The pre-Socratic Philosophers
Heraclitus
Thales
Pythagoras
Although these philosophers
were called pre – Socratic, they
hadn’t lived before Socrates. On
the contrary, they were
contemporary with Socrates, or
even younger than him. The
adjective «pre – Socratic» come
from the classification Aristoteles
did. It meant that they weren’t
under the Socrates’ influence.
These philosophers tried to discover
principles that could uniformly,
consistently, and comprehensively
explain all natural phenomena and
the events in human life without
resorting to mythology. The preSocratic style of thought is often
called natural philosophy, but their
concept of nature was much broader
than ours.
They initiated a new method of
explanation known as philosophy
which has continued in use until
the present day, and developed
their thoughts primarily within the
framework of cosmology and
cosmogony encompassing
spiritual and mythical as well as
aesthetic and physical elements.
They brought human thought to a
new level of abstraction; raised a
number of central questions of
ontology, and cultivated the
human spirit so as to open our
eyes to the eternal truth.
The Pre-socratic thinkers present a
discourse concerned with key areas of
philosophical inquiry such as being
and the cosmos, the primary stuff of
the universe, the structure and
function of the human soul, and the
underlying principles governing
perceptible phenomena, human
knowledge and morality.
They sought the material principle (αρχή
- arché) of things, and the method of
their origin and disappearance. PreSocratics approached the question of
being primarily using two sets of
questions: first, whether the ultimate
reality can be conceived of through a
model based upon sensible element(s)
or intelligible element(s); second,
whether the ultimate reality is
immutable or ever changing.
In a few words, those philosophers
had brought attention to the question
of the being.
We can find some orientations about
this theme, and determinate the
following groups of philosophers:
The Milesians: Inquiry into the
Principles of Being
Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes
are grouped together as “the
Milesians.” These thinkers sought the
ultimate principle which governs all
phenomena in the element or
elements of nature.
Thales of Miletus (c. 624 - 546
B.C.E.) is known as the first
philosopher.
This view was established by
Aristotle who called Thales the
“father of philosophy”. Thales
identified the ultimate reality
(ousia) with “water.”
Next came Anaximander (610-546
BCE), the first writer on philosophy. He
assumed as the first principle an
undefined, unlimited substance
without qualities, out of which the
primary opposites, hot and cold, moist
and dry, became differentiated. He
identified it with the “boundless” or
“undefined”(to Apeiron).
Anaximenes(c. 585 - 528 B.C.E.) of
Miletus equated it with “air.” The
choice of air may seem arbitrary, but
Anaximenes based his conclusion on
naturally observable phenomena in
the processes of rarefaction and
condensation. It conceiving it as
modified, by thickening and thinning,
into fire, wind, clouds, water, and
earth.
As noted earlier, these material elements
should not be understood within the
context of modern science. Philosophers of
antiquity thought within more mystic
frameworks. Characteristics common to
these material elements such as water,
undefined matter, and air are flexibility, a
lack of specific forms and shapes, and the
potential of taking various forms and
shapes.
Pythagoras and Pythagoreans
Pythagoras was born in Ionia, moved to
southern Italy, and formed a religious group.
His followers were called Pythagoreans and
lived an ascetic life. Pythagoreans believed in
the transmigration of souls, probably through
the influence of Orphism. While the
Milesians defined the ultimate reality as
something to de determined or understood,
Pythagoreans used determining principles to
define reality.
For Pythagoreans, the principle of being is
seen in what gives form and shape rather
than what is formed and shaped. According
to the terminology of Aristotle, Pythagoreans
equated the principle with form as opposed
to matter. Pythagoreans identified numbers
as the unchanging, determining principle and
found numerical harmony both in the
cosmos and healthy human life.
Ephesian school
Heraclitus of Ephesus posited that all
things in nature are in a state of perpetual
flux, connected by logical structure or
pattern, which he termed Logos. To
Heraclitus, fire, one of the four classical
elements, motivates and substantiates this
eternal pattern. From fire all things
originate, and return to it again in a
process of eternal cycles.
Eleatics
Xenophanes of Colophon (570-470 BCE)
declared God to be the eternal unity, permeating
the universe, and governing it by his thought.
Parmenides of Elea (510-440 BCE) affirmed the
one unchanging existence to be alone true and
capable of being conceived, and multitude and
change to be an appearance without reality.
This doctrine was defended by his younger
countryman Zeno of Elea (490-430 BCE) in a
polemic against the common opinion which sees
in things multitude, becoming, and change.
Pluralist school
Empedocles of Agrigentum (490-430 BCE).
He appears to have been partly in agreement
with the Eleatic School, partly in opposition
to it. On the one hand, he maintained the
unchangeable nature of substance; on the
other, he supposes a plurality of such
substances - i.e. four classical elements:
earth, water, air, and fire. Of these the world
is built up, by the agency of two ideal motive
forces - love as the cause of union, strife as
the cause of separation.
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500-428 BCE)
in Asia Minor also maintained the
existence of an ordering principle as well as
a material substance, and while regarding
the latter as an infinite multitude of
imperishable primary elements, he
conceived divine reason or Mind (nous) as
ordering them. He referred all generation
and disappearance to mixture and
resolution respectively.
Atomist school
The first explicitly materialistic system was
formed by Leucippus (5th century BCE) and his
pupil Democritus of Abdera (460-370 BCE) from
Thrace. This was the doctrine of atoms (ancient
Greek – indivisible). - small primary bodies
infinite in number, indivisible and imperishable,
qualitatively similar, but distinguished by their
shapes. Moving eternally through the infinite
void, they collide and unite, thus generating
objects which differ in accordance with the
varieties, in number, size, shape, and
arrangement, of the atoms which compose them.
Sophism
The Sophists held that all thought rests solely on
the apprehensions of the senses and on subjective
impression, and that therefore we have no other
standards of action than convention for the
individual. Specializing in rhetoric, the Sophists
were more professional educators than
philosophers. They flourished as a result of a
special need at that time for Greek education.
Prominent Sophists include Protagoras (490-420
BCE) Gorgias (487-376 BCE) Hippias (485-415 BCE)
Prodicus (465-390 BCE) from the island of Ceos.
There were the most important philosophical
currents, which were in the Ancient Time. Some
principles such as elements, atoms, numbers,
mind, rethoric, apprehension of the sense,
subjective impression became the ground of
our way of thinking and milestones for the
philosophers, physicists, phychologs and more.
Today we have seen how has born the European
culture.