Pre-Socratic philosophers

Some of the Pre-Socratic philosophers are depicted in this painting of Raphael. Can you identify them?

Welcome to this lesson on the Pre-Socratic philosophers! This lesson will make us go back in time and learn the experiences of the early philosophers’ early experiences in their quest for knowledge and wisdom. Pre-Socratic philosophers contributed to the present-day body of knowledge by answering the fundamental questions that beset their inquisitive minds during their times. I would like to caution you though, don’t be quick to judge the Pre-Socratic philosophers as inferior thinkers over the other philosophers for they played important roles in the shaping of the early thoughts. Most importantly, they helped paved the way for the gradual emancipation of the early worldview which are dependent on the myths and other unscientific bases of thought. Instead, we should be thankful to them! So, join me as we get to know the important Pre-Socratic philosophers, one-by-one. Here we go!

“Nothing is permanent in this world, only change.” ~ Heraclitus

Intended learning outcomes (ILOs)

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

  1. Explain the various philosophical perspectives of the ancient Greek philosophers (Pre-Socratic philosophers) about the origin and the processes in the universe.

Pre-Socratic philosophers

The thinkers who were active in Greece between the end of the seventh century B.C.E. and the middle of the fourth century B.C.E. are known today as the Pre-Socratic philosophers, even though the last of the group so designated were actually contemporaries of Socrates. Literally, they came first before Socrates.

What all the Pre-Socratic philosophers have in common is their attempt to create general theories of the cosmos (kosmos is the Greek term for “universe”) not simply by repeating the tales of how the gods had created everything, but by using observation and reason to construct general theories that would explain to the unprejudiced and curious mind the secrets behind the appearances in the world.

Another commonality was that all the Pre-Socratic philosophers stemmed from the outlying borders of the Greek world: islands in the Ionian Sea or Greek colonies in Italy or along the coast of Asia Minor (in today’s Turkey). Knowledge of these thinkers is tremendously important not only for understanding the Greek world of their time, but for grasping the origins of Western philosophy and science.

The problem is that in fact very little is known about the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Most of the books that they wrote had already disappeared by the time that the philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) tried to catalog and criticize their views. Today’s understanding of the Pre-Socratics is based mostly on summaries of their ideas by Aristotle and by later Greek writers who had heard of their views only by word of mouth. Many of these accounts are surely inaccurate because of distortions caused by repetition over several generations by numerous individuals.

The Pre-Socratic philosophers

  1. The Milesians.
    1. Thales.
    2. Anaximander
    3. Anaximenes
  2. The Pythagoreans
  3. The Eleatics
    1. Heraclitus
    2. Parmenides
  4. The Pluralists
    1. Empedocles
    2. Anaxagoras
  5. The Atomists
    1. Leucippus
    2. Democritus
  6. The Sophists
    1. Protagoras
    2. Gorgias
    3. Thracymachus
    4. Callicles
    5. Critias

The Milesians

Philosophy makes its first self-presentation in three consecutive generations of thinkers from the little colony of Miletus on the coast of Asia Minor—today’s Turkey—in the sixth century B.C.E. They are collectively referred to as Milesians and together with the later philosophers of the Milesian School laid the foundations for future scientific and philosophical thought across the Western world. Their main philosophical quest involved the search for the fundamental substance that comprise the world.

Thales

Thales is the first western philosopher. And philosophy began when it occurred to Thales to consider whether there might be some fundamental kind of stuff out of which everything else is made. He called this arche or the origin of things. After much observation, he concluded that everything came from water. His actual words were:

“The first principle and basic nature of all things is water.”

Viewed this way, Thales can be seen as the first philosopher to introduce the project of reductionism. Reductionism is a method of explanation that takes an object that confronts us on the surface as being one kind of thing and shows that the object can be reduced to a more basic kind of thing at a deeper but less obvious level of analysis. This project is usually seen as a major function of modern science.

Anaximander

Anaximander subscribed to an early view of the principle of entropy, according to which all things have a tendency to seek a state of equilibrium. Like Thales, he thought there was a single basic substance from which everything had evolved. He decided it must be infinite and eternal and called it apeiron (“indefinite”). Anaximander also challenged Thales’ suggestion that Earth was supported by a sea of water, reasoning that this sea would have to be supported by something else. Lacking evidence
for this supporting structure, he declared that Earth was an object hanging in space. He went on to
publish what is believed to be the first map of the world.

