Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy , epistemology , mathematics , political philosophy , ethics , metaphysics , ontology , logic , biology , rhetoric and aesthetics . Greek philosophy continued throughout the Hellenistic period and later evolved into Roman philosophy .
180-432: Pre-Socratic philosophy , also known as Early Greek Philosophy , is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates . Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology , the beginning and the substance of the universe , but the inquiries of these early philosophers spanned the workings of the natural world as well as human society , ethics , and religion . They sought explanations based on natural law rather than
360-416: A pluralistic account of how the universe was created. Leucippus and Democritus are known for their atomism , and their views that only void and matter exist. The Sophists advanced philosophical relativism . The Pre-Socratics have had significant impact on several concepts of Western philosophy , such as naturalism and rationalism , and paved the way for scientific methodology . Pre-Socratic
540-399: A religion , and had great impact on Gnosticism and Christian theology . Teleology Teleology (from τέλος , telos , 'end', 'aim', or 'goal', and λόγος , logos , 'explanation' or 'reason') or finality is a branch of causality giving the reason or an explanation for something as a function of its end, its purpose, or its goal, as opposed to as
720-471: A belief of the Orphics , a religious cult originating from Thrace, had affected the thought of the 5th century BC but the overall influence of their cosmology on philosophy is disputed. Pherecydes , a poet, magician, and contemporary of Thales, in his book describes a particular cosmogony, asserting that three gods pre-existed – a step towards rationality. The most important feature of pre-Socratic philosophy
900-451: A biologist, proposed a non- Darwinian account of evolution that incorporates impersonal and natural teleological laws to explain the existence of life, consciousness , rationality , and objective value. Regardless, the accuracy can also be considered independently from the usefulness: it is a common experience in pedagogy that a minimum of apparent teleology can be useful in thinking about and explaining Darwinian evolution even if there
1080-454: A centre of trade and production during the early phases of pre-Socratic philosophy. Trade of grain, oil, wine, and other commodities among each polis and colonies meant these towns were not isolated but embedded – and economically dependent – on a complex and changeable web of trade routes. Greek mythology also influenced the birth of philosophy. The philosophers' ideas, were, to a certain extent, answers to questions that were subtly present in
1260-454: A certain sense common, but, as a general rule, private; for, when everyone has a distinct interest, men will not complain of one another, and they will make more progress because everyone will be attending to his own business... And further, there is the greatest pleasure in doing a kindness or service to friends or guests or companions, which can only be rendered when a man has private property. These advantages are lost by excessive unification of
1440-437: A certain way, they nevertheless cannot be the sufficient condition for its moving or acting as it does. For example, if Socrates is sitting in an Athenian prison, the elasticity of his tendons is what allows him to be sitting, and so a physical description of his tendons can be listed as necessary conditions or auxiliary causes of his act of sitting. However, these are only necessary conditions of Socrates' sitting. To give
1620-518: A city is likely impossible, however, generally assuming that philosophers would refuse to rule and the people would refuse to compel them to do so. Whereas the Republic is premised on a distinction between the sort of knowledge possessed by the philosopher and that possessed by the king or political man, Socrates explores only the character of the philosopher; in the Statesman , on the other hand,
1800-468: A clock. In response to Thales, he postulated as the first principle an undefined, unlimited substance without qualities ( apeiron ), out of which the primary opposites, hot and cold, moist and dry, became differentiated. His answer was an attempt to explain observable changes by attributing them to a single source that transforms to various elements. Like Thales, he provided a naturalistic explanation for phenomena previously given supernatural explanations. He
1980-473: A cloud of micro-particles'." Mourelatos comments that the type of analogy that the cloud analogy is remains present in scientific language and "...is the modern philosopher's favourite subject for illustrations of inter-theoretic identity". According to Aristotle and Diogenes Laertius, Xenophanes was Parmenides' teacher; but is a matter of debate in current literature whether Xenophanes should also be considered an Eleatic. The hallmark of Heraclitus' philosophy
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#17327657869512160-513: A continuity in some aspects of Plato's philosophy. As Carl A. Huffman notes, Plato had a tendency to invoke mathematics in explaining natural phenomena, and he also believed in the immortality, even divinity of the human soul. The Eleatic school is named after Elea , an ancient Greek town on the southern Italian Peninsula. Parmenides is considered the founder of the school. Other eminent Eleatics include Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos . According to Aristotle and Diogenes Laertius, Xenophanes
2340-760: A critique of liberal versus socialist ideological societies. It is there, in his application of Epicurean belief to political theory, that Mises flouts Marxist theory, considering labor to be one of many of man's 'pains', a consideration which positioned labor as a violation of his original Epicurean assumption of man's manifest hedonistic pursuit. From here he further postulates a critical distinction between introversive labor and extroversive labor, further divaricating from basic Marxist theory, in which Marx hails labor as man's " species-essence ", or his "species-activity". In modern science, explanations that rely on teleology are often, but not always, avoided, either because they are unnecessary or because whether they are true or false
2520-570: A firm conclusion, or aporetically , has stimulated debate over the meaning of the Socratic method . Socrates is said to have pursued this probing question-and-answer style of examination on a number of topics, usually attempting to arrive at a defensible and attractive definition of a virtue . While Socrates' recorded conversations rarely provide a definite answer to the question under examination, several maxims or paradoxes for which he has become known recur. Socrates taught that no one desires what
2700-447: A form of aristocracy , a position which later Pythagoreans rejected, but generally, they were reactionary and notably repressed women. Other pre-Socratic philosophers mocked Pythagoras for his belief in reincarnation . Notable Pythagorians included Philolaus (470-380 BC), Alcmaeon of Croton , Archytas (428-347 BC) and Echphantus . The most notable was Alcmaeon, a medical and philosophical writer. Alcmaeon noticed that most organs in
2880-456: A function of its cause. James Wood , in his Nuttall Encyclopaedia , explained the meaning of teleology as "the doctrine of final causes, particularly the argument for the being and character of God from the being and character of His works; that the end reveals His purpose from the beginning, the end being regarded as the thought of God at the beginning, or the universe viewed as the realisation of Him and His eternal purpose." A purpose that
3060-479: A hard to interpret poem, named On Nature or On What-is , that substantially influenced later Greek philosophy. Only 150 fragments of this poem survive. It tells a story of a young man ( kouros in ancient Greek) dedicated to finding the truth carried by a goddess on a long journey to the heavens. The poem consists of three parts, the proem (i.e., preface), the Way of Truth and the Way of Opinion . Very few pieces from
3240-491: A hot thing cold). Therefore, they cannot truly be opposites but rather must both be manifestations of some underlying unity that is neither. This underlying unity (substratum, arche ) could not be any of the classical elements, since they were one extreme or another. For example, water is wet, the opposite of dry, while fire is dry, the opposite of wet. This initial state is ageless and imperishable, and everything returns to it according to necessity. Anaximenes in turn held that
3420-410: A larger, more desirable goal is insufficient to justify bad acts committed on the way to that goal, even if the bad acts are relatively minor and the goal is major (like telling a small lie to prevent a war and save millions of lives). In requiring all constituent acts to be good, deontological ethics is much more rigid than consequentialism, which varies by circumstance. Practical ethics are usually
3600-456: A maximum of happiness" (i.e. the ultimate pursuit of pleasure over pain). "Man strives for," Mises remarks, "but never attains the perfect state of happiness described by Epicurus ." Furthermore, expanding upon the Epicurean groundwork, Mises formalized his conception of pleasure and pain by assigning each specific meaning, allowing him to extrapolate his conception of attainable happiness to
3780-399: A mix of the two. For example, Mill also relies on deontic maxims to guide practical behavior, but they must be justifiable by the principle of utility. A teleology of human aims played a crucial role in the work of economist Ludwig von Mises , especially in the development of his science of praxeology . Mises believed that an individual's action is teleological because it is governed by
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#17327657869513960-414: A narrative understanding of oneself, of one's capacity as an independent reasoner, one's dependence on others and on the social practices and traditions in which one participates, all tend towards an ultimate good of liberation. Social practices may themselves be understood as teleologically oriented to internal goods, for example, practices of philosophical and scientific inquiry are teleologically ordered to
