Pre-Socratic philosophy

"Presocratics" redirects here. For the band, see Presocratics (band).

Pre-Socratic philosophy (or early Greek philosophy) is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of these early philosophers spanned the workings of the natural world as well as human society, ethics, and religion. They sought explanations based on natural law rather than the actions of gods. Their work and writing has been almost entirely lost. Knowledge of their views comes from testimonia, later author discussing the views of pre-Socratics. Philosophy found fertile ground in the ancient Greek world because of the close ties with neighboring civilizations and the rise of autonomous civil entities, poleis.

The most important pre-Socratic philosophers are the three Milesians, Thales, Anaximander, and Anaxagoras. They each attributed the arche (a word that could take the meaning of "origin," "substance" or "principle") of the world to, respectively, water, apeiron (the unlimited), and air governed by nous (mind or intellegence). From nearby towns were Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Pythagoras. Xenophanes is known for his critique of the anthropomorphism of gods. Heraclitus, notorious for being obscure, is known for his maxim ta panta rhei and attributing fire as the arche of the Whole. Pythagoras created a religion-like cult that advocated that the universe was made up of numbers. The Eleatic school followed (Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, and Melissus). Parmenides claimed that only one thing exists and nothing can change. Zeno and Melissus mainly defended Parmenides' opinion. Anaxagoras and Empedocles offered a pluralistic account of how the universe was created. Leucippus and Democritus are known for their atomism, and their views that only void and matter exist. The Sophists advanced critical thinking.

The impact of the pre-Socratics has been enormous. The pre-Socratics invented the basic concepts of Western civilization: freedom, democracy, autonomy, and rationalism.

Terminology

Pre-Socratic is a term formulated in the 19th century for this group of philosophers. It was first used by the German philosopher J.A. Eberhard as "vorsokratische Philosophie" in the late 18th century, but they were distinct as a group since antiquity. In earlier literature they were referred to as physikoi (Greek: φυσικοι, "physicists", after physis, "nature"), and their activity was referred to as physiologoi (Greek: φυσιολόγοι, physical or natural philosophers), with this usage arising with Aristotle to differentiate them from theologoi (theologians) and mythologoi (storytellers and bards who conveyed Greek mythology) who attributed natural phenomena to the gods.

While the term was coined to highlight a fundamental change in philosophical inquiries among a group of philosophers who lived before Socrates and were interested in the structure of nature and Kosmos(kosmos- greek for the universe, implying there is order- it is not chaotic), and Socrates and his antecedents who were mostly interested in ethics and politics. But the term does not come without drawbacks because several of the pre-Socratics were highly interested in ethics and how to live the best life. Further, the term implies that the pre-Socratics are less significant as Socrates- or even they were merely a stage (implying teleology, ironically enough considering Pre-Socratic's lack of teleology) to classical era philosophy. It is chronologically inaccurate, as the last of the pre-Socratics were contemporaries of Socrates. According to James Warren, the distinction between the pre-Socratic philosophers and philosophers of the classical era is demarcated not so much by Socrates, but by geography and what texts survived. The shift from the pre-Socratic to the classical periods involves a shift from philosophers being dispersed throughout the Greek-speaking world to being concentrated in Athens. Further, starting in the classical period we have complete surviving texts, whereas in the pre-Socratic era we have only fragments. Pre-Socratics scholar André Laks distinguishes two traditions of separating pre-Socratics from Socratic, dating back to the classical era and running through current times. The first tradition is the Socratic- Ciceronian, which sets the devising criterion at the content of their philosophical inquires, pre-Socratics were interested in nature whereas Socrates focused on human affairs. The other tradition Platonic- Aristotelian considers method as the sharp difference between the two groups, as Socrates moved to a more epistemological approach of studying various concepts. Because of the drawbacks of the term pre-Socratic, 'early Greek philosophy is also used, most commonly in Anglo-Saxonic literature.

