THE pre-Socratic philosophy shared a goal: to discover the origin of the universe. With this same intention, different philosophical schools emerged during this period.
Plato left us one of the greatest philosophical bodies in the work. So great has been Plato's influence that his depiction of Socrates eclipsed all philosophers who existed in the Greek world then and before. These preceding philosophers are commonly known as pre-Socratics, not necessarily because they were inferior to Socrates, but simply because they came before. We don't have nearly as much information about their lives and teachings, but what we do have is very interesting.
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Empedocles is the source of the Classical idea that the universe is composed of four elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire. Believing that it was impossible for anything to come out of nowhere, or for existing things come into nothing, he believed that all change was brought about by mixing these four elements. Part of this belief in continued existence was his firm belief in reincarnation.
The belief in reincarnation probably led to the stories surrounding Empedocles' death. One of the stories is that Empedocles climbed to the top of Mount Etna and threw himself to his death in the lava. Either he did it as a way to actually become a god, or to deceive his followers into believing he had disappeared from Earth. Anyway, the volcano is said to have spat out one of his bronze sandals, revealing his death.
Zeno was a student of another philosopher on this list, Parmenides. We know about Zeno because his writings were discussed by Aristotle and he presents a dialogue by Plato. Despite his description in Plato, we know very little about Zeno himself. What we know of Zeno is his firm support for his teacher's theories.
Zeno is well known today for his paradoxes that sought to demonstrate the falsity of sensory information and the impossibility of change. Using a tale of a race between Achilles and a slow runner (sometimes given as a turtle) Zeno proves the impossibility of movement. In the paradox, Achilles gives a runner half the speed of his departure. Who do we hope to win? If such a race were actually run, we would see Achilles passing the slowest runner. However, it can be argued that Achilles should never go through the slower corridor, or actually move anyway. If the slow runner has a head start, then when Achilles arrives, where the slowest man was the slowest man, he should have moved half the distance Achilles traveled. So when Achilles got to that point, the runner would have moved on and so on, so he would never pass the slower man.
The Platonic Parmenides dialogue is one of the most complex of his works and seems to reflect the profound nature of Parmenides' philosophy while satirizing his difficulty. Parmenides was respected in his own time as a teacher and seems to have written only one work, a poem about nature. This poem tells of Parmenides' journey to visit a Goddess in search of wisdom. What we have is fragmentary, but it is enough to judge Parmenides' thought.
Parmenides believed that the entire universe, everything that exists, is timeless and unified. In his opinion, change was impossible. His ideas have a logical basis and have proven to be influential. Since we can feel that things are changing all the time, but logically prove that the change is impossible, we must find a way to justify this apparent clash of views of world.
In opposition to Parmenides' belief in a singular and unchanging universe, Protagoras famously said: "Man is the measure of all things." Everything that exists can be judged against man's sensation and interpretation. What you feel is true is true for you, what I feel is true is true for me, and there is no reason for them to be the same. This view of existence is very useful for arguing legal and moral cases, since you can prove whatever you want to prove. Some philosophers saw all of Plato's work as a way of finding a third path between the unity of Parmenides and the relativism of Protagoras.
Gorgias is perhaps the most entertaining of the pre-Socratic philosophers. Clearly an intelligent and persuasive man, if Plato is to be believed, Gorgias believed in nothing. He was the first known Nihilist. He tried to prove that nothing exists. In his now lost work On Non-Being, Gorgias used the following line of argument: Nothing exists, or if it does, we cannot know it, or if we can know it, it is impossible to communicate it. You get the feeling that Gorgias was poking his nose at other thinkers and demonstrating his logical proficiency. To get a sense of Gorgias' style, we must also consider that he wrote a speech in defense of Helen of Troy, the most hated woman in ancient Greek mythology.
Anaxagoras was the favorite philosopher of the Athenian leader Pericles. The age of Pericles is considered the golden age of Athens and it was at this time that scientific philosophy flourished. Anaxagoras treated all events as scientifically explainable, rather than being caused by supernatural agents. After all, he declared that the sun was a huge, hot rock in the sky and not Apollo's chariot. This remarkably modern view of the world was his downfall. Pericles' enemies tried to discredit him by attacking Anaxagoras. They accused him of impiety to the gods and he was arrested. He was released and fled Athens
Heraclitus, also known as Heraclitus the Black, the Dark and the Weeping Philosopher, for his negative outlook and mysterious sayings. What little we have of Heraclitus' work exists in brief sentences open to multiple interpretations. He is famous for the saying “You can't step into the same river twice”. Is it because the river has changed between steps, or will you have it? Another one of his sayings was “Everything flows”. Little of his work survives today, but he was well known in antiquity and influenced later philosophers. In his last days, he suffered from dropsy, a build-up of fluid under the skin. In an effort to cure this, he placed himself in cow dung and lay in the sun hoping to expel the fluid. After a day, he died.
Thales of Miletus is often credited with the Western world's first systematic philosopher. He was the first to reject supernatural explanations and look for reasons behind the events. To prove the value of this understanding of the world, he used his logic and evidence to predict a good harvest of olives and, by buying oil presses, managed to conquer the oil market and make fortune. In addition to devising various geometric theories (which allowed him to measure the height of the pyramids from the ground), Thales was also the first person to study electricity. It had been noted that amber, when rubbed, attracted strands of fiber to it. It was this static electricity that Thales studied. When the atom's negative particle was named, it was called an electron, after the Greek for amber-elektron.
Democritus was perhaps the most scientifically successful of the ancient philosophers, and yet he was largely ignored in the ancient world. We know that he believed that the entire universe was governed by natural laws that were understandable and predictable, a very modern view. Using reason, Democritus also predicted the existence of atoms and voids. This was at a time when it was impossible to detect anything smaller than the eye can see and the idea of nothingness and emptiness was anathema to most thinkers. His extensive studies also took on the finer points of philosophy, biology, human society, and geometry. In addition to being right on many issues, even if unrecognized, he was also a cheerful individual known as Philosopher Laughing.
Pythagoras is probably the best known of all the names on this list. The theorem revealing his name was well known in Egypt long before his birth. It was known that if a right triangle had sides of lengths 3 and 4 then the hypotenuse would have a length of 5. What probably happened is that Pythagoras accepted this special case and worked out a theory that worked on all right triangles. In addition, he worked on the relationships between musical notes, discovered all regular solids, and was the first to study irrational numbers. In addition to these scientific discoveries, he also worked extensively on mystical beliefs, such as reincarnation. He formed a community of followers who adhered to somewhat eccentric rules. It was against their rules to eat beans, unload a cart on the street, and never stir a fire with an iron tool. The modern opinion is that Pythagoras may have gathered around him a group of learned individuals, and all his discoveries were linked to his name. Of the stories about the death of Pythagoras, most include stories of him being driven out of the city by a mob. It is also reported that he was caught by the mob when he arrived at a bean field and failed to trample these sacred plants.
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