4140-466: A participant referred to as the Eleatic Stranger discusses the sort of knowledge possessed by the political man, while Socrates listens quietly. Although rule by a wise man would be preferable to rule by law, the wise cannot help but be judged by the unwise, and so in practice, rule by law is deemed necessary. Both the Republic and the Statesman reveal the limitations of politics, raising
4320-409: A pattern of thought that is still in use by modern metaphysics. Xenophanes, by reducing meteorological phenomena to clouds, created an argument that "X in reality is Y", for example B32, "What they call Iris [the rainbow] that too is in reality a cloud: one that appears to the eye as purple, red, and green. This is still use[d] today 'lightning is massive electrical discharge' or 'items such as tables are
4500-451: A physical description of Socrates' body is to say that Socrates is sitting, but it does not give any idea why it came to be that he was sitting in the first place. To say why he was sitting and not not sitting, it is necessary to explain what it is about his sitting that is good , for all things brought about (i.e., all products of actions) are brought about because the actor saw some good in them. Thus, to give an explanation of something
4680-460: A precursor to Epicurus ' total break between science and religion. Pythagoras lived at approximately the same time that Xenophanes did and, in contrast to the latter, the school that he founded sought to reconcile religious belief and reason. Little is known about his life with any reliability, however, and no writings of his survive, so it is possible that he was simply a mystic whose successors introduced rationalism into Pythagoreanism, that he
4860-517: A principle or a cause (especially in Aristotelian tradition). A common feature of the pre-Socratics is the absence of empiricism and experimentation in order to prove their theories. This may have been because of a lack of instruments, or because of a tendency to view the world as a unity, undeconstructable, so it would be impossible for an external eye to observe tiny fractions of nature under experimental control. According to Jonathan Barnes ,
5040-454: A professor of ancient philosophy, pre-Socratic philosophy exhibits three significant features: they were internal , systematic and economical . Internal meaning they tried to explain the world with characteristics found within this world. Systematic because they tried to universalize their findings. Economical because they tried to invoke only a few new terms. Based on these features, they reached their most significant achievement, they changed
5220-519: A single good , which was apparently combined with the Eleatic doctrine of Unity . Their work on modal logic , logical conditionals , and propositional logic played an important role in the development of logic in antiquity, and were influences on the subsequent creation of Stoicism and Pyrrhonism . During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many different schools of thought developed in
5400-499: A transcendental mathematical relation. Heraclitus must have lived after Xenophanes and Pythagoras, as he condemns them along with Homer as proving that much learning cannot teach a man to think; since Parmenides refers to him in the past tense, this would place him in the 5th century BC. Contrary to the Milesian school , which posits one stable element as the arche , Heraclitus taught that panta rhei ("everything flows"),
5580-470: A unitary cause explaining natural phenomena both living and nonliving, without, according to James Warren, having to "reduce living things in some way to mere locations of material change". Xenophanes was born in Colophon , an Ionian town near Miletus. He was a well-traveled poet whose primary interests were theology and epistemology . Concerning theology, he pointed out that we did not know whether there
Pre-Socratic philosophy - Misplaced Pages Continue
5760-494: A universe governed by laws shaped the philosophical thinking of centuries to come and was as important as the discovery of fire or Einstein's breakthroughs in science. Little is known of Anaximenes' (585–525 BC) life. He was a younger contemporary and friend of Anaximander, and the two worked together on various intellectual projects. He also wrote a book on nature in prose. Anaximenes took for his principle aēr (air), conceiving it as being modified, via thickening and thinning, into
5940-407: Is flux . In fragment DK B30, Heraclitus writes: This world-order [Kosmos], the same of all, no god nor man did create, but it ever was and is and will be: everliving fire, kindling in measures and being quenched in measures . Heraclitus posited that all things in nature are in a state of perpetual flux. Like previous monist philosophers, Heraclitus claimed that the arche of the world was fire, which
6120-524: Is a code regarding whether the fragment is a testimonia , coded as "A", or "B" if is a direct quote from the philosopher. Last is a number assigned to the fragment, which may include a decimal to reflect specific lines of a fragment. For example, "DK59B12.3" identifies line 3 of Anaxagoras fragment 12. A similar way of referring to quotes is the system prefixed with "LM" by André Laks and Glenn W. Most who edited Early Greek Philosophy in 2016. Collectively, these fragments are called doxography (derived from
6300-582: Is a story that Protagoras , too, was forced to flee and that the Athenians burned his books. Socrates, however, is the only subject recorded as charged under this law, convicted, and sentenced to death in 399 BC (see Trial of Socrates ). In the version of his defense speech presented by Plato, he claims that it is the envy he arouses on account of his being a philosopher that will convict him. Numerous subsequent philosophical movements were inspired by Socrates or his younger associates. Plato casts Socrates as
6480-637: Is a term adopted in the 19th century to refer to this group of philosophers. It was first used by the German philosopher J.A. Eberhard as "vorsokratische Philosophie' in the late 18th century. In earlier literature they were referred to as physikoi ("physicists", after physis , " nature "), and their activity, as physiologoi (physical or natural philosophers ), with this usage arising with Aristotle to differentiate them from theologoi (theologians) and mythologoi (storytellers and bards who conveyed Greek mythology ), who attributed natural phenomena to
6660-418: Is a well-known example—focuses on the result or consequences, with such principles as John Stuart Mill 's 'principle of utility': "the greatest good for the greatest number". This principle is thus teleological, though in a broader sense than is elsewhere understood in philosophy. In the classical notion, teleology is grounded in the inherent nature of things themselves, whereas in consequentialism , teleology
6840-529: Is also known for speculating on the origin of mankind. He proclaimed that the earth is not situated in another structure but lies unsupported in the middle of the universe. Further, he developed a rudimentary evolutionary explanation for biodiversity in which constant universal powers affected the lives of animals. According to Giorgio de Santillana , a philosophy professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Anaximander's conception of
7020-538: Is bad, and so if anyone does something that truly is bad, it must be unwillingly or out of ignorance; consequently, all virtue is knowledge. He frequently remarks on his own ignorance (claiming that he does not know what courage is, for example). Plato presents him as distinguishing himself from the common run of mankind by the fact that, while they know nothing noble and good, they do not know that they do not know, whereas Socrates knows and acknowledges that he knows nothing noble and good. The great statesman Pericles
7200-577: Is derived from the Republic , the Laws , and the Statesman . The first of these contains the suggestion that there will not be justice in cities unless they are ruled by philosopher kings ; those responsible for enforcing the laws are compelled to hold their women, children, and property in common ; and the individual is taught to pursue the common good through noble lies ; the Republic says that such
7380-644: Is divided into three phases. The first phase of pre-Socratic philosophy, mainly the Milesians, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus, consisted of rejecting traditional cosmogony and attempting to explain nature based on empirical observations and interpretations. A second phase – that of the Eleatics – resisted the idea that change or motion can happen. Based on their radical monism, they believed that only one substance exists and forms Kosmos. The Eleatics were also monists (believing that only one thing exists and everything else
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7560-608: Is everywhere, very few people are familiar with it. B 19 reads: [hoi polloi] "...do not know how to listen [to Logos] or how to speak [the truth]". Heraclitus' thought on logos influenced the Stoics , who referred to him to support their belief that rational law governs the universe . Pythagoras (582–496 BC) was born on Samos , a small island near Miletus. He moved to Croton at about age 30, where he established his school and acquired political influence. Some decades later he had to flee Croton and relocate to Metapontum . Pythagoras
7740-429: Is his claim that everything is full of gods. What he meant by that is again a matter of interpretation, that could be from a theistic view to an atheist one. But the most plausible explanation, suggested by Aristotle, is that Thales is advocating a theory of hylozoism , that the universe, the sum of all things that exist, is divine and alive. Lastly, another notable claim by Thales is that earth "rests on water"- maybe that
7920-420: Is imposed by human use, such as the purpose of a fork to hold food, is called extrinsic . Natural teleology , common in classical philosophy , though controversial today, contends that natural entities also have intrinsic purposes, regardless of human use or opinion. For instance, Aristotle claimed that an acorn's intrinsic telos is to become a fully grown oak tree. Though ancient atomists rejected