An important term that is met in the thought of several pre-Socratic philosophers is Arche. Depending on the context, it can take various related meanings. It could mean the beginning or origin with the undertone that there is an effect on the things to follow. Also it might mean a principle or a cause (especially in Aristotelian tradition).

Doxography

Very few fragments of the works of the pre-Socratic philosophers survived to our days. The knowledge we have of the pre-Socratics derives from account of later philosophical such as Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Diogenes Laërtius, Stobaeus, and Simplicius, and some early Christian theologians (especially Clement of Alexandria and Hippolytus of Rome). Many of these are titled Peri Physeos, or On Nature, a title probably attributed later by other authors). Collectively, these fragments are called as Doxography (derived from the latin doxographus, doxa in latin means opinion.)

As all that is available about the pre-Socratics are quotations and testimonies by (often biased) later philosophers and historians, it is sometimes difficult to determine the actual line of argument some pre-Socratics used in supporting their views. Adding more difficulty to their interpretation is the obscure language they use, with final result scholars quarrelling on the various possible explanations. Plato paraphrased quotations of the pre-Socratics and showed no interest in accurate representation of their views. Aristotle was more accurate but saw them under the scope of his philosophy. Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle wrote an encyclopedic-styled book ‘’Opinion of the Physicists’’ that was the standard read in ancient times about the pre-Socratics. There is no trace of it today but Simplicius heavily relies on his work

In 1903, German professors H. Diels and W. Kranz, authored a book Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (the fragments of the pre-Socratics) were they listed all the saved fragments available, that is now used by scholars to refer to specific quotes. They attributed the letter A if a fragment is a testimonia, and B if is a direct quote from the philosopher. Philosophers were also numbered. So an abbreviation DK59B12.3 identifies line 3 of Anaxagoras fragment 12. A similar way of referring to quotes is the system LM standing for André Laks and Glenn W. Most who edited Early Greek Philosophy in 2016

Historical background

Map of Greek territories and colonies during the Archaic period (800–480 BC)

Pre-Socratic philosophy emerged in Ancient Greece at 6th century BCE and lasted about two centuries, an era that expanding Persian Achaemenid Empire was stretching to the west, while Greeks were advancing in trade and sea routes, reaching Cyprus and Syria. Ionian towns were captured by the Persians at 540 BCE, appointing a tyrant to rule Ionian towns. Greeks revolted at 499 BCE but ultimately were crashed by Persia in 494 BCE. Slowly but steadily Athens became the philosophical center of Greece by the middle of the fifth century. Athens was entering its Classical Era, with philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, but the impact of the pre-Socratics remained everlasting.

Several factors contributed to the birth of Pre-Socratic philosophy in Ancient Greece. Ionian towns, especially Miletus, had close trade relations with Egypt and Mesopotamia, cultures with observations about the natural world that differed from those of the Greeks, which prompted early Greek thinkers to view them as natural phenomena. The close relation with various civilizations of the era, apart from technical skills and cultural influences, of paramount significance was that Greeks acquired the alphabet at c. 800 BCE.

Another factor was the ease and habit of intra-Greece travel that let ideas blend or confront. During the sixth-century BC, various philosophers and other thinkers were more easily traveling around Greece, especially visiting Pan-Hellenic festivals. While long-distance communication was difficult during ancient times, persons, philosophers, and books moved through other parts of Greek peninsula, Aegean islands, and Magna Graecia, a coastal area in Southern Italy. Much of their philosophical thought was a reply, either endorsing or attacking, or modifying previous pre-Socratic arguments.

The democratic political system of independed polis played a significant factor on the rising of philosophy. Most Greek towns were not ruled by autocrats or priests, allowing citizens to freely question a wide range of issues. Various Poleis flourished concentrating wealth, especially Miletus which was a productive and trade centre during the early phases of pre-Socratic philosophy. Trade of corn, oil, wine and other commodities among each polis and colonies, means that these towns were not isolated but embedded -and economically depended- in a complex and changeable web of trade routes.

