The Greeks known as the pre-Socratics sought naturalistic explanations for the world rather than mythological ones. The Milesian school, including Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, proposed early philosophical theories including that all things are made of water (Thales) or air (Anaximenes). Parmenides believed that reality is singular, unchanging Being and appearance or change is illusion, while Zeno used paradoxes to argue reality is static. Later pluralists like Empedocles and Anaxagoras proposed complex materialistic theories involving elements like earth, water, air and fire or the role of thought in organizing the world. Sophists like Protagoras were relativ

1. 1-24 the greeks

2. pre-socratics general term we use for the philosophers preceding socrates rejected traditional explanations, mostly based on myth were primarily interested in “big” questions where does everything come from? what is everything really made of? how can we explain the apparent plurality of nature? how might we describe nature mathematically (math being the ultimate form of reason)?

4. milesian school thales: (624-546 bc) anaximander: (610-547 bc) anaximenes: (585-525 bc)

5. thales attempted to find naturalistic explanations for the world held the cosmological doctrine that everything that is is made up of water first recorded attempt to explain the world in naturalistic terms as opposed to spiritual was a great mathematician and astronomer predicted solar eclipses and set the solstices divided the year into 365 days biggest contribution was a kind of materialism and a kind of monism

6. anaximander companion or student to thales came up with concept of Apeiron boundless, infinite material substance which underlies all things embraces the notion of chaos allows for the creation of seemingly qualitatively different kinds of things (e.g. water and fire) proposed an early theory of evolution that suggested man had an aquatic origin

7. anaximenes student of anaximander thought that the underlying nature of the world was indeed one and infinite, but, unlike anaximander, was determinate ultimate source of everything was air

8. pythagoras 580-496 bc famous mathematician (pythagorean theorem) asked the fundamental questions of philosophy what is reality? how can we know truth? how should i live? rejected materialism was a kind of dualist thought that numbers made up the True Reality numbers gave form to matter founded a religious movement based upon his beliefs about numbers and Truth

9. eleatics parmenides 540-470 bc zeno 489-430 bc

10. parmenides thought that knowledge must be grounded in the unchanging as the world appears in flux, it must be mere illusion senses grasp appearance Real World is fixed reason grasps World, or Being Being never comes into existence, never goes out of existence, cannot be divided into parts, cannot be moved, and is uncaused three theses integral to his ideas that which is, is and cannot not-be; that which is not, is not and cannot be. the real is and cannot be nonexistent that which is can be thought or know and truly named that which is not, cannot. thinking and the thought that it is are the same thing. that which is, is one and cannot be many. the real is unique. there is no second thing besides it. it is indivisible. it contains no parts.

11. zeno student of parmenides best known for his paradoxes which attempt to show the World is static the line motion achilles and the tortoise the arrow

12. heracleitus (heraclitus) 535-475 bc rejected the notion of a static Being and put forth the idea of Becoming single principle at work in the world is “fire” suggested that logos (reason) staved off complete chaos this logos has an independent existence; it is not mankind’s reason embraced conflict at a way to change War is father and king over all

13. pluralist school empedocles 490-430 bc anaxagoras 500-428 bc

14. empedocles world is made up of four elements: water, earth, air, fire Love explains the attraction of matter Hate (Strife) explains the differentiation of matter

15. anaxagoras there is a part of everything in everything else Thought ( Nous ) is responsible for the segregation of like from unlike Thought rules all life Thought causes motion Thought is a kind of God-like substance

16. sophists protagoras 481-420 bc gorgias 483-375 bc

17. protagoras was a relativist responsible for the quote “man is the measure of all things” was a famous proponent of agnosticism

18. gorgias was a skeptic 1) nothing exists; 2) even if something exists, it can’t be known; 3) even if something could be known about it, knowledge about it can’t be communicated to others was known for making absurd, paradoxical arguments seem reasonable think about the criticism against socrates that he “made the worse seem the better”