The Pre-Socratics

Thales 624-545 B.C.E.

Born in Miletus (Turkey).
Interests: natural philosophy, mathematics, and
astronomy.
He wrote On Nature
Using physics, he measured the Egyptian
pyramids.
Predicted a solar eclipse in 585 B.C.E.
He was in search of the arche or first principle
of the universe.
His conclusion: all is water, the world rests on
water and has a soul or spirit.

Anaximander 610-540 B.C.E.

Possibly a student of Thales
Interests-geometry, astronomy, philosophy.
First philosophy in prose.
Invented the sundial.
First Greek to give us a map of the world.
Argues: all is boundless with no specific
qualities, creating opposites.
Divine because it is deathless and
indestructible.
world surrounded by concentric circles made
up of the earth in the center then water, air, fire.

Anaximenes 545 B.C.E.

An associate of Anaximander.
Argues: All is air, has no limits and never dies.
Empirical research led him to believe that what
is alive breaths and has a soul and this must be
true of the cosmos.
Argues: what happens to the smallest creature
must also happen on a greater level. (e.g.
Condensation of air creates water to snow then
ice.)
Like Thales, Anaximenes believed the earth
rested on something and his something was air.

Xenophones 570 B.C.E.

A traveler and roaming poet, born in Colophon.
May have been the teacher of Parmenides.
Interests: Poetry, Religion, and Natural
Philosophy.
First to try to discredit the gods.
Argues: humans project their thoughts and
actions onto the gods.
Humans have knowledge from experience;
perception is different for each (culturally).

Pythagoras 570-497 B.C.E.

Pythagoras was the leader of a popular

religious cult named after him.
Pythagorean Brotherhood lived a regimented
life in Croton, Italy
He believed in reincarnation and the
transmigration of the soul.
The soul is immortal and humans can reunite
with the divine by perfecting/puryfying themself
Incarnation is punishment for bad things we do.
Main argument is that the world is a place of
order and that order comes from numbers. He
studied math and furthered the study of
geometry.

Heraclitus 540-480 B.C.E.

Born in Ephesus to an aristocratic family.
He shunned his duties, preferring the study of
everything from philosophy to politics.
Argues: Universe is ruled by order, or logos.
He once said, "One cannot step in the same
river twice".
Studied the philosophers before him and built
upon their ideas.
Like the philosophers before him, he believed
that the all led to one thing and that thing is
change or flux.

Parmenides of Elea (515-445 B.C.E.)

Born in Elea, Italy.
Likely a student of Xenophanes.
Also wants to find the one basic principle.
Considered to be the first rationalist.
Argues: "What is, is, - What is not, is not" was
so, if we say nothing exists, we are in fact
acknowledging something because nothing is
in fact something.
The one is the mysterious X factor (Being),
which neither comes into being nor passes
away, but is unchangeable.

Zeno of Elea 490-430 B.C.E.

Born in Elea, student of Parmenides.
Famous for his paradox of the turtle and
Achilles, using it to defend his teacher
Parmenides
Imagine Achilles and a turtle are in a race, the
turtle gets a head start. For Achilles to catch up
to the turtle he must travel half the distance of
his intended goal. The turtle is still moving, so
again he must travel half the distance. As you
can see, he will never catch the turtle,
therefore motion is an illusion.

Empedocles -440 B.C.E.

Merged ideas of Parmenides and
Pythagoras.
He asked what accounts for change and
concluded that the four elements are the
cause. For change to occur, there must
be forces to move elements.
Those forces are love and strife.
Empedocles gives up the idea the One.

Anaxagoras 500-428 B.C.E.

Born in Clazomenae, Ionia (Asia Minor).
He used Parminedes idea of the mysterious
"X" factor,
May have been writing an answer to
Empedocles idea of change.
Agreed with the idea of the four elements.
Believed any kind of stuff we have has always
been there.

Lucippus (dates disputed) and

Democritus 470-360 B.C.E.
Lucippus and Democritus are known as
atomists who believed in the great void and
that atoms are the only things that exist.
The divine equals immortality and power.
Nothing happens randomly, but everything
happens from necessity.
Democritus was a professional student and
wrote more than fifty books.
In the fourth century, Christians destroyed his
work.

The Sophists
Were not interested in facts, but in making
money by teaching to win arguments by any
means, Mostly by making the opposing
person's argument weak.
Most famous: Protagoras 490-420 B.C.E who
said a man is the measure of all things.
Gorgias 483-375 B.C.E. Antipone and
Thrasymacus show up later in Platos Republic.

Socrates 469-399B.C.E.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Born middle class family in the city of Attica.
Infantryman in the Peloponnesian War,
recognized for his courage.
The only thing he really knew was that he knew
nothing.
Put on trial for corrupting the youth and
questioning the gods (i.e. impiety).
Being true to yourself is the most important
thing a man can do.

Socrates on Wisdom
Wisdom: The awareness of your own ignorance.
Contrasts unethical characterizations of
knowledge of the self-serving Sophists,
Connects his lack of knowledge, and
subsequent search for it, to virtue, the most
important of virtue being arete (excellence).
Knowledge is innate and by questioning in a
method (Socratic dialogue) he separates
knowledge from true belief, because truth
requires justification for the belief.

Socrates
Socrates is famous for his Skepticism. He
would approach popular people who
were considered wise, and ask them to
justify their beliefs. They would provide
him with various attempts at justification,
but Socrates would not accept their
words without further probing for
reasonable justification.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C)

An aristocratic physicians son.
Taught by Plato
Tutored Alexander the Great
First comprehensive system of Western
philosophy, encompassing morality and
aesthetics, logic, science, politics and
metaphysics.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is the
truth.

Aristotle on Wisdom
Scientifically inclined in his study of the
nature of things.
Highest good of human existence is to
implement rationality as rational beings.
Wisdom: Being able to rationalize about
things in the world, regarding practical
actions and finding happiness through
virtue.

Aristotle
Aristotle described how wonder fit into the
philosophical method: For it is owing to their
wonder that men both now begin and at first
began to philosophize; they wondered originally at
the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little
and stated difficulties about the greater matters
(e.g., about the phenomena of the moon and
those of the sun and of the stars, and about the
genesis of the universe) (Metaphysics, Book I).

Aristotle
Was first to formalize logic.
Devised analysis / evaluations of
arguments.
syllogistic logic: primary constituents of
arguments are terms, which are judged
as better or worse by their arrangement.
His works On Sophistical Refutations and
Prior Analytics address this

Plato vs. Aristotle

Plato - Doctrine of The Forms
There is objective reality, found in his
theory of the Forms.
Knowing the Forms is the highest form of
knowledge because they exist in the
most "real" way possible.

Plato vs. Aristotle

Aristotle believed in what Plato saw as a
subjective reality.
Forms are essences of things and these
are the most objective reality.
He rejects the idea that we can know
anything (perfectly and objectively) that
we don't know by experience, and we
cannot experience the essences.