Thales of Miletus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who is considered the first Western philosopher. He founded the Ionian School of Philosophy and made early contributions to physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Some of his key ideas included that the world originated from water and that all things are full of gods. This document provides biographies of many influential early Greek philosophers such as Anaximander, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, and others. It discusses their ideas and contributions to fields like cosmology, physics, ethics, and metaphysics.

2. THALES OF MILETUS (624-546 B.C.)
 he’s the founder of Ionian
School of Philosophy
 he associated w/ specific discoveries in
physics, metaphysics, astronomy,
geometry and engineering
 he asserted that the world originated in
water and was sustained by water and
that the earth floated on water
 he asserted that “all
things are full of gods”

3.  Contributions of Thales:

4. Haly’s River passable for King
Croesus

5.  Contributions of Thales:

6. Solstices and their cycles

7.  Contributions of Thales:

8. Five Celestial Zones

9. Inclination of Zodiac

10. Sources of Moon’s Light

11.  Contributions of Thales:

12. Explicated the rise of Nile

13.  Contributions of Thales:

14. Five Theorems of Thales in Geometry

15.  Contributions of Thales:

16. Distance of ships at sea
Height of the pyramids

17. ANAXIMANDER (610-546 B.C.)
 he belongs to the Milesian
School of Greek philosophy with
Thales and Anaximenes

18.  Contributions of Anaximander:
– the production of the
opposites and their
separating off are important
in his cosmogony “penalty
and retribution of the
opposites in accord to the
assessment of time”

21.  Contributions of Anaximander:
– the production of the
opposites and their
separating off are important
in his cosmogony “penalty
and retribution of the
opposites in accord to the
assessment of time”
– the 1st living creature were
born in moisture and
enclosed in thorny barks. As
their age grow, they came
forth into the drier part and
the bark was broken off
– Man was born from
animals of another
species (man came into
being inside fishes)

22. ANAXIMENES (585-528 B.C.)
“Our soul, being air, holds us
together, so do breath and air
encompass the whole world"
 Hot and cold are the common
attributes of matter that come from the
result of its changes. Matter comes first.
Matter is air.
 Sun and moon are fiery celestial bodies
carried by air in their flatness. The origin of
stars is called moisture exhalation. Air is god.
Air has the same function to man and the
universe.

23. Pythagoras and the
Pythagoreans (Samos: 570-500)
 square of the hypotenuse as equal to the
squares of the other two sides of a right-angled
triangle.
 correlation between numbers and magnitude
provided immense consolation to those who
were seeking evidence of a principle of structure
and order in the universe.

24. XENOPHANES OF COLOPHON (570 B.C.)
 he declined the immorality of the
gods and believed on a single
anthropomorphic Deity
 he taught on the unity of all
things, eternity of the totality being,
and the nature as imbued with the
divine
 he taught on the unity of all
things, eternity of the totality being,
and the nature as imbued with the
divine

25.  he started with the principle that
“nothing comes from nothing: all is
one and one is all”
XENOPHANES OF COLOPHON (570 B.C.)
 he advocated empirical
knowledge
 The truth has to be discovered by
degrees. The primitive substance was
earth; others would say water and earth.
Xenophanes believed that the one is
eternal; the world in its present form is not
eternal

26. – structural
coherence
HERACLITUS (504-501 B.C.)
 he held that the world was
not created but had always
existed
 he believed that the
dry soul is the wisest
and the best in
comparison to wet
soul
 War is the father of all and the king of all,
and some he presents as gods, others as
man, some as slavers others as free
(Collinson, 10-12)

27. PARMENIDES (501-492 B.C.)
 he begins with what he
takes to a self-evident
truth: “It is”. It is the truth
of reason. It cannot be
denied if you say, “it is
not”, then you have
proved that “it is”; for if
nothing exists, it’s not
nothing, rather it is
something

