfway of halfway.
Thus, motion is impossible even if it were
Conclusion derived from the mathematical
notion of the infinite divisibility of all
numbers, and indeed, of all matter
Do we choose Mathematics or Sensory
information?
Information based on senses (empiricism)
The Pluralists
Sense experience tells us that we can get
from A to B.
The Greeks who immediately followed
Parmenides and Zeno decided to reject
corporeal monism (reality is one).
Because differences exist and they must
be accounted for
Thus, ultimate reality is composed of a
Conclusion
Pre-Socratic philosophers:
Made obvious the dichotomy between reason
and senses
Attempted to explain reality without religion
(mythos)
Attempted to understand how mathematical
numbers were related to the flux of reality
Did the Pre-Socratic Philosophers