8100-402: Is imposed on nature from outside by the human will. Consequentialist theories justify inherently what most people would call evil acts by their desirable outcomes, if the good of the outcome outweighs the bad of the act. So, for example, a consequentialist theory would say it was acceptable to kill one person in order to save two or more other people. These theories may be summarized by the maxim "
8280-475: Is just a transformation of it). In the third phase, the post-Eleatics (mainly Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Democritus) opposed most Eleatic teaching and returned to the naturalism of the Milesians. The pre-Socratics were succeeded by the second phase of ancient philosophy, where the philosophical movements of Platonism , Cynicism , Cyrenaicism , Aristotelianism , Pyrrhonism , Epicureanism , Academic skepticism , and Stoicism rose to prominence until 100 BC. In
8460-409: Is no coming into being or passing away, genesis or decay, they said that things appear to come into being and pass away because the elements out of which they are composed assemble or disassemble while themselves being unchanging. Leucippus also proposed an ontological pluralism with a cosmogony based on two main elements: the vacuum and atoms. These, by means of their inherent movement, are crossing
8640-704: Is no true teleology driving evolution. Thus it is easier to say that evolution "gave" wolves sharp canine teeth because those teeth "serve the purpose of" predation regardless of whether there is an underlying non-teleologic reality in which evolution is not an actor with intentions. In other words, because human cognition and learning often rely on the narrative structure of stories – with actors, goals, and immediate (proximate) rather than ultimate (distal) causation (see also proximate and ultimate causation ) – some minimal level of teleology might be recognized as useful or at least tolerable for practical purposes even by people who reject its cosmologic accuracy. Its accuracy
8820-523: Is not always easy to distinguish between the two. While the Socrates presented in the dialogues is often taken to be Plato's mouthpiece, Socrates' reputation for irony , his caginess regarding his own opinions in the dialogues, and his occasional absence from or minor role in the conversation serve to conceal Plato's doctrines. Much of what is said about his doctrines is derived from what Aristotle reports about them. The political doctrine ascribed to Plato
9000-401: Is not clear what these elements are. All objects are a mixture of these building blocks and have a portion of each element, except nous . Nous was also considered a building block of the cosmos, but it exists only in living objects. Anaxagoras writes: "In everything there is a portion ( moira ) of everything except mind ( nous ), but there are some things in which mind too is present." Nous
9180-620: Is now often called accidentalism : Nothing in the body is made in order that we may use it. What happens to exist is the cause of its use. The chief instance, and the largest polemic morass, of teleological viewpoint in modern cosmology and ontology is the teleological argument that posits an intelligent designer as a god . Teleological-based " grand narratives " are renounced by the postmodern tradition, where teleology may be viewed as reductive, exclusionary, and harmful to those whose stories are diminished or overlooked. Against this postmodern position, Alasdair MacIntyre has argued that
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#17327657869519360-427: Is possible to rewrite such sentences to avoid the apparent teleology. Some biology courses have incorporated exercises requiring students to rephrase such sentences so that they do not read teleologically. Nevertheless, biologists still frequently write in a way which can be read as implying teleology even if that is not the intention. John Reiss argues that evolutionary biology can be purged of such teleology by rejecting
9540-429: Is that opposites somehow mirror each other, a doctrine called unity of opposites . Two fragments relating to this concept state, "As the same thing in us is living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old. For these things having changed around are those, and those in turn having changed around are these" (B88) and "Cold things warm up, the hot cools off, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet" (B126). Heraclitus' doctrine on
9720-405: Is the arche of everything. Pythagoreanism also incorporated ascetic ideals, emphasizing purgation, metempsychosis , and consequently a respect for all animal life; much was made of the correspondence between mathematics and the cosmos in a musical harmony. Pythagoras believed that behind the appearance of things, there was the permanent principle of mathematics, and that the forms were based on
9900-463: Is the study of the communication and control of regulatory feedback both in living beings and machines, and in combinations of the two. Arturo Rosenblueth , Norbert Wiener , and Julian Bigelow had conceived of feedback mechanisms as lending a teleology to machinery. Wiener coined the term cybernetics to denote the study of "teleological mechanisms". In the cybernetic classification presented by Rosenblueth, Wiener, and Bigelow, teleology
10080-1001: Is thought to be beyond the ability of human perception and understanding to judge. But using teleology as an explanatory style, in particular within evolutionary biology, is still controversial. Since the Novum Organum of Francis Bacon , teleological explanations in physical science tend to be deliberately avoided in favor of focus on material and efficient explanations, although some recent accounts of quantum phenomena make use of teleology. Final and formal causation came to be viewed as false or too subjective. Nonetheless, some disciplines, in particular within evolutionary biology , continue to use language that appears teleological in describing natural tendencies towards certain end conditions. Some suggest, however, that these arguments ought to be, and practicably can be, rephrased in non-teleological forms; others hold that teleological language cannot always be easily expunged from descriptions in
10260-404: Is to determine what about it is good. Its goodness is its actual cause —its purpose, telos or 'reason for which'. Aristotle argued that Democritus was wrong to attempt to reduce all things to mere necessity, because doing so neglects the aim, order, and "final cause", which brings about these necessary conditions: Democritus, however, neglecting the final cause, reduces to necessity all
10440-452: Is upheld by Barrow and Tipler (1986), whose citations of such teleologists as Max Planck and Norbert Wiener are significant for scientific endeavor. Apparent teleology is a recurring issue in evolutionary biology , much to the consternation of some writers. Statements implying that nature has goals, for example where a species is said to do something "in order to" achieve survival appear teleological, and therefore invalid. Usually, it
10620-535: The φύσις of all things." Xenophanes was born in Ionia , where the Milesian school was at its most powerful and may have picked up some of the Milesians' cosmological theories as a result. What is known is that he argued that each of the phenomena had a natural rather than divine explanation in a manner reminiscent of Anaximander's theories and that there was only one god, the world as a whole, and that he ridiculed
10800-615: The European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato". Clear, unbroken lines of influence lead from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers to Roman philosophy , Early Islamic philosophy , Medieval Scholasticism , the European Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment . Greek philosophy was influenced to some extent by the older wisdom literature and mythological cosmogonies of
10980-569: The Hellenistic world and then the Greco-Roman world. The spread of Christianity throughout the Roman world, followed by the spread of Islam , ushered in the end of Hellenistic philosophy and the beginnings of Medieval philosophy , which was dominated by the three Abrahamic traditions: Jewish philosophy , Christian philosophy , and early Islamic philosophy . Pyrrho of Elis , a Democritean philosopher, traveled to India with Alexander
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#173276578695111160-530: The New Academy , although some ancient authors added further subdivisions, such as a Middle Academy . The Academic skeptics did not doubt the existence of truth ; they just doubted that humans had the capacities for obtaining it. They based this position on Plato's Phaedo , sections 64–67, in which Socrates discusses how knowledge is not accessible to mortals. While the objective of the Pyrrhonists
11340-502: The Way of Opinion survive. In that part, Parmenides must have been dealing with cosmology, judging from other authors' references. The Way of Truth was then, and is still today, considered of much more importance. In the Way of Truth , the goddess criticizes the logic of people who do not distinguish the real from the non-existent ("What-is" and "What-is-Not"). In this poem Parmenides unfolds his philosophy: that all things are One, and therefore nothing can be changed or altered. Hence, all
11520-591: The absence of pain in the body and trouble in the mind". The founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium , was taught by Crates of Thebes, and he took up the Cynic ideals of continence and self-mastery, but applied the concept of apatheia (indifference) to personal circumstances rather than social norms, and switched shameless flouting of the latter for a resolute fulfillment of social duties. Logic and physics were also part of early Stoicism, further developed by Zeno's successors Cleanthes and Chrysippus . Their metaphysics
11700-420: The actions of gods . Their work and writing has been almost entirely lost. Knowledge of their views comes from testimonia , i.e. later authors' discussions of the work of pre-Socratics. Philosophy found fertile ground in the ancient Greek world because of the close ties with neighboring civilizations and the rise of autonomous civil entities, poleis . Pre-Socratic philosophy began in the 6th century BC with
11880-479: The ancient Near East , though the extent of this influence is widely debated. The classicist Martin Litchfield West states, "contact with oriental cosmology and theology helped to liberate the early Greek philosophers' imagination; it certainly gave them many suggestive ideas. But they taught themselves to reason. Philosophy as we understand it is a Greek creation". Subsequent philosophic tradition
