Pythagoras founded a philosophical and religious
school based on Mathematics
Followers known as mathematikoi, had no personal
possessions and were vegetarians, obeyed strict rules. The beliefs that Pythagoras
held were
(1) that at its deepest level, reality is mathematical in nature,
(2) that philosophy can be used for spiritual purification,
(3) that the soul can rise to union with the divine,
(4) that certain symbols have a mystical significance, and
(5) that all brothers of the order should observe strict loyalty and
secrecy.
Discovered numerical principles of Music and
Astrology.
~ Dynamics of world structure depends on the interaction of contraries,(pairs of opposites)
~ soul is a self-moving number experiencing successive reincarnation in different species until
its eventual purification
~ all existing objects were fundamentally composed of form and not of material substance.
Pythagoras believed that the planets produced sounds while tracing out their orbits,
producing the "harmony of the spheres."
Thales of Miletus 585 B.C. (1st Philosopher ?)
Used Mathematics and Astronomy to predicted a solar eclipse
The search for the first Material Principle
Metaphysics.
“What is the world made of?" and "What is
the ultimate substance of all reality?”
Something physical? (Matter or energy)
This is called materialism.
Something more spiritual or mental, such as
ideas or ideals? This is called idealism.
Ultimate nature was known in Greek as physis, (root of Physics and
Physiology).
Looking For Element and first principle of existing things
Most of the first philosophers thought that principles in the form
of matter were the only principles of all things (Monist
Materialists).
The original source of all existing things, that from which a thing
first comes-into-being and into which it is finally destroyed, the
substance persisting but changing in its qualities,
No absolute coming-to-be or passing away, on the ground that
such a nature is always preserved... for there must be some
natural substance, either one or more than one ( pluralist), from
which the other things come-into-being, while it is preserved.”
Thales
"For moist natural substance, since it is easily formed
into each different thing, is accustomed to undergo
very various changes; that part of it which is exhaled is
made into air, and the finest part is kindled from air
into aether, while when water is compacted and
changes into slime it becomes earth. Therefore
Thales declared that water, of the four elements, was
the most active, as it were, as cause."
Anaximanes- Air
Heraclitus – Fire
"This universe, which is the same for all, has not been
made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and
will be, an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular
measures and going out by regular measures."
“Into the same rivers we step and do not step, we are
and are not.” (Heraclitus Homericus)
Studied the disappearance and reappearance of the moon at
the end and beginning of a month He explained the sun and
moon as bowls full of fire. As the moon's bowl rotated it caused
the phases. Eclipses were the result of a rotation of the convex
side of the bowls to face the earth. We have no reports about
the earth itself, but we may suppose that, like his predecessors,
Heraclitus viewed it as flat. Evaporations from the earth and sea
apparently provided fuel for the heavenly bodies, which burned
like oil lamps.
All things that happen are good, but humans do not perceive
them to be so. To God all things are fair, good and just, but men
suppose some things are unjust, some just.
Conflict (including presumably human conflict) keeps the world
going.
Studied the disappearance and reappearance of the
moon at the end and beginning of a month He
explained the sun and moon as bowls full of fire. As
the moon's bowl rotated it caused the phases. Eclipses
were the result of a rotation of the convex side of the
bowls to face the earth. We have no reports about the
earth itself, but we may suppose that, like his
predecessors, Heraclitus viewed it as flat.
Evaporations from the earth and sea apparently
provided fuel for the heavenly bodies, which burned
like oil lamps.
Anaximander a different substance (apeiron )that
is limitless or indeterminate, from which there
come into being all the heavens and the worlds
within them. Things perish into those things out of
which they have their being, according to
necessity. (Aristotole).
From the apeiron opposing pairs emerge (e.g.,
the wet/dry and the hot/cold) and contend with
one another, until one of the pair is annihilated,
becoming the other. For example, day will be
transformed into night or winter into summer.
This is what Anaximander means when he says
that things do injustices to one another.
“God is day night, winter summer, war peace,
satiety hunger, and he alters just as fire when it
is mixed with spices is named according to the
aroma of each of them.”
Leucippus and Democritus These ancient atomists
theorized that the two fundamental and oppositely
characterized constituents of the natural world are indivisible
bodies—atoms—and void. Void is described simply as
nothing, or the negation of body.
Atoms are by their nature intrinsically
unchangeable; they can only move about in the
void and combine into different clusters. Since
the atoms are separated by void, they cannot
fuse, but must rather bounce off one another
when they collide. Because all macroscopic
objects are in fact combinations of atoms,
everything in the macroscopic world is subject to
change, as their constituent atoms shift or move
away. Thus, while the atoms themselves persist
through all time, everything in the world of our
experience is transitory and subject to
dissolution.
Because all macroscopic objects are in fact
combinations of atoms, everything in the
macroscopic world is subject to change, as their
constituent atoms shift or move away. Thus,
while the atoms themselves persist through all
time, everything in the world of our experience
is transitory and subject to dissolution.
The cosmos consists of nothing but identical,
indestructible particles moving randomly in a
void.
What Motivates Human Behavior
Thales – soul or mind produces physical force
that is the source of human behavior.
Epistemology
How do we know what is true or false, what is real or not? Can we
know anything for certain, or is it ultimately hopeless?
True” reality (noumenon) and “apparent” reality (phenomenon).
Explored the idea that there is an “unreal seen” beneath the seen real.
Empiricism, which says that all knowledge comes through the senses.
Rationalism, which says that knowledge is a matter of reason, thought.
These are not mutually exclusive ideas!!
If not from the gods, where does the mind obtain the raw materials of
thought?
Philosophy Explore the Parameters
Nativist
Idealist
Monist
Determinism
Empiricist
Materialism
Dualist
Freewill