15 EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

[3 Groups: the Pre-Socratics, the Socratics, and the Post-Socratics]

1. Thales of Miletus- Water (c.624-c.545 B.C.E.)

Thales of Miletus is a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and is regarded as the first
philosopher born in the Ionian city of Miletus. Thales was also the founder of
natural philosophy and part of one of the seven Ancient Greece, wherein for him,
all is water. Thales claimed water as the first cause considering the other element;
water can change its form to another; he observed the importance of water in
daily life. It all starts from nourishing moisture to water when heated; it turns into
air, and when exposed to a cold temperature, it solidifies into ice. When water
mixes into the soil, it becomes mud; as it dries, it solidifies again as it goes
through pressure and can move rocks.

2. Anaximander- The Boundless (c.610-c.546 B.C.E.)

Anaximander is a known student of Thales who does not believe that water is the
primal element of the world. He believed no primal element could be considered
the first cause; he claimed all basic elements must be a source. Anaximander's
primal element, which the world formed, cannot determine; he called it Apeiron, a
Greek word that means boundless, indefinite, or infinite.

3. Anaximenes- Air (c.546-c.528 B.C.E.)

Anaximenes is another pupil, but of Anaximander, who also disagreed with his
teacher and argued that the primal element of the world could be determined,
but it is not water. For Anaximenes, it is air; he believes that the air is the breath
of life where the human soul is formed, and everything occurs and creates by air.

4. Pythagoras of Samos – Numbers (c.570-c.490 B.C.E.)

Pythagoras was one of the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers and mathematicians
known for his great work called the Pythagoras theorem. His work is based on
right-angled triangles and is one of the most essential calculations in geometry.
In the building sector, the theorem is still employed in modern times. Moreover,
 in his time, he also founded the Pythagoreans, a group of mathematicians who
loved numbers and calculations and lived like monks. He is credited for
discovering the earth's rotation and the existence of Venus, as well as the fact
that there are morning and evening stars. Pythagoras also believed in immortality
and reincarnation, included in his Philosophies.

Pythagorean theorem, all is number, the principle of order of the universe world
process
o Astronomer, and mathematician known for the Pythagorean theorem,
which geometry students use to figure the hypotenuse of a right
triangle the sum of the squares of the adjacent sides.
o He started a group of mathematicians called Pythagoreans who
worshipped numbers and calculations and lived like monks.
o Pythagoras’ philosophies included his belief in immortality and
reincarnation and that all living things should behave humanely to each
other.
o It was at this school that Pythagoras tried to find a mutual harmony
between real life and the practical aspects of philosophy.

5. Xenophanes of Colophon- Anthropomorphism and Pantheism (c.570-c.478

B.C.E.)
Xenophanes is a Greek philosopher considered as one of the most important pre-
Socratic philosophers. He was born fifty miles north of Miletus, the city famous
for the cradle of philosophy. Xenophanes is one of the philosophers whose
arguing for a single spiritual being who created and set everything in motion.
Human beings, once set in motion, remained on their path until death, at which
point, he appears to imply, their souls reunite with the creative energy.
Xenophanes despised anthropomorphic gods and believed in a single
incorporeal divinity and maintained that there was only one God, an immortal
entity with no human characteristics because the gods are regarded as little more
than superhumans, despite the fact that human traits cannot be adequately
ascribed to the gods.
 o Xenophanes may have asserted that men may have beliefs, but they don't
have certain knowledge.

6. Heraclitus of Ephesus– Change and the Logos (c.540-c.480 B.C.E.)

logos - fire, universal principle, everything is change, we cannot step in the same
river (arising of things)
Heraclitus of Ephesus is one of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. The goal was to
find the First Cause of the world's creation, and he also disproved previous beliefs
such as air and water, claiming that fire was the First Cause because it both
created and destroyed things. His colleagues called him the "black" philosopher
because his writings were so difficult to comprehend. Heraclitus contrasted most
people's comprehension of the nature of existence and the purpose of human life
to that of those asleep, as he seems to have regarded most of the human beings
he came into contact with.
o Known by his nickname “The Dark One of Ephesus”
o Heraclitus was born in a region of present-day Turkey

First conceptions of State

In her work, Heraclitus began to outline what would be an ideal or functional

state. However, by then, social conditions were still very precarious, hampering
the process of classification in a society.

At that time in Greece, the number of people considered to be citizens was

minimal, and children, women and slaves were excluded.