28. Being/Realit
y
 Parmenides believed that:
Being is
rational. – uncreated and imperishable,
eternal, indivisible and
homogenous, motionless, finite
and equally real in all directions.
It is a timeless plenum. He
negated the notion of time, the
void and plurality.
The air is
separated
off from
the earth.
“The moon is compounded of both air and fire.
Aither is outermost, surrounding all, next is the
fiery sky, and lastly, the earth (Kirk and Raven,
283-285)

29. MELISSUS OF SAMOS (500 B.C.)
 he was a disciple of Parmenides
whose notion of being was in contrast
with him
“Being/Reality is one, eternal,
infinite and unchangeable”
The One is incorporeal. If this incorporeal
being were to exist, it must be one, but if it
were one it cannot have body, for if it had
body, it would have parts, and no longer be
one (Monists and Pantheists Perspective)

30. ZENO OF ELEA (490-B.C.)
 he did not develop his own
philosophy but he defend his master
that there is only one reality
 he proved the impossibility
of motion using a method
known as reduction ad
absurdum
 his master was
Parmenides

31. ZENO OF ELEA (490-B.C.)
FOUR ARGUMENTS:
- if things are
many, they must
be both like and
unlike
Against
Plurality
- the race course
- the tortoise
and
Achilles
- the flying
arrow
- the stadium
Against
Motion
- if everything
that exists has a
place, that place
will have a place,
and so on without
limit
Against
Space
- It proves that one
of the senses is
unreliable. It is
connected w/ the
query how much
force it takes to
shift a heavy weight
R.S.E.

32. Parmenide
s
ZENO OF ELEA (490-B.C.)
“Being is one, seamless
and unchanging whole”
“Motion and Change is
impossible”

33.  he believed that
bodies are
composed of the
hot for they have
no share in the
cold
PHILOLAUS AND EURYSTUS OF CROTON
Philolaus
 he suggest an
analogy between
macrocosm and
microcosm
The unlimited (womb =
implanted) represents
darkness, while limit
stand for light (Kirk and
Raven, 312-313)
 he believed that numbers are
the causes of substances and of
being whether as limits (as points
are of spatial magnitudes)
Eurystus

34. EMPEDOCLES OF ACRAGAS
 his philosophy is eclectic, all
knowing
Principles of Empedocles:
Matter has no absolute
beginning or end. Matter is
eternal. Matter is uncreated
and indestructible.
There is no absolute beginning,
becoming. An object as a whole
begins and ceases to be. These
matters are capable of change. It
remains as it is.

35. EMPEDOCLES OF ACRAGAS
Four Elements:
1. Zeus (fire) 2. Hera (air)3. Aidoneus
(earth)
4. Nestis
(water)
– dead;
lifeless; it
cannot supply
the principle of
motion
–
transmigration
of soul;
reincarnation
MATTER
METEMPSYCHOS
IS

36. ANAXAGORAS OF CLAZOMENAE (500-428 B.C.)
The Two Propositions
The things with
like parts or
Homoeomereity:
a natural
substance.
There is a portion
of everything in
everything.
 For him, all things were together,
infinite in respect of both number and
smallness, for the small too was infinite.
 Air being corporeal, is distinguished
from the non-existent void. He negated
the existence of the void and gave no
explication of differences of weight (Kirk
and Raven, 368 ff.)
 He reacted to Zeno: Neither is there a
smallest part of what is small, but there
is always something larger than what is
large. It is equal in numbers to what is
small, everything is relation to itself,
being both large and small. All things
are always equal.

37. ARCHELAUS OF ATHENS
 he was a pupil of Anaxagoras
and a teacher of Socrates. he was a physicist who
transferred physical philosophy
from Ionia to Athens.
 For him, the 1st principle was
infinite air, with its condensation
and rarefraction, the former of
which was water, the latter fire. He
maintained that right and wrong
exist only by convention and not
by nature.