12060-720: The anthropomorphism of the Greek religion by claiming that cattle would claim that the gods looked like cattle, horses like horses, and lions like lions, just as the Ethiopians claimed that the gods were snub-nosed and black and the Thracians claimed they were pale and red-haired. Xenophanes was highly influential to subsequent schools of philosophy. He was seen as the founder of a line of philosophy that culminated in Pyrrhonism , possibly an influence on Eleatic philosophy , and
12240-571: The anthropomorphism of gods . Heraclitus, who was notoriously difficult to understand, is known for his maxim on impermanence , ta panta rhei , and for attributing fire to be the arche of the world. Pythagoras created a cult-like following that advocated that the universe was made up of numbers . The Eleatic school ( Parmenides , Zeno of Elea , and Melissus ) followed in the 5th century BC. Parmenides claimed that only one thing exists and nothing can change. Zeno and Melissus mainly defended Parmenides' opinion. Anaxagoras and Empedocles offered
12420-455: The arche was air, although John Burnet argues that by this, he meant that it was a transparent mist, the aether . Despite their varied answers, the Milesian school was searching for a natural substance that would remain unchanged despite appearing in different forms, and thus represents one of the first scientific attempts to answer the question that would lead to the development of modern atomic theory; "the Milesians," says Burnet, "asked for
12600-504: The pre-Socratics gained currency with the 1903 publication of Hermann Diels' Fragmente der Vorsokratiker , although the term did not originate with him. The term is considered useful because what came to be known as the "Athenian school" (composed of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle ) signaled the rise of a new approach to philosophy; Friedrich Nietzsche 's thesis that this shift began with Plato rather than with Socrates (hence his nomenclature of "pre-Platonic philosophy") has not prevented
12780-426: The pyramids . Thales inspired the Milesian school of philosophy and was followed by Anaximander , who argued that the substratum or arche could not be water or any of the classical elements but was instead something "unlimited" or "indefinite" (in Greek, the apeiron ). He began from the observation that the world seems to consist of opposites (e.g., hot and cold), yet a thing can become its opposite (e.g.,
12960-555: The regimes described in Plato's Republic and Laws , and refers to the theory of forms as "empty words and poetic metaphors". He is generally presented as giving greater weight to empirical observation and practical concerns. Aristotle's fame was not great during the Hellenistic period , when Stoic logic was in vogue, but later peripatetic commentators popularized his work, which eventually contributed heavily to Islamic, Jewish, and medieval Christian philosophy. His influence
13140-563: The sage and the fool. Slight as the difference may appear between the positions of the Academic skeptics and the Pyrrhonists, a comparison of their lives leads to the conclusion that a practical philosophical moderation was the characteristic of the Academic skeptics whereas the objectives of the Pyrrhonists were more psychological. Following the end of the skeptical period of the Academy with Antiochus of Ascalon , Platonic thought entered
13320-467: The Eleatics (such as the Sophists, Plato, and Aristotle) further advanced logic, argumentation, mathematics and especially elenchos (proof). The Sophists even placed Being under the scrutiny of elenchos. Because of the Eleatics reasoning was acquiring a formal method. The Pluralist school marked a return to Milesian natural philosophy, though much more refined because of Eleatic criticism. Anaxagoras
13500-447: The Eleatics, he added the ideas of panspermia and nous . All objects were mixtures of various elements, such as air, water, and others. One special element was nous , i.e., mind, which is present in living things and causes motion. According to Anaxagoras, Nous was one of the elements that make up the cosmos. Things that had nous were alive. According to Anaxagoras, all things are composites of some basic elements; although it
13680-417: The German professors H. Diels and W. Kranz published Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker ( The Fragments of the pre-Socratics ), which collected all of the known fragments. Scholars now use this book to reference the fragments using a coding scheme called Diels–Kranz numbering . The first two characters of the scheme are "DK" for Diels and Kranz. Next is a number representing a specific philosopher. After that
13860-460: The Great 's army where Pyrrho was influenced by Buddhist teachings, most particularly the three marks of existence . After returning to Greece, Pyrrho started a new school of philosophy, Pyrrhonism , which taught that it is one's opinions about non-evident matters (i.e., dogma ) that prevent one from attaining eudaimonia . Pyrrhonism places the attainment of ataraxia (a state of equanimity ) as
14040-582: The Great , and ultimately returned to Athens a decade later to establish his own school: the Lyceum . At least twenty-nine of his treatises have survived, known as the corpus Aristotelicum , and address a variety of subjects including logic , physics , optics , metaphysics , ethics , rhetoric , politics , poetry , botany, and zoology. Aristotle is often portrayed as disagreeing with his teacher Plato (e.g., in Raphael 's School of Athens ). He criticizes
14220-516: The Greek peninsula, the Aegean islands , and Magna Graecia , a coastal area in Southern Italy . The democratic political system of independent poleis also contributed to the rise of philosophy. Most Greek towns were not ruled by autocrats or priests , allowing citizens to question freely a wide range of issues. Various poleis flourished and became wealthy, especially Miletus. which was
14400-491: The Greeks acquired the alphabet c. 800 BC. Another factor was the ease and frequency of intra-Greek travel, which led to the blending and comparison of ideas. During the sixth century BC, various philosophers and other thinkers moved easily around Greece, especially visiting pan-Hellenic festivals. While long-distance communication was difficult during ancient times, persons, philosophers, and books moved through other parts of
14580-400: The Milesian school, in suggesting that the substratum could appear in a variety of different guises, implied that everything that exists is corpuscular, Parmenides argued that the first principle of being was One, indivisible, and unchanging. Being, he argued, by definition implies eternality, while only that which is can be thought; a thing which is , moreover, cannot be more or less, and so
14760-778: The Platonic-Aristotelian, emphasizes method as the distinction between the two groups, as Socrates moved to a more epistemological approach of studying various concepts. Because of the drawbacks of the term pre-Socratic, Early Greek Philosophy is also used, most commonly in Anglo-Saxon literature. André Laks and Glenn W. Most have especially popularized this shift in describing the era as "Early Greek Philosophy" over "Pre-Socratic Philosophy" through their comprehensive, nine volume Loeb editions of Early Greek Philosophy . In their first volume, they distinguish their systematic approach from that of Hermann Diels, beginning with
14940-727: The analogy of natural selection as a watchmaker . Other arguments against this analogy have also been promoted by writers such as Richard Dawkins . Some authors, like James Lennox , have argued that Darwin was a teleologist, while others, such as Michael Ghiselin , describe this claim as a myth promoted by misinterpretations of his discussions and emphasized the distinction between using teleological metaphors and being teleological. Biologist philosopher Francisco Ayala has argued that all statements about processes can be trivially translated into teleological statements, and vice versa, but that teleological statements are more explanatory and cannot be disposed of. Karen Neander has argued that
15120-451: The best place they could be at this very time, this they do not look for, nor do they believe it to have any divine force, but they believe that they will sometime discover a stronger and more immortal Atlas to hold everything together more, and they do not believe that the truly good and 'binding' binds and holds them together. Socrates here argues that while the materials that compose a body are necessary conditions for its moving or acting in
15300-639: The body come in pairs and suggested that human health depends on harmony between opposites (hot/cold, dry/wet), and illness is due to an imbalance of them. He was the first to think of the brain as the center of senses and thinking. Philolaus advanced cosmology through his discovery of heliocentricism – the idea that the Sun lies in the middle of the Earth's orbit and other planets. Pythagoreanism influenced later Christian currents as Neoplatonism, and its pedagogical methods were adapted by Plato. Furthermore, there seems to be
15480-581: The choice of "Early Greek Philosophy" over "pre-Socratic philosophy" most notably because Socrates is contemporary and sometimes even prior to philosophers traditionally considered "pre-Socratic" (e.g., the Atomists). The early Greek philosophers (or "pre-Socratics") were primarily concerned with cosmology , ontology , and mathematics. They were distinguished from "non-philosophers" insofar as they rejected mythological explanations in favor of reasoned discourse. Thales of Miletus , regarded by Aristotle as
15660-586: The choice of "Early Greek Philosophy" over "pre-Socratic philosophy" most notably because Socrates is contemporary and sometimes even prior to philosophers traditionally considered "pre-Socratic" (e.g., the Atomists). Very few fragments of the works of the pre-Socratic philosophers have survived. The knowledge we have of the pre-Socratics derives from the accounts of later writers such as Plato , Aristotle , Plutarch , Diogenes Laërtius , Stobaeus , and Simplicius , and some early Christian theologians, especially Clement of Alexandria and Hippolytus of Rome . Many of