Greek mythology also had a push towards the birth of philosophy. Philosopher's thought, were in a certain extent, the answers of questions that where subtle present in the work of Homer and Hesiod. The pre-Socratics arose from a world dominated by myths, sacred places, and local deities. This environment is reflected in the work of epic poets such as Homer, Hesiod and others. They are considered predecessors of the pre-Socratics since they seek to address issues as to how it all started, the cosmogony, and to organize in a systematic way traditional folklore and legends. But their answers were rather simplistic and resisted atheistic explanations, hence they were far from being named as philosophers. It is worth noting that the greek popular religion carried many features of the religions of neighboring civilizations like the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Hittites. The first pre-Socratic philosophers also travelled extensively to other lands, meaning that pre-Socratic thought had roots abroad as well as domestically. Homer, at his two epic poems, not only personifies gods and other natural phenomena, such as the Night, he hints at some views on the origin and the nature of the world that came under scrutiny by pre-Socratics. By epic poem Theogony (literally meaning the birth of Gods) Hesiod (c. 700 BCE ) is describing the origin of gods, and apart from the solid mythical structure, one can notice a shy attempt towards organizing beliefs using some form of rationalization; an example would be that Night gives birth to Death, Sleep and Dreams. Transmigration of life, a belief by Orphics, a religious cult originating from Thrace, had affected the thought of the 5th century BC but the overall influence of their cosmology on philosophy is disputed. Pherecydes, a poet, magician, and contemporary to Thales, in his book describes a particular cosmogony, asserting that three gods pre-existed - a step towards rationality.

General features

List of major pre-socratic philosophers and when they flourished according to Osborne Cathrine

	flourished (year BCE)
Thales	585
Anaximander	550
Anaximenes	545
Pythagoras	530
Xenophanes	530
Heraclitus	500
Parmenides	500
Zenon	450
Anaxagoras	450
Empedocles	445
Melissus	440
Protagoras	440
Leukippus	435
Gorgias	430
Antiphon	430
Democritus	420
Philolaus	420
Socrates	420
Plato	380
Aristotle	350

The pre-Socratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations of the phenomena they saw around them in favor of more rational explanations. Their efforts were directed to the investigation of the ultimate basis and essential nature of the external world Many sought the material principle ([archê) of things, and the method of their origin and disappearance. As the first philosophers, they emphasized the rational unity of things and rejected supernatural explanations, instead seeking natural principles at work in the world and human society. The pre-Socratics saw the world as a kosmos, an ordered arrangement that could be understood via rational inquiry. Pre-Socratic thinkers present a discourse concerned with key areas of philosophical inquiry such as being, the primary stuff of the universe, the structure and function of the human soul, and the underlying principles governing perceptible phenomena, human knowledge, and morality.

According to professor of ancient philosophy Jonathan Barnes, pre-Socratic philosophy exhibits three significant features: they were internal, systematic and economical. Internal meaning they tried to explain the world with characteristics found within this world. Systematic because they tried to universalize their findings. Economical as they tried to invoke only a few new terms. Based on these features they reached their most significant achievement: by the use of reason and evidence, they invented argument.

The pre-Socratics were not atheists; however, they minimized the extent of the gods' involvement in natural phenomena such as thunder or even totally eliminated the gods from the natural world.

Pre-Socratic philosophy encompasses the first of the three phases of ancient Greek philosophy, which spanned around a thousand years, of which the pre-Socratic phase . The pre-Socratics were succeeded by the prominence of Platonism, Cynicism, Cyrenaicism, Aristotelianism, Pyrrhonism, Epicureanism, Academic skepticism, and Stoicism, a philosophical era that stretched to 100 BC. In the third phase, philosophers studied their predecessors. Itself is divided in three phases. The first phase of pre-Socratic philosophy, mainly the Milesians, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus, consisted of rejecting traditional cosmogony and attempting to explain nature based on empirical observations and interpretations. A second phase - the Eleatics - resisted the idea that we can become wiser. Eleatics were also monists (believing that only one thing exists and everything else is just a transformation of it). The third phase, the post-Eleatics (mainly Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Democritus) opposed most but not all of Eleatic teaching and returned to the naturalism of the Milesians.

