Chapter 2 Greek Philosophy Before Socrates (Presocrates)

THE MILESIAN PHILOSOPHERS

THALES

-He was the Greek philosopher who predicted the solar eclipse. He is also considered by many ancient
authorities to be the first Western philosopher.

we call science was considered to be “natural philosophy”

-This period represents both the birth of science and of philosophy because these early thinkers
embarked on the quest for universal principles

THALES’S QUESTION

-concern was to find the unity that underlies all the multiplicity of things in our experience. This is
sometimes called the problem of “the one and the many.”

THALES’S ANSWER

-Thales gave, Aristotle tells us, is that water is the source of all things.

-Thales reasoned from the fact that water is essential to life

-Thales to support his conclusion that everything is transformed water.

THALES’S SIGNIFICANCE

-First, Thales’s position was an early example of metaphysical monism

MONISM is the name for any position that claims there is only one principle of explanation

.-Second, Thales assumed that this one principle is a material substance. This is called MATERIAL
MONISM

-Third, Thales made a contribution in the questions he asked.

-Finally, Thales is a key figure in the history of thought because of the nature of his answers. The
important point here is not his claim that water is the ultimate substance

ANAXIMANDER

-He was a younger contemporary of Thales and, perhaps, the latter’s student. He was well known in
Miletus and published a book on the evolution of the world.

ANAXIMANDER’S QUESTION

-“What is the single, basic stuff that is fundamental to all other things?”
he also absorbed Thales’s assumption that the key to the universe would be a single type of entity.
Anaximander

ANAXIMANDER’S ANSWER

-This ultimate ground of all being is the Apeiron, which means “the Boundless,” “the Infinite,” or “the
Indefinite.

THE PROBLEM OF CHANGE

-Anaximander has a much more developed theory of change than did his teacher. He says the world is
made up of warring opposites (cold versus heat, night versus day).

Therefore, change is the process of various qualities separating out from and returning to the primordial
substance.

-He included a primitive evolutionary theory in his account of the world, claiming that all life forms,
including humans, originally came from the sea

-He recognized that from the standpoint of the universe as a whole, there can be no absolute directions
of up or down.

ANAXIMANDER’S SIGNIFICANCE

-first contribution was the fact that his theory moves in the direction of a more abstract mode of
thought.

-Second, he began the process of philosophical criticism.

-Third, Anaximander addressed more seriously the problem of change and tried to give a more detailed
and adequate explanation of it.

-Fourth, with his principle of justice he struggled to articulate an early version of a natural, scientific law.

ANAXIMENES

- a younger contemporary of Anaximander and the third member of the Milesians or Ionians.

-his contemporaries say that it had a simple, unpretentious style, and it seems to have been more
scientific in tone and less poetic than the work of his predecessors.

ANAXIMENES’S SIGNIFICANCE

-First, he showed that we must temper abstract thought with conceptual clarification

-Second, HE treated the problem of change more explicitly and adequately than his predecessors.
Instead of simply saying that all things contain the principle of change

SUMMARY OF THE MILESIANS’ METHODS

-Thales’s and Anaximenes’s positions could be viewed as examples of a primitive empiricism. Empiricism
is the position that claims that sense experience is the best way to arrive at knowledge.
-Anaximander’s position might be seen as a crude and early version of rationalism. Rationalism claims
that reason is the best method for obtaining knowledge.

SUMMARY OF THE MILESIANS’ METAPHYSICS

-First, the Milesians introduced the problem of appearance versus reality. They all agreed on how the
world appears to be, but what they wanted to know was “What is reality ultimately like?” Water, the
Boundless, and air were their respective attempts to answer this question.

- Second, despite their differences all three Milesians assumed they could explain everything in the
universe, without exception, on the basis of a single principle.

- Third, they each assumed this monistic principle was a physical substance of some sort.

- For Thales, change was sheer spontaneous transformation, because things were “full of gods.

- Anaximander explained change as the separation of qualities out of the reservoir of the Boundless.

- Anaximenes accounted for most changes with the processes of rarefaction and condensation.

PYTHAGORAS: MATHEMATICIAN AND MYSTIC

- The Pythagorean movement was begun by a philosophical, mathematical, religious mystic by the name
of Pythagoras

- he passed on his teachings orally, along with a vow of secrecy.

