THE PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS

GREEK CITY where philosophy originated

PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS rejected traditional & mythological explanations for the phenomena
they saw around them in favour of more RATIONAL EXPLANATIONS

COSMOCENTRIC focus on the essence of things

COSMOGONISTS they tried to discover the matter of which the cosmos is made up

SENSISTS they take into account only what falls under our senses, only things we can see, touch &
otherwise sense are real

THALES recognized that magical, religious, allegorical, or mythical explanations differed from a
rational & scientific explanation of nature; everything comes from water that nourishes the world
& the whole universe; nutriment of all things is moist, and heat itself generated form the moist
and kept alive by it

WATER basic material substance that is capable of changing into ice, mist, etc.

SOUL principal motor

SOUL IS THE PRINCIPAL MOTOR motive force like a magnet, intermingled in the whole universe

THALES first known thinker to seek naturalistic, rational answers to fundamental questions, rather
than to ascribe objects & events to the whims capricious gods

ANAXIMANDER the substance of all things is boundless mass from which specific things like earth,
air, fire, water, and the like are separated & indefinite; published the first map of the world

APEIRON boundless mass; that which is devoid of limit, in other words infinite

ANAXIMENES known for his doctrine that air is the source of everything & through rarefaction &
condensation, air becomes warm, cold, fire, liquid, and solid

RAREFACTION loosening

CONDENSATION packing

CONDENSED AIR cold; human body

RAREFIED AIR hot; the soul

EMPEDOCLES 4 elements are the roots of the universe; everything is made from these 4
qualitatively different elements by combination or by separation

FORCE OF LOVE brings the 4 elements together

FORCE OF HATE tears the 4 elements apart

PYTHAGORAS everything we can see & touch is made up of numbers

PYTHAGOREANS philosophy is a way of life rather than a body of doctrine

NUMBER is more basic than water or fire

THALES father of philosophy

NUMERICAL PROPORTION & HARMONY accounts for the order & arrangement of things in their
various forms

PYTHAGORAS his disciples lived in a collective commune, following strict behavioural & dietary rules

DIVINE REVELATION hypotenuse is the sum of the sides

MATHEMATICAL PATTERN OF CREATION on the unlimited (the infinite that existed before the
universe) God imposed a limit, so that all exists came to have an actual size

HERACLITUS known for his doctrine of change being the central to the universe and that logos or
reason is the fundamental order of all

LOGOS reason

FIRE is the symbol of continual change in nature, which means it is not a substance but a process

HERACLITUS most famous Greek philosopher until Socrates was born 10 years later

PARMENIDES the true reality of all things they exist, that they are being; being, not change or
becoming

NON-BEING if a thing is not being

DEDUCTIVE REASONING from general to particular

WAY OF TRUTH what is real; comparison; cannot be known through sensory perception

WAY OF SEEMING what is illusory; can be understood by reason or logos

DEMOCRITUS there is only one kind of substance or matter: atoms

ATOMS space-filling bodies; they are one in substance but many in forms (sizes & shapes)

MOTION movement of atoms by bombarding each other

DEATH occurs when atoms disperse

PROTAGORAS man is the measurement of all things that they are, and of things that they are not

TRUTH private concern of each individual person; depends on perspective & therefore RELATIVE

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MAN measure of all things

COSMOCENTRIC QUESTIONS 4 ELEMENTS

1. From where does everything come? 1. Earth

2. From what is everything created? 2. Water
3. How do we explain the plurality of 3. Fire
things found in nature? 4. Air
4. How might we describe nature
mathematically? 2 SIDES OF PYTHAGORAS BELIEFS
 1. Mystical
2. Scientific

NUMBER IS THE
PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS
1. Ruler of forms
2. Ruler of ideas 1. Thales
2. Anaximander
2 WAYS OF FINDING OUT THE TRUTH 3. Anaximenes
4. Empedocles
1. That it is 5. Pythagoras
2. That is not 6. Heraclitus
7. Parmenides
8. Democritus
9. Protagoras