Pre-Socratic philosophers

Milesian beginning: Thales, Anaximander and Anamimenes

Map of ancient Ionia, on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea.

The Milesian school was located in Miletus, Ionia in the 6th century BC. It consisted of Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, who most probably had a teacher-pupil relationship. They were mainly occupied with the origin and substance of the world; each of them attributed the Whole to a single arche (beginning or principle), starting the tradition of naturalistic monism.

Thales's theorem: if AC is a diameter and B is a point on the diameter's circle, the angle ABC is a right angle.

Thales

Thales (c. 624 - c. 546 BC) is considered to be the father of philosophy, There are no surviving writings of Thales, all we know about him is by stories of later scholars. He is considered the first philosopher since he was the first to use reason, to use proof, to generalize, he created the world Kosmos the first word to describe the universe. He contributed to geometry and predicted the eclipse of 585 BCE. As a person, Thales maybe was of Phoenician ancestry. Miletus was a meeting point and trade centre of the then great civilizations, and Thales visited the neighbouring civilizations, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, Phoenicians At Egypt geometry was advanced as a mean to separate agricultural fields. Thales though, advanced geometry with his abstract deductive reasoning reaching universal generalizations. Proclus, a later athenian philosopher, attributed to Thales the now known as Thales's theorem. He is also known for being the first to claim that the base angles of isosceles triangles are equal, and a diameter bisects the circle. Thales visited Sardis, as many Greeks then, where astronomical records were kept and used astronomical observations for practical matters (oil harvesting) Thales was widely considered a genius in ancient times.

Most importantly, what marks Thales as the first philosopher, is the posing of the fundamental philosophical question about the origin and the substance of the world, while providing an answer based on empirical evidence and reasoning. He attributed the origin of the world to an element instead of a divine being. Our knowledge on Thales claim derives from Aristotle. Aristotle, while discussing opinions of previous philosophers, tells us that “Thales, the founder of this type of philosophy, says the principle (arche) is water”. What he means by arche, is a matter of interpretation (might be the origin, the element, or an ontological matrix), but regardless of the various interpretations, he conceives the world as One thing instead of a collection of various items and speculates on the binding/original elements.

Another important aspect of Thales' philosophy is his claim that everything is full of gods. What he meant by that, is again a matter of interpretation, that could be from a theistic view to an atheist one. But the most plausible explanation, suggested by Aristotle, is that Thales is advocating a theory of hylozoism, that the universe, the sum of all things that exist, is divine and alive. Lastly, another notable claim by Thales is that earth "rests on water"- maybe that was a conclusion after observing fish fossils on land.

Anaximander

That from which all things are born the beginning of all things
the first foundation of things is the Unlimited (apeiron);
The source from which coming-to-be is, for things that are, and for
their passing away in accordance with necessity.
For they give justice and pay retribution to each other for their mutual
injustice according to the ordered process of time.

Anaximander, DK 12 B 1; Only one fragment survives from Anaximander's book On nature, On Nature

Anaximander (610-546 BC), also from Miletus, was the first 25 years younger than Thales. He was a member of the elite of Miletus, wealthy and statesman. He showed interest in many fields, as mathematics, geography. He drawn the first map of the world, he was the first to conclude that the earth is spherical in shape, and made instruments to mark time, something like a clock. In response to Thales, he postulated as the first principle an undefined, unlimited substance without qualities (apeiron), out of which the primary opposites, hot and cold, moist and dry, became differentiated. His answer was an attempt to explain observable changes by attributing them to a single source that transforms to various elements. Like Thales he provides a naturalistic explanation for phenomena previously given supernatural explanations. He is also known for speculating on the origin of mankind. He proclaimed that the earth is not situated in another structure but lies unsupported in the middle of the universe. Further, he developed a rudimentary evolutionary explanation for biodiversity in which constant universal powers affected the lives of animals. According to philosophy professor at MIT, Giorgio de Santillana, Anaximander by his conceiving Universe governed by laws- invented abstract thinking that was about to shape the philosophical thinking of centuries to come and was as important as the discovery of fire of Einstein's breakthroughs in science.

