Pre-Socratics

The pre-Socratic philosophers served as intellectual catalysts for Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They laid the foundation for much of their thinking. The pre-Socratic thinkers were concerned with identifying the ultimate substance of the universe, and they wrestled with the apparent contradictions between the eternal and the finite, the immutable and the changing, appearance and reality. They introduced a new way of inquiring into the world. Instead of appealing to gods, supernatural forces, myths or magic to explain the world, they sought explanations that were within the natural world and used reason as the tool to make sense of things. In the words of one of the most influential pre-Socratics, Heraclitus. "Those who are lovers of wisdom must be inquirers into many things" and it was in this spirit that that these remarkable individuals proposed views of the natural world that encompassed the many present day disciplines. Because of their focus on the natural world, they are sometimes coined as "nature philosophers", they were in this sense the very first scientists in Western culture. But they also developed philosophical views in the areas of metaphysic, epistemology, and ethics so we might term them the first scientist/philosophers. This remarkable collection of early thinkers were revolutionary inquirers into nature, and they are credited with creating the foundation that made possible the work of subsequent scientists and philosophers.

Thales (c.625-547 B.C.E):
-Recognized as the 1st philosopher.
-Proposed that the world was floating on water and that everything was derived from and composed of water.
-This belief was perhaps based on water's essential role in nutrition and the growth of living things.
-Although Thales was wrong we must recognize that this idea was radical and revolutionary in nature.

Anaximander(610-546 B.C.E):
-Thales's student.
-"How could water be the basic stuff of the universe when so many things are obviously not made of water?".
-Proposed the apeiron as the beginning and fundamental element of all things, translated as the indefinite, unlimited, boundless.

Anaximenes (585-528 B.C.E):
-Anaximander's student.
-Questioned apeiron, as it was to abstract and vague.
-Proposed that air was the fundamental element of the universe.
-Air apparently takes on various properties of color, temperature, humidity and smell.

Pythagoras (570-497 B.C.E):
-Numbers are the basis of reality
-Reality is eternal,unchanging, and accessible only to reason
-Do NOT eat meat

Heraclitus (c. 535-475 B.C.E):
-Basic substance was fire.
-Logos = it's an objective lawlike principle that governs the univers.
-"All things are one".
-Had a dynamic view of reality.

Parmenides (510-450 B.C.E):
-Reality is permanent, unchanging and indivisible.
-Change and motion are illusory.

Anaxagoras (c. 500-428 B.C.E):
-Mind and matter are distinct.
-He attempted to give a scientific account of eclipses, meteors, rainbows and sun.
-Animals including humans sprang from warm moist clay.

Protagoras (485-410 B.C.E):
-"Man is the measure of all things".
-"Concerning the gods, I have no way of knowing weather they exist or not".