ANAXIMENES

Like other Milesian philosophers, Anaximenes searched for the fundamental material from which the universe was made. He opted for air, pointing out that just as air gives life to the human body, so a universal kind of air gives life to the cosmos. He was the first thinker on record to use observed evidence to support his ideas. For air, becomes different things through processes of condensation and rarefaction. Blowing with pursed lips produced cold air; with relaxed lips, warm air. He argued, therefore, that when something condenses, it cools; when it expands it heats up. Likewise, when air condenses, it becomes visible; first as mist, then as rain, and ultimately, he believed, as rock, thus giving birth to Earth.

The Pythagoreans

The Milesians’ successor, Pythagoras (ca. 572–ca. 500 B.C.E.), from the island of Samos, near Miletus, did not seek the fundamental element in some material element, as his predecessors had done. Rather, he held the curious view that all things are numbers. Literally understood, this view seems absurd, but Pythagoras meant, among other things, that a correct description of reality must be expressed in terms of mathematical formulas. Two points make a line, three points define a surface, solids are made of surfaces, and bodies are made out of solids.

Pythagoras concludes that the whole cosmos must be governed by mathematical rules. He says that number (numerical ratios and mathematical axioms) can be used to explain the very structure of the cosmos. For example, the law of gravitation, the three laws of motion, the three laws of thermodynamics, the law of reflection, Bernoulli’s law, Mendel’s three laws. Interestingly, Pythagoras was educated by the Milesians since Thales taught Anaximander, who in turn taught Anaximenes, who in turn taught Pythagoras. He did not totally dismiss the Milesian idea that the universe is made up of one fundamental substance, but he shifted the inquiry from the description of fundamental substance to the description of form of these substances. He said:

“Number is the ruler of forms and ideas.” ~ Pythagoras

The Eleatics

The Eleatic school of philosophy, although not all of its members are from Elea, Italy, became famous because of its members who are enigmatic and controversial personalities during their times. More importantly, the Eleatics contributed to development of philosophy by focusing their attention on the concept of change rather than the search for the fundamental substance which comprise the world.

Heraclitus

Heraclitus sees the universe as being governed by a divine logos. Sometimes interpreted to mean “reason” or “argument”, Heraclitus considers the logos to be a universal, cosmic law, according to which all things come into being, and by which all the material elements of the universe are held in constant state of flux (change). According to him, the cause of this change is fire due to the fiery and unpredictable nature of fire. His concept of change is all encompassing that it does not only cover the realm of physical world when he said:

“You can never step into the same river twice.”

Parmenides

Heraclitus’s successor Parmenides (ca. 515–ca. 440 B.C.E.) went a step further than his predecessor. The ideas put forward by Parmenides mark a key turning point in Greek philosophy. Influenced by the logical, scientific thinking of Pythagoras, Parmenides employs deductive reasoning in an attempt to uncover the true physical nature of the world. His investigations lead him to take the opposite view to that of Heraclitus when he said:

“Nothing can come out of nothing.”

Parmenides begins with what he takes to be a self-evident truth: “It is.” This claim is not empirical—not one derived from observation; rather, it is a truth of Reason. It cannot even be denied without self-contradiction. If you say, “It is not” (i.e., nothing exists), then you’ve proved that “It is,” for if nothing exists, it’s not nothing; rather it is something.

Parmenides thought that change is just an illusion. He started by equating reality with Being. Being is what is.  Thus, if Being itself were to change, then it would become something different already. But what is different from Being is Non-being, and Non-being just plain isn’t. Thus, Being does not change.

The Pluralists

The next group of philosophers are known as pluralists, precisely because they were unable to accept the monolithic stillness of Parmenides’ Being. Therefore, they were forced to believe that ultimate reality is composed of a plurality of things rather than of only one kind of thing.

Empedocles

The first of this group of philosophers was Empedocles (?–ca. 440 B.C.E.), a citizen of the Greek colony of Sicily who attempted to reconcile the contrasting views of Heraclitus and Parmenides. He agreed to both philosophers and at the same time, managed to establish a middle ground. He supported Heraclitus with change, but also agreed to Parmenides that some things won’t change. He posited that everything was composed of the simplest parts of the four elements: fire, air, earth, and water. He called these elements the “four roots.” The visible changes we see happen when these for root come together or disintegrate. Yet, these four roots will never change. Empedocles believed there are two forces which explain change and movement. These forces he called Love and Strife. Love is the force of unity, bringing together unrelated items to produce new creations, and Strife is the force of destruction, breaking down old unities into fragments.