It is said that Heraclitus came from an aristocratic environment, which gave him
some social bias in the development of these concepts.

However, he did not go much deeper and, instead, exposed particular

conceptions in the face of war and the power of one man over another.

7. Parmenides of Elea- The One (c.515-c.450 B.C.E.)

Parmenides was a Greek philosopher from the southern Italian Colony of Elea. He
belongs to Pre-Socratic philosophers who began philosophic research in Greece
in the 6th century BCE with Thales of Miletus. He also founded The Eleatic School
of philosophy, in which he taught a rigid Monistic view of reality. Philosophical
 Monism is the view that the perceptible world is made up of a single,
fundamental material and is both uncreated and indestructible.
change is impossible, reality is one, what is, is and it is impossible for it not to be
o Founder of the Eleatic School
o In the words of Parmenides, the signs of the way of truth were the
concretion of what is and what is not. Based on this reasoning, he stated
that a thing that is can never cease to be more than by itself. As we can
see, it is a somewhat abstract and strange argument that gave rise to
hundreds of theories and speculations in later times.
o According to McKirahan, Parmenides is the inventor of metaphysics (157)
—the inquiry into the nature of being or reality.

8. Zeno of Elea- Paradoxes (c.490-c.430 B.C.E.)

Zeno of Elea was a Greek philosopher and student of Parmenides' elder
philosopher. He appears to have written a treatise which he attempts to
demonstrate the absurdity of believing the existence of multiple entities and the
impossibility of motion. Zeno argues against pluralism by demonstrating that
counting a plurality leads to absurdity. If there were a plurality, the number would
be neither more nor less than the required number. As a result, there would be a
limited number of objects. A sequence of reasonings in which he attempted to
overcome paradoxes and problems involving plurality and movement, notions
that he questioned based on logical reasons recorded in several manuscripts
from a metaphysical standpoint.
o Recognized for his theory of infinity
o A series of reasonings with which he tried to resolve the paradoxes and
dilemmas about plurality and movement, concepts that, from a
metaphysical plane, he questioned on the basis of logical arguments that
were recorded in various manuscripts.
o The most enduring paradoxes are those concerned with motion
o The paradox referred to as "Achilles" claims that a faster runner (Achilles)
can never overtake the tortoise because the pursuer must always first
reach the spot that the one he seeks to overtake has just left.

9. Empedocles -Four elements and Two Forces (c.484-c.424 B.C.E)

 Empedocles was a philosopher whose work brought together the ideas of
Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Pythagoras to present a coherent view of the
unchangeable reality in which change may occur. He not only synthesized the
systems but also built his distinct perspective from them. His work merged
drastically divergent in philosophical views into a system which Parmenides'
changeless vision operated in partnered with Heraclitus' perpetual change and
Pythagorean mysticism while also addressing Anaxagoras' "seed theory." In
addition, Empedocles was the first to recognize the four elements of earth, air,
fire, and water as material causes of existence operating within a world governed
by two efficient causes, Love and Strife, which unified and destroyed the universe,
respectively.

fire, water, earth and air: the fundamental materials of the world
o Empedocles devised the theory of the four roots: four basic elements
o He is also the author of the two "conditions" or "forces" of the world, from
which he explained the problems of his time, such as corruption, hatred
and love. The first force united the existing, while the second separated it.
o He also believed in transmigration of the soul and vegetarianism.

10. Anaxagoras of Clazomenae- The Mind (c.500-c.428 B.C.E.)

Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who claimed that the Mind was
the First Cause of Existence. Everything was made up of indestructible "seeds" or
"stuff," which had initially been one mass separated and ordered by Mind.
Primordial being nous or mind. In addition, Anaxagoras was born into a
prosperous family in Asia Minor's Ionia. His name means 'lord of the assembly,'
and he moved to Athens. He was also was convicted of atheism and exiled from
Athens after rejecting conventional Greek mythology and current beliefs.

o He moved to Athens and his name means ‘lord of the assembly’

o His philosophy focused on nature and he developed different theories on
the formation of the universe from an infinite number of particles rather
than the four elements (air, water, earth and fire).
o He discovered the true cause of eclipses.
 o Anaxagoras rejected traditional Greek mythology and contemporary
ideologies so he was convicted of atheism and was banished from Athens.
o Anaxagoras was brought to trial for impiety in Athens because his
philosophy denied the divinity of all other gods but his principle, the mind