- Pythagorean religious community combined the Greek scientific spirit with religious mysticism

PHILOSOPHY AND SALVATION

-the goal of religion was purification, and the goal of purification was the salvation of one’s soul

-Pythagoras taught that the soul achieved purity through an intellectual process of obtaining
philosophical wisdom

-Pythagoras is thought to be the first to call himself a “philosopher,” which literally means “a lover of
wisdom.” The “right way of life”

REALITY IS MATHEMATICAL

-Pythagoreans taught that there was an order and unity to the cosmos and that it was mathematical in
nature. Hence, numbers lie at the base of reality. In fact, they believed numbers have a reality of their
own

-Pythagoreans thought that music provided clues to the mathematical nature of the universe.(Harmony
of spirit)
Pythagoreans saw the universe as governed by a continual conflict between order and disorder. They
summarized this in the “table of opposites”:

Order Disorder

Limit Unlimited -Since the two columns represent two sorts of forces in the universe, this is a
type of metaphysical dualism. Since one side is identified with good and the other
Odd Even with evil, this is also a moral dualism
One Many THE PYTHAGOREANS’ SIGNIFICANCE
Right Left -First, they realized that metaphysical theory has a bearing on one’s life.
Male Female -the Pythagoreans believed philosophy was not merely a matter of intellectual
curiosity but a way of life.
Rest Motion
Hence, this is the first time we see individual, ethical concerns appearing in
Straight Crooked
philosophy.
Light Darkness
-Second, Pythagoras emphasized form over matter.
Good Evil
-Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the term cosmos (which means “order,”
Square Oblong “fitness,” “beauty”)

-In the seventeenth century, the astronomer Galileo followed the Pythagoreans
when he said that the book of the universe “is written in the mathematical language” and if one doesn’t
understand its symbols “one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.”

XENOPHANES

The Destroyer of Myths

-Xenophanes was said to be irreverent and cynical and was famous for his sharp, satirical wit. He
enjoyed criticizing and mocking his contemporaries

- Among his targets were the theological myths of Homer and Hesiod, the glorification of athletes in his
time, and the decadent vanity of people in his culture.

-skepticism (the view that knowledge is unattainable).

Philosophy of Religion

-First, he says that his contemporaries used mythological explanations to explain events when natural
explanations would suffice

-Second, he deplored the immorality of the traditional gods:

-Third, he ridiculed the poets for creating the gods in their own image

Xenophanes’s Significance

-two crucial questions: (1) What sense does it make to say the universe is divine? In other words, is
Xenophanes doing any more than tagging the universe with the three-letter label of “God”?

(2) How can an unmoving god be identical with a moving and changing world?

-He raised crucial, epistemological questions, and he attempted to construct a rational theology that did
not simply take for granted the traditional answers.

HERACLITUS

-he lived a lonely and withdrawn life, his writings and sayings seemed to have provoked a good deal of
discussion among later generations.

-one of the most difficult philosophers to interpret.

-the ancients called him “the Dark One,” “the Riddler,” “the Obscure.”

Reason Is the Path to Knowledge

-Logos means “statement” or “discourse,” but it also refers to “reason” or “the rational content of what
is spoken.”* However, logos is not limited to what goes on in our minds

Reality as Change and Conflict

THE PRIMACY OF CHANGE

-Heraclitus suggested that all the “objects” we talk about are really a collection of processes.

THE UNITY OF OPPOSITES

-Heraclitus taught not only that there is a unity of opposites, but also that the conflict between
opposites is good.

FIRE

-the Milesians debated whether the world is fundamentally water or air, Heraclitus says it is an
everlasting fire.

LOGOS AGAIN
-Throughout the changing world, one thing does not change. However, it is not a “thing”; it is the
principle or law of change itself.

Moral and Social Philosophy

-In his mind, those who prefer stability and peace are “tender-minded” individuals (whom he despises),
while those who relish change and strife are “hardheaded” realists.

Heraclitus’s Significance

-1ST a formal pattern

-2ND universal rationality pervades the universe that our finite minds can understand.

-3RD most comprehensive philosopher thus far, because he addressed the issues of epistemology,
metaphysics, ethics, politics, and theology

PARMENIDES AND THE ELEATICS

-Parmenides he was a younger contemporary of Heraclitus

Reality Is Unchanging

-“Whatever exists, exists, and there is nothing apart from that which exists.”