15840-461: The closest element to this eternal flux being fire. All things come to pass in accordance with Logos , which must be considered as "plan" or "formula", and "the Logos is common". He also posited a unity of opposites , expressed through dialectic , which structured this flux, such as that seeming opposites in fact are manifestations of a common substrate to good and evil itself. Heraclitus called
16020-445: The conclusion being that one cannot look to nature for guidance regarding how to live one's life. Protagoras and subsequent sophists tended to teach rhetoric as their primary vocation. Prodicus , Gorgias , Hippias , and Thrasymachus appear in various dialogues , sometimes explicitly teaching that while nature provides no ethical guidance, the guidance that the laws provide is worthless, or that nature favors those who act against
16200-432: The cosmos they coined new terms and concepts such as rhythm, symmetry, analogy, deductionism, reductionism, mathematization of nature and others. An important term that is met in the thought of several pre-Socratic philosophers is arche . Depending on the context, it can take various related meanings. It could mean the beginning or origin with the undertone that there is an effect on the things to follow. Also, it might mean
16380-423: The course of human thought from myth to philosophy and science. The pre-Socratics were not atheists; however, they minimized the extent of the gods' involvement in natural phenomena such as thunder or totally eliminated the gods from the natural world. Pre-Socratic philosophy encompasses the first of the three phases of ancient Greek philosophy , which spanned around a thousand years. The pre-Socratic phase itself
16560-508: The creative tension that brings things into existence. A fundamental idea in Heraclitus is logos , an ancient Greek word with a variety of meanings; Heraclitus might have used a different meaning of the word with each usage in his book. Logos seems like a universal law that unites the cosmos, according to a fragment: "Listening not to me but to the logos, it is wise to agree (homologein) that all things are one" (DK 22 B50). While logos
16740-607: The difference between the changing, perceptible world and the unchanging, intelligible realm. Platonism stands in opposition to nominalism , which denies the existence of such abstract entities. Around 266 BC, Arcesilaus became head of the Platonic Academy , and adopted skepticism as a central tenet of Platonism , making Platonism nearly the same as Pyrrhonism . After Arcesilaus, Academic skepticism diverged from Pyrrhonism. This skeptical period of ancient Platonism, from Arcesilaus to Philo of Larissa , became known as
16920-415: The doctrine that nothing comes from nothing and the unity of being and thinking. As quoted by DK fragment 3: To gar auto noein estin te kai einai (For to think and to be is one and the same). Zeno and Melissus continued Parmenides' thought on cosmology. Zeno is mostly known for his paradoxes , i.e., self-contradictory statements which served as proofs that Parmenides' monism was valid, and that pluralism
17100-497: The elaboration of a true understanding of their objects. MacIntyre's After Virtue (1981) famously dismissed the naturalistic teleology of Aristotle's "metaphysical biology", but he has cautiously moved from that book's account of a sociological teleology toward an exploration of what remains valid in a more traditional teleological naturalism. Teleology significantly informs the study of ethics , such as in: The broad spectrum of consequentialist ethics —of which utilitarianism
17280-407: The end justifies the means ." Consequentialism stands in contrast to the more classical notions of deontological ethics , of which examples include Immanuel Kant 's categorical imperative , and Aristotle 's virtue ethics —although formulations of virtue ethics are also often consequentialist in derivation. In deontological ethics, the goodness or badness of individual acts is primary and
17460-585: The ethics of Cynicism to articulate Stoicism . Epicurus studied with Platonic and Pyrrhonist teachers before renouncing all previous philosophers (including Democritus , on whose atomism the Epicurean philosophy relies). The philosophic movements that were to dominate the intellectual life of the Roman Empire were thus born in this febrile period following Socrates' activity, and either directly or indirectly influenced by him. They were also absorbed by
17640-681: The existence of their chosen ends. In other words, individuals select what they believe to be the most appropriate means to achieve a sought after goal or end. Mises also stressed that, with respect to human action, teleology is not independent of causality: "No action can be devised and ventured upon without definite ideas about the relation of cause and effect, teleology presupposes causality." Assuming reason and action to be predominantly influenced by ideological credence, Mises derived his portrayal of human motivation from Epicurean teachings , insofar as he assumes "atomistic individualism, teleology, and libertarianism, and defines man as an egoist who seeks
17820-609: The expanding Muslim world in the 7th through 10th centuries AD, from which they returned to the West as foundations of Medieval philosophy and the Renaissance , as discussed below. Plato was an Athenian of the generation after Socrates . Ancient tradition ascribes thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters to him, although of these only twenty-four of the dialogues are now universally recognized as authentic; most modern scholars believe that at least twenty-eight dialogues and two of
18000-459: The first philosopher, held that all things arise from a single material substance, water. It is not because he gave a cosmogony that John Burnet calls him the "first man of science", but because he gave a naturalistic explanation of the cosmos and supported it with reasons. According to tradition, Thales was able to predict an eclipse and taught the Egyptians how to measure the height of
18180-418: The founder of this type of philosophy, says the principle (arche) is water." What he meant by arche, is a matter of interpretation (it might be the origin, the element, or an ontological matrix), but regardless of the various interpretations, he conceived the world as One thing instead of a collection of various items and speculated on the binding/original elements. Another important aspect of Thales' philosophy
18360-512: The freedom from fears and desires was happiness itself. Platonism is the philosophy of Plato , asserting the existence of abstract objects , which exist in a realm distinct from both the physical world and the mind. Central to Platonism is the Theory of Forms , where ideal Forms or perfect archetypes are considered the true reality, with the physical world being an imperfect reflection. This philosophy has influenced Western thought , emphasizing
18540-413: The gods. The term was coined to highlight a fundamental change in philosophical inquiries between the philosophers who lived before Socrates, who were interested in the structure of nature and cosmos (i.e., the universe, with the implication that the universe had order to it), and Socrates and his successors, who were mostly interested in ethics and politics. The term comes with drawbacks, as several of
18720-429: The heavens, placed it in cities, introduced it into families, and obliged it to examine into life and morals, and good and evil." By this account he would be considered the founder of political philosophy . The reasons for this turn toward political and ethical subjects remain the object of much study. The fact that many conversations involving Socrates (as recounted by Plato and Xenophon ) end without having reached
18900-466: The impact of the pre-Socratics continued. Several factors contributed to the birth of pre-Socratic philosophy in Ancient Greece. Ionian towns, especially Miletus, had close trade relations with Egypt and Mesopotamia , cultures with observations about the natural world that differed from those of the Greeks. Apart from technical skills and cultural influences, of paramount significance was that
19080-493: The investigation of the ultimate basis and essential nature of the external world. Many sought the material principle ( arche ) of things, and the method of their origin and disappearance. They emphasized the rational unity of things and rejected supernatural explanations, seeking natural principles at work in the world and human society. The pre-Socratics saw the world as a cosmos , an ordered arrangement that could be understood via rational inquiry. In their effort to make sense of
19260-400: The latin doxographus ; derived from the Greek word for "opinion" doxa ). Philosophy emerged in ancient Greece in the 6th century BC. The pre-Socratic era lasted about two centuries, during which the expanding Persian Achaemenid Empire was stretching to the west, while the Greeks were advancing in trade and sea routes, reaching Cyprus and Syria. The first pre-Socratics lived in Ionia , on
19440-466: The laws. Socrates , believed to have been born in Athens in the 5th century BC , marks a watershed in ancient Greek philosophy. Athens was a center of learning, with sophists and philosophers traveling from across Greece to teach rhetoric, astronomy, cosmology, and geometry. While philosophy was an established pursuit prior to Socrates, Cicero credits him as "the first who brought philosophy down from
19620-471: The letters were in fact written by Plato, although all of the thirty-six dialogues have some defenders. A further nine dialogues are ascribed to Plato but were considered spurious even in antiquity. Plato's dialogues feature Socrates, although not always as the leader of the conversation. (One dialogue, the Laws , instead contains an "Athenian Stranger".) Along with Xenophon , Plato is the primary source of information about Socrates' life and beliefs and it
19800-399: The life sciences, at least within the bounds of practical pedagogy . Contemporary philosophers and scientists still debate whether teleological axioms are useful or accurate in proposing modern philosophies and scientific theories. An example of the reintroduction of teleology into modern language is the notion of an attractor . Another instance is when Thomas Nagel (2012), though not