The Atomists: atoms: foundation of the world-process, numberless, primary beings:

11. Democritus- The Atomic Theory (c.460 - c.370 B.C.E.)

born in Abdera in Greece
o Democritus was an influential Ancient Greek philosopher who had the
nickname ‘the laughing philosopher’ because he always emphasized
happiness.
o Theory of perception- Democritus' theory of perception is closely related
to the school of atomism. This philosopher pointed out that the images (
Eido Were actually layers of atoms.
12. Leucippus- The Atomic Theory (c.5th cn B.C.E.)
o Leucippus' theory of atomism was developed even further by his pupil,
Democritus.
o Matter is homogeneous but consists of an infinite number of indivisible
particles called atoms.
o Leucippus thought the universe was composed of atoms in a void

13. Protagoras- Relativism (c. 490-c. 420 BC)

Sophists
Protagoras is the finest of ancient Greece's Sophists and the first philosopher in
the West to advocate Subjectivism, claiming that one's perception of any given
experience, or everything, is relative to the individual. Through his stance as a
Sophist, Protagoras was the first to teach relativistic philosophy in Greece. He is
also well known for the remark that "man is the measure of all things," which he
used to express the idea that everything is relative to one's interpretation.
Furthermore, the concept that there is no final, objective truth is known as
'relativism,' and Protagoras is considered the first known relativist in Western
culture. Plato, of course, believed in an objective standard of truth that everyone
must understand and accept to live a happy, successful, and creative life.
 o He is most famous for the apparently relativistic statement that human
beings are “the measure of all things, of things that are that they are, of
things that are not that they are not” (It says that is man who decides
what things really are.)
o Protagoras lay the foundation in the West for questioning the most
fundamental ideas about reality and perception in suggesting that the
world one person sees may be radically different from the one their
neighbor is experiencing.
o Protagoras quoted in Diogenes Laërtus' "Lives of Eminent Philosophers" is:
"There are two sides to every question".

Sophist- a teacher of philosophy and rhetoric in ancient Greece, associated in

popular thought with moral skepticism and specious reasoning, earned a
negative connotation as "a captious or fallacious reasoner.

14. Gorgias- Skepticism (c.483-375 B.C.E.)

15. Critias- Aisthanomai and Gnome (c.460-403 B.C.E)

16. Socrates- founder of Western philosophy (469-399 B.C.E.)

o Socrates was born in Alopece and is credited with being one of the
founders of western philosophy and is the best known of the Ancient
Greek philosophers.
o Socratic Method
o Athens’ Gadfly
o He was Plato’s teacher, who followed his philosophical keys and
developed them.
 o I know that I know nothing
o Socratic Ethics- morality had a definite aim, an individual could affect
society in general by their decisions

17. Plato- student of Socrates (427-347 B.C.E.)

o born in Athens to an aristocratic and influential family.
o Plato combined the two major approaches of pre-Socratic metaphysics
and natural theology with Socratic ethical theology.
o The foundation of Plato’s philosophy is threefold: dialects, ethics, and
physics, the central point of unison being the theory of forms.
o He believed that the soul had three functions – reason, emotion, and
desire.
o The highest of forms was that of the “good,” which he took as the cause of
being and knowledge
o His most famous work The Republic, he described an ideal or Utopian
society, combine various aspects of ethics, political philosophy, and
metaphysics among others, into a systematic, meaningful, and applicable
philosophy.
o He was the founder of the Platonist school of thought and of the
Academy – the first institution of higher learning in the world in Athens.
o He was the inventor of written dialogue.
o Like his mentor Socrates, Plato was a strong critic of democracy.

18. Diogenes of Sinope- “Diogenes the Cynic,” who was and is the most famous of
the Dogs (c.404-323 B.C.E.)
o Founder and most famous member of the philosophical movement called
Cynicism
o “Diogenes the Cynic,” who was and is the most famous of the Dogs
o Born in Sinope, by the Black Sea
o He lavished himself on the art of discussion and oratory, and rejected any
of the conventions of his time, taking refuge in a frugal and austere life,

19. Aristotle- most influential among the disciples of Plato (384-322 B.C.E.)
o Born in Stagira
o Father of biology and logic
o He was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic School of Philosophy,
and the Aristotelian tradition.
o He was the first to develop a formal way of reasoning – known as the field
of formal logic.