-(1) Anything we can think or speak about either exists or doesn’t exist.

(2) Anything that doesn’t exist is nothing. (NON CONTROVERSIAL)

-(3) We cannot think or speak about nothing.

(4) So, we cannot think or speak about what doesn’t exist. (CONTROVERSIAL)

-For Parmenides, the fundamental reality of Being can be spoken of as the “what is” or “the One.”

1. Being is uncreated. (a) something or (b) pop into being from nothing

-Furthermore, Being could not have come from nothing, because that does not exist and could not cause
anything

2. Being is unchangeable and imperishable.

-It could not change into Being, because it is that already

3. Being is one and is indivisible

-Being, this is the same as what is being divided. If something is continuous, it can have no divisions

4. Being is motionless.

-since empty space would necessarily contain nothing (which cannot be something that exists), there
can be no motion.
5. Being is a finite body.

-He assumes the material monism of the Milesians and conceives of his Being as a physical body. He also
assumes it is finite, because the Greeks were very nervous about the concept of an infinite quantity.

Zeno of Elea: Coming to Parmenides’s Defense

-the conclusions turn out to contradict one another or to be patently absurd. This type of argument has
been called reductio ad absurdum or “reducing to an absurdity.”

1. Arguments against the senses

-(1) is true, then our senses deceived us when we heard a sound. If condition

(2) is true, then our senses deceived us when we did not hear a sound. Either way, the senses are
unreliable.

2. Arguments against plurality

-this conclusion is absurd, it must mean that the starting assumption—that there are multiple, divisible
objects—is absurd also.

3. Paradoxes of motion

-contrary to our uncritical beliefs, it is impossible to make any rational sense out of motion.

Evaluation and Significance of the Eleatics

-major problem in the Eleatics’ arguments is that they confused grammar, logic, and metaphysics.

“There is nothing

-(1) They were the first to reflect on the logical implications

(2) They had the courage to follow their assumptions to their logical conclusions, even though they
seemed counterintuitive

(3) They were very influential, even if in a negative way

THE PLURALISTS

-The Pluralists’ Task

-world of sense experience is one massive illusion and that change does not really occur. The remedy,
offered by a group of philosophers we call the pluralists

Empedocles (495–435 B.C.E.)

-he postulated that there is not one thing that is permanent but four things: earth, air, fire, and water.
Anaxagoras (500–428 B.C.E.

-was an Ionian who moved to Athens and became a part of the intellectual circle surrounding Pericles, a
major political figure of this time

-carried pluralism one step further. Instead of four elements, he said that every kind of thing has its own
element. Thus, there is an indefinite number of elements or “seeds” (spermata)

-introduced Mind (or Nous) as the source of motion and the principle of order.

DEMOCRITUS AND THE ATOMISTS

-The founder of the Atomist movement is thought to be a philosopher by the name of Leucippus

-Democritus is our source for most of the Atomists’ ideas, younger contemporary of Anaxagoras

-For Democritus, there is no ordering principle in the world

-Democritus asserts there are two kinds of knowledge:

Trueborn Bastard

Objective Subjective

Things as they are Things as they appear

Atoms and the void Qualities: colors, sounds, smells, tastes, textures

Ethics

-His theory is based on three assumptions:

1. All experience is produced by the movement of atoms.

2. The good life is one in which this experience is pleasing.

3. Tranquility of the soul (gentle motions) is more pleasing than all the pleasures of the body (largescale
motions).

-“prudent hedonism.” Hedonism is the theory that pleasure is the only value in life.

Summary of the Pre-Socratics

-The philosophers that preceded Socrates set philosophy in motion by offering arguments for their
theories and by criticizing one another. Although their arguments are not always cogent, they did
present reasons for their positions as well as for the refutations of their contemporaries. This was a
great advance over previous explanations of the universe, which simply relied on the noncritical
transmission of the mythical and poetic traditions of the culture. However, along with their insights
came a number of problems. The wide range of conflicting opinions that developed during this period
would lead the next group of philosophers to be very skeptical about whether we could ever arrive at
any truths that were more than simply personal opinions. These developments also made philosophers
realize that more work needed to be done on the foundations of knowledge