19980-420: The looks of gods but also their behaviour. Greek mythology, mostly shaped by the poets Homer and Hesiod , attributed moral failures such as jealously and adultery to the gods. Xenophanes opposed this. He thought gods must be morally superior to humans. Xenophanes, however, never claimed the gods were omnipotent, omnibenevolent, or omniscient. Xenophanes also offered naturalistic explanations for phenomena such as
20160-438: The main interlocutor in his dialogues , deriving from them the basis of Platonism (and by extension, Neoplatonism ). Plato's student Aristotle in turn criticized and built upon the doctrines he ascribed to Socrates and Plato, forming the foundation of Aristotelianism . Antisthenes founded the school that would come to be known as Cynicism and accused Plato of distorting Socrates' teachings. Zeno of Citium in turn adapted
20340-473: The manner advocated by Reiss and Dawkins. Ernst Mayr states that "adaptedness ... is an a posteriori result rather than an a priori goal-seeking". Various commentators view the teleological phrases used in modern evolutionary biology as a type of shorthand. For example, Simon Hugh Piper Maddrell writes that "the proper but cumbersome way of describing change by evolutionary adaptation [may be] substituted by shorter overtly teleological statements" for
20520-430: The modern concept of biological ' function ' is dependent upon selection. So, for example, it is not possible to say that anything that simply winks into existence without going through a process of selection has functions. We decide whether an appendage has a function by analysing the process of selection that led to it. Therefore, any talk of functions must be posterior to natural selection and function cannot be defined in
20700-507: The most famous is perhaps the Allegory of the Cave . It likens most humans to people tied up in a cave, who look only at shadows on the walls and have no other conception of reality. If they turned around, they would see what is casting the shadows (and thereby gain a further dimension to their reality). If some left the cave, they would see the outside world illuminated by the sun (representing
20880-552: The most famous of which is his theory of forms . It holds that non-material abstract (but substantial ) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through our physical senses, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. He argued extensively in the Phaedo , Phaedrus , and Republic for the immortality of the soul, and he believed specifically in reincarnation . Plato often uses long-form analogies (usually allegories ) to explain his ideas;
21060-419: The most influential philosophers of all time, stressed the implication that understanding relies upon first-hand observation. Aristotle moved to Athens from his native Stageira in 367 BC and began to study philosophy (perhaps even rhetoric, under Isocrates ), eventually enrolling at Plato's Academy . He left Athens approximately twenty years later to study botany and zoology , became a tutor of Alexander
21240-416: The nature of the world that came under scrutiny by the pre-Socratics. In his epic poem Theogony (literally meaning the birth of gods) Hesiod (c. 700 BC) describes the origin of gods, and apart from the solid mythical structure, one can notice an attempt towards organizing beliefs using some form of rationalization; an example would be that Night gives birth to Death, Sleep and Dreams. Transmigration of life,
21420-760: The notion of natural teleology, teleological accounts of non-personal or non-human nature were explored and often endorsed in ancient and medieval philosophies, but fell into disfavor during the modern era (1600–1900). In Western philosophy , the term and concept of teleology originated in the writings of Plato and Aristotle . Aristotle's ' four causes ' give special place to the telos or "final cause" of each thing . In this, he followed Plato in seeing purpose in both human and nonhuman nature. The word teleology combines Greek telos ( τέλος , from τελε- , 'end' or 'purpose') and logia ( -λογία , 'speak of', 'study of', or 'a branch of learning'). German philosopher Christian Wolff would coin
21600-477: The only human good, but he had also accepted a limited role for its utilitarian side, allowing pleasure to be a secondary goal of moral action. Aristippus and his followers seized upon this, and made pleasure the sole final goal of life, denying that virtue had any intrinsic value. The Megarian school flourished in the 4th century BC. It was founded by Euclides of Megara , one of the pupils of Socrates . Its ethical teachings were derived from Socrates, recognizing
21780-429: The operations of nature. Now, they are necessary, it is true, but yet they are for a final cause and for the sake of what is best in each case. Thus nothing prevents the teeth from being formed and being shed in this way; but it is not on account of these causes but on account of the end. ... In Physics , using the hylomorphic theory , (using eternal forms as his model ), Aristotle rejects Plato's assumption that
21960-412: The oppositional processes ἔρις ( eris ), "strife", and hypothesized that the apparently stable state of δίκη ( dikê ), or "justice", is the harmonic unity of these opposites. Parmenides of Elea cast his philosophy against those who held "it is and is not the same, and all things travel in opposite directions,"—presumably referring to Heraclitus and those who followed him. Whereas the doctrines of
22140-458: The ordered process of time. Anaximander , DK 12 B 1, preserved fragment of On Nature Anaximander (610–546 BC), also from Miletus, was 25 years younger than Thales. He was a member of the elite of Miletus, wealthy and a statesman. He showed interest in many fields, including mathematics and geography. He drew the first map of the world, was the first to conclude that the earth is spherical, and made instruments to mark time, something like
22320-436: The other classical elements : fire, wind, clouds, water, and earth. While his theory resembled that of Anaximander, as they both claimed a single source of the universe, Anaximenes suggested sophisticated mechanisms in which air is transformed to other elements, mainly because of changes of density. Since the classical era, he was considered the father of naturalistic explanations. Anaximenes expanded Anaximander's attempt to find
22500-507: The period of Middle Platonism , which absorbed ideas from the Peripatetic and Stoic schools. More extreme syncretism was done by Numenius of Apamea , who combined it with Neopythagoreanism . Also affected by the neopythagoreans, the neoplatonists , first of them Plotinus , argued that mind exists before matter, and that the universe has a singular cause which must therefore be a single mind. As such, neoplatonism became essentially
22680-470: The point from which the pursued set off, so it is necessary that the slower will always be a little ahead." (Aristotle Phys. 239b14–18 [DK 29 A26]) Melissus defended and advanced Parmenides' theory using prose, without invoking divinity or mythical figures. He tried to explain why humans think various non-existent objects exist. The Eleatics' focus on Being through means of logic initiated the philosophical discipline of ontology. Other philosophers influenced by
22860-512: The pre-Socratic era we have only fragments. Scholar André Laks distinguishes two traditions of separating pre-Socratics from Socratics, dating back to the classical era and running through current times. The first tradition is the Socratic-Ciceronian, which uses the content of their philosophical inquires to divide the two groups: the pre-Socratics were interested in nature whereas Socrates focused on human affairs. The other tradition,
23040-482: The pre-Socratic philosophers and philosophers of the classical era is demarcated not so much by Socrates, but by geography and what texts survived. The shift from the pre-Socratic to the classical periods involves a shift from philosophers being dispersed throughout the Greek-speaking world to their being concentrated in Athens. Further, starting in the classical period we have complete surviving texts, whereas in
23220-459: The pre-Socratics and showed no interest in accurately representing their views. Aristotle was more accurate, but saw them under the scope of his philosophy. Theophrastus , Aristotle's successor, wrote an encyclopedic book Opinion of the Physicists that was the standard work about the pre-Socratics in ancient times. It is now lost, but Simplicius relied on it heavily in his accounts. In 1903,
23400-420: The pre-Socratics were highly interested in ethics and how to live the best life. Further, the term implies that the pre-Socratics are less significant than Socrates, or even that they were merely a stage (implying teleology ) to classical era philosophy. The term is also chronologically inaccurate, as the last of the pre-Socratics were contemporaries of Socrates. According to James Warren, the distinction between
23580-666: The predominance of the "pre-Socratic" distinction. Since 2016, however, current scholarship has transitioned from calling philosophy before the Athenian school "pre-Socratic" to simply "Early Greek Philosophy". André Laks and Glenn W. Most have been partly responsible for popularizing this shift in describing the era preceding the Athenian School through their comprehensive, nine volume Loeb editions of Early Greek Philosophy . In their first volume, they distinguish their systematic approach from that of Hermann Diels, beginning with
23760-539: The question of what political order would be best given those constraints; that question is addressed in the Laws , a dialogue that does not take place in Athens and from which Socrates is absent. The character of the society described there is eminently conservative, a corrected or liberalized timocracy on the Spartan or Cretan model or that of pre-democratic Athens . Plato's dialogues also have metaphysical themes,
23940-580: The rarefaction and condensation of the Milesians is impossible regarding Being; lastly, as movement requires that something exist apart from the thing moving (viz. the space into which it moves), the One or Being cannot move, since this would require that "space" both exist and not exist. While this doctrine is at odds with ordinary sensory experience, where things do indeed change and move, the Eleatic school followed Parmenides in denying that sense phenomena revealed