Anaxagoras

The next pluralist, Anaxagoras (ca. 500–ca. 428 B.C.E.) of Clazomenae, found Empedocles’ theory was too simplistic. He replaced the “four roots” with “infinite seeds.” Each of these seeds is something like an element in today’s chemistry; so in some ways, this theory sounds very modern. Every object in the world contains seeds of all elements, and in each object, the seeds of one element predominate as he maintained:

“In all things, there is a portion of everything…”

Anaxagoras agreed with Empedocles that some force explaining motion and change was required, but he replaced Empedocles’ all too mythical figures of Love and Strife with one force, a mental one, which he called Nous, or Mind. This assumption means that the universe is organized according to an intelligent, rational order. Anaxagoras’s Nous is almost like a god who creates objects out of the seeds, or elements.

The Atomists

Precisely because Anaxagoras’s view was anthropomorphic, it was still too mythical for Anaxagoras’s successors, a group of philosophers, led by Leucippus (ca. 460 B.C.E.–?) and Democritus (ca. 460–ca. 370 B.C.E.), known as the Atomists.

Leucippus founded the principle of Atomism. They saw the world as composed of material bodies, which themselves are composed of groups of “atoms.” The Greek word atomos (atomon) means “indivisible,” that which cannot be further split into smaller fragment.

Democritus made each atom a little piece of Parmenidean Being (uncreated, indestructible, eternal, indivisible, containing no “holes”) and set them moving through empty space traversing absolutely necessary paths that are determined by rigid natural laws. So, contrary to Parmenides’ view, both empty space and motion are real. Moreover, like atoms themselves, motion and space.

We, of course, experience their combining and disassembling and recombining as the generation, decay, erosion, or burning of everyday objects.

The Sophists

Because of the social shift toward political power and the study of rhetoric, it was no surprise, then, that the next group of philosophers were not really philosophers as such but rhetoricians who became
known as Sophists (“wise guys”). They traveled from city to city, charging admission to their lectures—lectures not on the nature of  reality or truth but on the nature of power and persuasion. Plato and Aristotle wrote a lot about the Sophists, and according to the picture that they handed down to us, not just skepticism but cynicism became the rule of the day.

Protagoras

Perhaps the most famous (and least cynical) of the Sophists was Protagoras (ca. 490–ca. 422 B.C.E.). He taught that the way to achieve success is through a careful and prudent acceptance of traditional customs—not because they are true, but because an understanding and manipulation of them is expedient. For Protagoras all customs were relative, not absolute. In fact, everything is relative to human subjectivity. Protagoras’s famous claim is homo mensura:

“Men is the measure of all things…”

Protagoras’s emphasis on subjectivity, relativism, and expediency is the backbone of all sophism.

Gorgias

Another famous Sophist was Gorgias (ca. 483–375 B.C.E.). He seems to have wanted to dethrone philosophy and replace it with rhetoric. In his lectures and in a book he wrote, he “proved” the following theses:

  1. There is nothing.
  2. If there were anything, no one could know it.
  3. If anyone did know it, no one could communicate it.

Thrasymachus

Yet another Sophist was Thrasymachus, who is known for the claim “Justice is in the interest of the stronger.” That is to say, might makes right. According to him, all disputation about morality is empty, except insofar as it is reducible to a struggle for power.

Callicles

Callicles claimed that traditional morality is just a clever way for the weak masses to shackle the strong individual. He taught that the strong should throw off these shackles and that doing so would be somehow “naturally right.” What matters is power, not justice. But why is power good? Because it is conducive to survival. And why is survival good? Because it allows us to seek pleasure—pleasure in food, drink, and sex. Pleasure is what the enlightened person aims for, qualitatively and quantitatively. The traditional Greek virtue of moderation is for the simple and the feeble.

Critias

Critias (who was to become the cruelest of the Thirty Tyrants, the men who overturned the democracy and temporarily established an oligarchical dictatorship) taught that the clever ruler controls subjects by encouraging their fear of nonexistent gods.

References

  • Stumpf, Samuel Enoch. (2008). From Socrates to Sartre: A History of Philosophy. New York: McGraw Hill Education.
  • Ramos, Christine Camela. (2004). Introduction to Philosophy. Manila: Rex Bookstore
  • Palmer, Donald. (2006). Looking at Philosophy: The unbearable heaviness of philosophy made lighter. 4th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill Education
  • The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. (2011). New York: D.K. Publishing
  • http://www.plato.standford.edu
  • http://www.philosophybasic.com
  • Images courtesy of Palmer, Donald’s Looking at Philosophy: The unbearable heaviness of philosophy made lighter. 4th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill Education

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