38. THE ATOMISTS: LEUCIPPUS OF MILETUS AND
DEMOCRITUS OF ABDERA (460-371 B.C.)
LEUCIPPUS
 Him with Parmenides and
Xenophanes regarded that
the whole as one, motionless,
uncreated and limited, not
being was impossible and
forbade even the search for
what is not, he posited
innumerable elements in
perpetual motion, namely, the
atoms and void.
ATOMOS
– it is unsplittable; it
cannot be affected; it
is so small and have
no parts.
DEMOCRITU
S
 he refined the system of
the atomic theory.
 he was the most
travelled man of his time
because he wanted to
study.
 For him, atoms and void
are the material causes of
reality.
 For him, the visual
image does not arise
directly in the pupil,
but the air between the
eye and the object of
sight is contracted and
stamped by the object
seen
Atom is eternal,
passive, solid and
immutable.

39. DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA
 his philosophy was monism
(all things are modifications of a
single basic substance: air)
 he believed on accurate anatomy
of human veins and that semen
aerated, since semen produces new
life
Air is:
- intelligent - divine

40. Anaximenes Anaxagoras Heraclitus
Medical
Principle
 “air” (takes
other forms
when
condensed
and rarified)
 “mind” [nous]
(unmixed with but it
rules all things)
 material
 only exist in
animate things
 “logos”/fire
steers all
things
Diogenes
[Air]
 “air” (other
attributes)
 hot and cold
 dry and wet
 stability and
mobility
 flavour and
color
 [noesis] intelligence
(mixed with and
ruling all things)
 spiritual
 exists in animate
and inanimate things
 every
natural event
was due
directly to this
intelligence

41. Anaxagoras Leucippus
Cosmogony
and
Cosmology
 noetic
substance
starting a
vortex
 infinite void
and infinite
cosmos
 all things
are in motion

42. PROTAGORAS OF
ABDERA (490-420 B.C.)
 he was the first intellectual
leader of the Sophist
– are persons skilled in a
particular craft, or the
knowledgeable and the wise or a
specialist in wisdom.
S
O
P
H
I
S
T
S
 he was tried at Athens and
condemned to death and banished for
his agnosticism concerning to gods
 he held this Protagorean
relativism: “a human being is the
measure of all things”—this is
known as the emblem of the entire
sophistic movement
 he talks about the myth of
human progress
 Aidos – a sense of shame and
respect for others.
 Dike – a sense of right and justice.
Two gifts of
Zeus:

43. SOCRATES (469-399 B.C.) = ETHICS AND RELIGION
 he abandoned art and advocated
education, conceiving that he had a
divine commission, witnessed by
oracles, dreams and signs, not to
teach doctrine, but to convict men
of ignorance mistaking itself for
knowledge, and by so doing to
promote their intellectual and moral
improvement
 he sought to discover the truth
and the good life
 he visualizes the value of the
soul, the importance of knowledge
and wisdom if the soul is properly
tended. Thus knowledge leads to
ethical action. Knowledge and virtue
are one. Thus a wise man knows
what is right and will also do what is
right
The charges lodged against
Socrates:
1. Impiety towards the gods.
2. Corruption of the minds of
the young people.
 Piety, justice, courage and
temperance are the names which
wisdom bars in different spheres of
action: to be pious is to know what is
due to the gods; to be just is to know
what is due to men; to be courageous
is to know what is to be feared and
what is not; to be temperate is to
know how to use what is good and
avoid evil

44. PLATO (427-347 B.C.) = RING OF GYGES
 he believed that philosophers
have a duty to society, to help
their fellow citizens in their search
for wisdom, he established a
school in Athens, the Academy
– one of the most influential books
in the history of Western
Civilization. It talks about “the ring
of gyges”, in which the issues
whether humans are naturally just
or unjust is raised.