24120-406: The real cause, from that without which the cause would not be able to act, as a cause. It is what the majority appear to do, like people groping in the dark; they call it a cause, thus giving it a name that does not belong to it. That is why one man surrounds the earth with a vortex to make the heavens keep it in place, another makes the air support it like a wide lid. As for their capacity of being in
24300-452: The religions of neighboring civilizations, such as the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Hittites. The first pre-Socratic philosophers also traveled extensively to other lands, meaning that pre-Socratic thought had roots abroad as well as domestically. Homer, in his two epic poems, not only personifies gods and other natural phenomena, such as the Night, but he hints at some views on the origin and
24480-401: The sake of saving space, but that this "should not be taken to imply that evolution proceeds by anything other than from mutations arising by chance, with those that impart an advantage being retained by natural selection". Likewise, J. B. S. Haldane says, "Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he's unwilling to be seen with her in public." Cybernetics
24660-401: The same river twice, a position summarized with the slogan ta panta rhei (everything flows). One fragment reads: "Into the same rivers we both step and do not step; we both are and are not" (DK 22 B49a). Heraclitus is seemingly suggesting that not only the river is constantly changing, but we do as well, even hinting at existential questions about humankind . Another key concept of Heraclitus
24840-500: The state." Cynicism was founded by Antisthenes , who was a disciple of Socrates, as well as Diogenes , his contemporary. Their aim was to live according to nature and against convention. Antisthenes was inspired by the ascetism of Socrates, and accused Plato of pride and conceit. Diogenes, his follower, took the ideas to their limit, living in extreme poverty and engaging in anti-social behaviour. Crates of Thebes was, in turn, inspired by Diogenes to give away his fortune and live on
25020-400: The streets of Athens. The Cyrenaics were founded by Aristippus of Cyrene, who was a pupil of Socrates . The Cyrenaics were hedonists and held that pleasure was the supreme good in life, especially physical pleasure, which they thought more intense and more desirable than mental pleasures. Pleasure is the only good in life and pain is the only evil. Socrates had held that virtue was
25200-410: The study of mathematics. Pythagorianism perceived the world as perfect harmony, dependent on number, and aimed at inducing humankind likewise to lead a harmonious life, including ritual and dietary recommendations. Their way of life was ascetic, restraining themselves from various pleasures and food. They were vegetarians and placed enormous value on friendship. Pythagoras politically was an advocate of
25380-505: The sun, the rainbow and St. Elmo's fire . Traditionally these were attributed to divine intervention but according to Xenophanes they were actually effects of clouds. These explanations of Xenophanes indicate empiricism in his thought and might constitute a kind of proto-scientism. Scholars have overlooked his cosmology and naturalism since Aristotle (maybe due to Xenophanes' lack of teleology) until recently but current literature suggests otherwise. Concerning epistemology, Xenophanes questioned
25560-432: The term, as teleologia (Latin), in his work Philosophia rationalis, sive logica (1728). In Plato's dialogue Phaedo , Socrates argues that true explanations for any given physical phenomenon must be teleological. He bemoans those who fail to distinguish between a thing's necessary and sufficient causes, which he identifies respectively as material and final causes: Imagine not being able to distinguish
25740-418: The theorem now known as Thales's theorem to Thales. He is also known for being the first to claim that the base angles of isosceles triangles are equal, and that a diameter bisects the circle . Thales visited Sardis , as many Greeks then, where astronomical records were kept and used astronomical observations for practical matters (oil harvesting). Thales was widely considered a genius in ancient times and
25920-448: The things that we think to be true, even ourselves, are false representations. What-is, according to Parmenides, is a physical sphere that is unborn, unchanged, and infinite. This is a monist vision of the world, far more radical than that of Heraclitus. The goddess teaches Kouros to use his reasoning to understand whether various claims are true or false, discarding senses as fallacious. Other fundamental issues raised by Parmenides' poem are
26100-513: The third phase, philosophers studied their predecessors. The Milesian school was located in Miletus , Ionia, in the 6th century BC. It consisted of Thales , Anaximander , and Anaximenes , who most probably had a teacher-pupil relationship. They were mainly occupied with the origin and substance of the world; each of them attributed the Whole to a single arche (beginning or principle), starting
26280-411: The three Milesians : Thales , Anaximander , and Anaximenes . They all attributed the arche (a word that could take the meaning of "origin", "substance" or "principle") of the world to, respectively, water , apeiron (the unlimited), and air. Another three pre-Socratic philosophers came from nearby Ionian towns: Xenophanes , Heraclitus , and Pythagoras . Xenophanes is known for his critique of
26460-460: The tradition of naturalistic monism. Thales ( c. 624–546 BC) is considered to be the father of philosophy. None of his writings have survived. He is considered the first western philosopher since he was the first to use reason, to use proof, and to generalize. He created the word cosmos , the first word to describe the universe. He contributed to geometry and predicted the eclipse of 585 BC . Thales may have been of Phoenician ancestry . Miletus
26640-450: The ultimate form of goodness and truth). If these travelers then re-entered the cave, the people inside (who are still only familiar with the shadows) would not be equipped to believe reports of this 'outside world'. This story explains the theory of forms with their different levels of reality, and advances the view that philosopher-kings are wisest while most humans are ignorant. One student of Plato, Aristotle , who would become another of
26820-480: The unity of opposites suggests that unity of the world and its various parts is kept through the tension produced by the opposites. Furthermore, each polar substance contains its opposite, in a continual circular exchange and motion that results in the stability of the cosmos. Another of Heraclitus' famous axioms highlights this doctrine (B53): "War is father of all and king of all; and some he manifested as gods, some as men; some he made slaves, some free", where war means
27000-477: The universe was created by an intelligent designer. For Aristotle, natural ends are produced by "natures" (principles of change internal to living things), and natures, Aristotle argued, do not deliberate: It is absurd to suppose that ends are not present [in nature] because we do not see an agent deliberating. These Platonic and Aristotelian arguments ran counter to those presented earlier by Democritus and later by Lucretius , both of whom were supporters of what
27180-426: The validity of human knowledge. Humans usually tend to assert their beliefs are real and represent truth. While Xenophanes was a pessimist about the capability of humans to reach knowledge, he also believed in gradual progress through critical thinking. Xenophanes tried to find naturalistic explanations for meteorological and cosmological phenomena. Ancient philosophy historian Alexander Mourelatos notes Xenophanes used
27360-423: The void and creating the real material bodies. His theories were not well known by the time of Plato , however, and they were ultimately incorporated into the work of his student, Democritus . Sophism arose from the juxtaposition of physis (nature) and nomos (law). John Burnet posits its origin in the scientific progress of the previous centuries which suggested that Being was radically different from what
27540-578: The way to achieve eudaimonia. To bring the mind to ataraxia Pyrrhonism uses epoché ( suspension of judgment ) regarding all non-evident propositions. Pyrrhonists dispute that the dogmatists – which includes all of Pyrrhonism's rival philosophies – have found truth regarding non-evident matters. For any non-evident matter, a Pyrrhonist makes arguments for and against such that the matter cannot be concluded, thus suspending belief and thereby inducing ataraxia. Epicurus studied in Athens with Nausiphanes , who
27720-408: The western coast of Anatolia . Persians conquered the towns of Ionia c. 540 BC and Persian tyrants then ruled them. The Greeks revolted in 499 BC, but ultimately were defeated in 494 BC. Slowly but steadily Athens became the philosophical center of Greece by the middle of the fifth century. Athens was entering its Classical Era , with philosophers such as Socrates, Plato , and Aristotle , but
27900-430: The work of Homer and Hesiod . The pre-Socratics arose from a world dominated by myths, sacred places, and local deities. The work of epic poets such as Homer, Hesiod and others reflected this environment. They are considered predecessors of the pre-Socratics since they seek to address the origin of the world and to organize traditional folklore and legends systematically. Greek popular religion contained many features of
28080-421: The works are titled Peri Physeos , or On Nature , a title probably attributed later by other authors. These accounts, known as testimonia (testimonies), often come from biased writers. Consequently, it is sometimes difficult to determine the actual line of argument some pre-Socratics used in supporting their views. Adding more difficulty to their interpretation is the obscure language they used. Plato paraphrased
28260-498: The world as it actually was; instead, the only thing with Being was thought, or the question of whether something exists or not is one of whether it can be thought. In support of this, Parmenides' pupil Zeno of Elea attempted to prove that the concept of motion was absurd and as such motion did not exist. He also attacked the subsequent development of pluralism, arguing that it was incompatible with Being. His arguments are known as Zeno's paradoxes . The power of Parmenides' logic
28440-455: Was Protagoras , whom he presents as teaching that all virtue is conventional. It was Protagoras who claimed that "man is the measure of all things, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not," which Plato interprets as a radical perspectivism , where some things seem to be one way for one person (and so actually are that way) and another way for another person (and so actually are that way as well);
28620-545: Was Parmenides' teacher, and it is debated whether Xenophanes should also be considered an Eleatic. Parmenides was born in Elea to a wealthy family around 515 BC. Parmenides of Elea was interested in many fields, such as biology and astronomy. He was the first to deduce that the earth is spherical. He was also involved in his town's political life. Parmenides' contributions were paramount not only to ancient philosophy but to all of western metaphysics and ontology. Parmenides wrote
28800-461: Was a conclusion after observing fish fossils on land. That from which all things are born the beginning of all things the first foundation of things is the Unlimited (apeiron); The source from which coming-to-be is, for things that are, and for their passing away in accordance with necessity. For they give justice and pay retribution to each other for their mutual injustice according to
28980-399: Was a follower of Democritus and a student of Pyrrho of Elis . He accepted Democritus' theory of atomism, with improvements made in response to criticisms by Aristotle and others. His ethics were based on "the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain". This was, however, not simple hedonism , as he noted that "We do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or of sensuality . . . we mean
29160-404: Was a meeting point and trade centre of the then great civilizations, and Thales visited the neighbouring civilizations, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, and Phoenicia. In Egypt, geometry was advanced as a means of separating agricultural fields. Thales, though, advanced geometry with his abstract deductive reasoning reaching universal generalizations . Proclus , a later Athenian philosopher, attributed
29340-466: Was also a major influence on Socrates . Anaxagoras is known for his "theory of everything". He claimed that "in everything there is a share of everything." Interpretations differ as to what he meant. Anaxagoras was trying to stay true to the Eleatic principle of the everlasting (What-is) while also explaining the diversity of the natural world. Anaxagoras accepted Parmenides' doctrine that everything that exists (What-is) has existed forever, but contrary to
29520-483: Was based in materialism , which was structured by logos , reason (but also called God or fate). Their logical contributions still feature in contemporary propositional calculus . Their ethics was based on pursuing happiness, which they believed was a product of 'living in accordance with nature'. This meant accepting those things which one could not change. One could therefore choose whether to be happy or not by adjusting one's attitude towards their circumstances, as
29700-465: Was born in Ionia, but was the first major philosopher to emigrate to Athens. He was soon associated with the Athenian statesman Pericles and, probably due to this association, was accused by a political opponent of Pericles for impiety as Anaxagoras held that the sun was not associated with divinity; it was merely a huge burning stone. Pericles helped Anaxagoras flee Athens and return to Ionia. Anaxagoras
29880-430: Was closely associated with this new learning and a friend of Anaxagoras , however, and his political opponents struck at him by taking advantage of a conservative reaction against the philosophers; it became a crime to investigate the things above the heavens or below the earth, subjects considered impious. Anaxagoras is said to have been charged and to have fled into exile when Socrates was about twenty years of age. There
30060-402: Was experienced by the senses and, if comprehensible at all, was not comprehensible in terms of order; the world in which people lived, on the other hand, was one of law and order, albeit of humankind's own making. At the same time, nature was constant, while what was by law differed from one place to another and could be changed. The first person to call themselves a sophist, according to Plato,
30240-450: Was famous for studying numbers and the geometrical relations of numbers. A large following of Pythagoreans adopted and extended his doctrine. They advanced his ideas, reaching the claim that everything consists of numbers, the universe is made by numbers and everything is a reflection of analogies and geometrical relations. Numbers, music and philosophy, all interlinked, could comfort the beauty-seeking human soul and hence Pythagoreans espoused
30420-473: Was invalid. The most common theme of those paradoxes involved traveling a distance, but since that distance comprises infinite points, the traveler could never accomplish it. His most famous is the Achilles paradox, which is mentioned by Aristotelis: "The second is called the 'Achilles' and says that the slowest runner will never be caught by the fastest, because it is necessary for the pursuer first to arrive at
30600-449: Was kept at natural limit of consumption. 'Unnatural' trade, as opposed to the intended limit, was classified as the acquisition of wealth to attain more wealth instead of to purchase more goods. Cutting more along the grain of reality, Aristotle did not only set his mind on how to give people direction to make the right choices but wanted each person equipped with the tools to perform this moral duty. In his own words, "Property should be in
30780-608: Was not just an element of things, somehow it was the cause of setting the universe into motion. Anaxagoras advanced Milesian thought on epistemology, striving to establish an explanation that could be valid for all natural phenomena. Influenced by the Eleatics, he also furthered the exploration of metatheoretical questions such as the nature of knowledge. Ancient Greek philosophy Greek philosophy has influenced much of Western culture since its inception, and can be found in many aspects of public education. Alfred North Whitehead once claimed: "The safest general characterization of
30960-403: Was one god or many gods, or in such case whether there was a hierarchy among them. To critique the anthropomorphic representation of the gods by his contemporary Greeks, he pointed out that different nations depicted their gods as looking like themselves. He famously said that if oxen, horses, or lions could draw, they would draw their gods as oxen, horses, or lions. This critique was not limited to
31140-568: Was revered as one of the Seven Sages of Greece . Most importantly, what marks Thales as the first philosopher is the posing of the fundamental philosophical question about the origin and the substance of the world, while providing an answer based on empirical evidence and reasoning. He attributed the origin of the world to an element instead of a divine being. Our knowledge of Thales' claim derives from Aristotle. Aristotle, while discussing opinions of previous philosophers, tells us that "Thales,
31320-548: Was simply a rationalist whose successors are responsible for the mysticism in Pythagoreanism, or that he was actually the author of the doctrine; there is no way to know for certain. Pythagoras is said to have been a disciple of Anaximander and to have imbibed the cosmological concerns of the Ionians, including the idea that the cosmos is constructed of spheres, the importance of the infinite, and that air or aether
31500-419: Was so influenced by Socrates as presented by Plato that it is conventional to refer to philosophy developed prior to Socrates as pre-Socratic philosophy . The periods following this, up to and after the wars of Alexander the Great , are those of "Classical Greek" and " Hellenistic philosophy ", respectively. The convention of terming those philosophers who were active prior to the death of Socrates as
31680-406: Was subject to change – that makes him a materialist monist. From fire all things originate and all things return to it again in a process of eternal cycles. Fire becomes water and earth and vice versa. These everlasting modifications explain his view that the cosmos was and is and will be . The idea of continual flux is also met in the "river fragments". There, Heraclitus claims we can not step into
31860-696: Was such that Avicenna referred to him simply as "the Master"; Maimonides , Alfarabi , Averroes , and Aquinas as "the Philosopher". Aristotle opposed the utopian style of theorizing, deciding to rely on the understood and observed behaviors of people in reality to formulate his theories. Stemming from an underlying moral assumption that life is valuable, the philosopher makes a point that scarce resources ought to be responsibly allocated to reduce poverty and death. This 'fear of goods' led Aristotle to exclusively support 'natural' trades in which personal satiation
32040-573: Was such that some subsequent philosophers abandoned the monism of the Milesians, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, where one thing was the arche . In place of this, they adopted pluralism , such as Empedocles and Anaxagoras . There were, they said, multiple elements which were not reducible to one another and these were set in motion by love and strife (as in Empedocles) or by Mind (as in Anaxagoras). Agreeing with Parmenides that there
32220-417: Was the attainment of ataraxia , after Arcesilaus the Academic skeptics did not hold up ataraxia as the central objective. The Academic skeptics focused on criticizing the dogmas of other schools of philosophy, in particular of the dogmatism of the Stoics . They acknowledged some vestiges of a moral law within, at best but a plausible guide, the possession of which, however, formed the real distinction between
32400-500: Was the use of reason to explain the universe. The pre-Socratic philosophers shared the intuition that there was a single explanation that could explain both the plurality and the singularity of the whole – and that explanation would not be direct actions of the gods. The pre-Socratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations of the phenomena they saw around them in favor of more rational explanations, initiating analytic and critical thought . Their efforts were directed at
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