45. PLATO (427-347 B.C.) = RING OF GYGES
Plato believes that:
Man is
present
earthly
existence.
1.
Virtue is knowledge,
and the source of
knowledge is virtue.
It is not abstract but
concrete knowledge,
not theoretical but
practical knowledge.
2.
 Wisdom
 Courage
 Temperance
 Justice
Four Cardinal
Virtues:Man is a
knower and
a possessor
of an
immortality
of the soul.
3.
The Theory of Forms
– the real nature of
any individual thing
depends on the form
in which it
“participates”.
4.
The Theory of
Knowledge
– knowledge
is attainable.
5.
Allegory of the
Cave
– the myth of the
cave describes
individuals
chained deep
within the recesses
of a cave.

46. ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
Plato’s
Academy
– one of the two
major Aristotelian
treatises on ethical
theory.
Nichomachean
Ethics

47. ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle believes that:
1. Man is a rational animal.
2. The very goal of human
life is happiness. As he
put it: Virtue is a habit
(moral virtue) or trained
faculty of choice
(intellectual virtue).
Two Types of
Virtues:
- Intellectual
Virtues
- Moral Virtues

48. ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle believes that:
3. Moderation comes in
the middle or mean
between two vices, one
on the side of excess, the
other on the side of
defect.
4. For him, reality consists
matter and form.
THE FOUR CAUSES:
a. Material Cause
– what an object is made from, its
matter.
b. Formal Cause
– how matter is organized or
structured.
c. Efficient Cause
– how something came to be what it
is.
d. Final Cause
– the purpose or characteristic
activity of the object.

49. ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
 God is the unmoved
mover.
–
purpose,
function,
or end.
TELEOLOGY
 The body is alive if it has
a soul.
Nutrition
 Sensation
 Thinking
Three Fundamental Activities of Life
for Aristotle:
he synthesized Aristotle’s
science by interpreting it is an
evidence of a divine plan
operating in nature
Thomas Aquinas
Exitus et reditus Principle:
All things come from God
and return to God.
Natural Law
- human way of knowing the
ultimate norm of morality.
Eternal Law
- enables us to develop our
unique qualities.

50. ATOMIC
MATERIALISM
EPICURUS (341-270 B.C.)
 he founded a school of
philosophy
 he regarded pleasure as
the beginning and end of
the blessed life
- the universe
is composed of
matter (in the
form of atoms)
in motion in
empty space.
 he believed that not
only that we ought to
act in such a way as to
produce the greatest
amount of pleasure
(ethical hedonism), but
also that we are so
constituted
psychologically that we
inevitably take pleasure
in all our acts
(psychological
hedonism)
 it advocates
hedonism (from
the Greek word
“pleasure”)
 Pleasure is the
only good in life.
EPICUREANISM
 he gave us the
analogy of health
and disease

51. EPICTETUS (C. 50 – C. 130) = STOICISM
– a manual edited from his
lecture notes taken by one
of his students.
ENCHEIRIDION
1. Epictetus Stoic view of
man
2. Dualism of mind (soul) and
body
3. Virtue does not consist in
external performance, but in
inner attitude.
4. The private is better than the
public; the inner self is better
than the outer self.
5. The inner self can be free; the
outer self is determined by
events.
6. A man can be peaceful and
self-composed even while being
tortured or in great illness.
Ethical Teachings of
Epictetus:
7. Man’s duty is to make the
mind master over desires and
needs.
STOICISM’S PHILOSOPHY OF RIGID
AUSTERITY AND SELF DENIAL
a. It contrasts
Epicureanism’s
philosophy of pleasure.
b. Men must find happiness in
himself. He must fear the God
within him.

52. PLOTINUS (205-270 A.D.)
 he was a pantheist. He envisaged
God as an impersonal Unity – infinite,
eternal, with no spatial location and
without thought, knowledge or
movement
 he believed in the source
of all creation called by Him,
the One
The One
Mind (nous)
Soul
totally self-
sufficient, has no
need of acting in
a creative
capacity
 "intelligence",
"thought", "the
divine mind”
 the dynamic,
creative
temporal power
Matter
 absolute evil
or non-being
EMANATIONISM
 a cosmological
theory which asserts
that all things "flow"
from an underlying
principle or reality,
usually called the
Godhead.