Anaximenes

Little is known of Anaximenes (585-525 BC) life. He was a younger contemporary and friend of Anaximander who worked together in various intellectual projects. He also wrote a book- on nature in prose. Anaximenes took for his principle aēr (air), conceiving it as being modified, via thickening and thinning, into the other classical elements: fire, wind, clouds, water, and earth. While his theory resembled that of Anaximander, as they both claimed a single source of the universe, Anaximenes suggested sophisticated mechanisms in which air is transformed to other elements, mainly due to changes of density and was consider since the classical era as the father of naturalistic explanations. Anaximenes expanded Anaximander's attempt to find a unitary cause explaining natural phenomena both living and nonliving, without, according to James Warren, having to "reduce living things in some way to mere locations of material change."

Xenophanes

St. Elmo's fire (luminous plasma created by a corona discharge from a rod-like object) in a ship. During Xenophanes days, they were attributed to divine intervention by Dioscuri. Xenophanes offered a naturalistic explanation (that the illumination we observe is due to small clouds influenced by special circumstances relating to stars) is an example of reductionism.

Xenophanes was born in Colophon, an Ionian town near Miletus. He was a well-traveled poet whose primary interests were theology and epistemology. Concerning theology, he pointed out that we did not know whether there was one god or many gods, or in such case whether there was a hierarchy among them. To critique the anthropomorphic representation of the gods by his contemporary Greeks he pointed out that different nations depicted their gods as looking like themselves. He famously said that if oxen, horses, or lions could draw, they would draw their gods as oxen, horses, or lions. This critique was not limited to the looks of gods but also their behaviour. Greek mythology, mostly shaped by the poets Homer and Hesiod, attributed moral failures to the gods such as jealously and adultery. Xenophanes opposed this. He thought that gods must be morally superior to humans. Xenophanes, however, never claimed the gods were omnipotent, omnibenevolent, or omniscient. Also, Xenophanes offered naturalistic explanations to natural phenomena, such as the Sun, the rainbow and St Elmo's fire. Traditionally these were attributed to divine intervention but according to Xenophanes were actually effects of clouds. These explanations of Xenophanes indicate the presence of empiricism in Xenophanes thought and might constitute a kind of proto-scientism. His cosmology and naturalism has been overlooked by scholars since Aristotle (maybe due to Xenophanes lack of teleology) until recently but current literature suggest otherwise. Concerning epistemology, Xenophanes questioned the validity of human knowledge. Humans usually tend to assert their beliefs are real and represent truth. While Xenophanes was a pessimist about the capability of humans to reach knowledge, he also believed in gradual progress through critical thinking. Xenophanes tried to find naturalistic explanations to meteorological and cosmologic phenomena.

Ancient philosophy historian Alexander Mourelatos notes that Xenophanes uses a pattern of thought that is still in use by modern metaphysics. Xenophanes by reducing meteorological phenomena to clouds, creates an argument that "X in reality is Y", for example B32 "What they call Iris [the rainbow] that too is in reality a cloud: one that appears to the eye as purple, red, and green. "This is still use today "lightening is massive electrical discharge" or "items such as tables are a cloud of micro-particles". Mourelatos comments on that type of analogy that the cloud analogy is still present in scientific language and "...is the modern philosopher's favourite subject for illustrations of inter-theoretic identity".

According to Aristotle and Diogenes Laertius, Xenophanes was Parmenides' teacher; but is a matter of debate in current literature whether Xenophanes should also be considered an Eleatic.

Heraclitus

The hallmark of Heraclitus philosophy is flux. In fragment DK B30, Heraclitus writes: This world-order [Kosmos], the same of all, no god nor man did create, but it ever was and is and will be: everliving fire, kindling in measures and being quenched in measures. Heraclitus posited that all things in nature are in a state of perpetual flux. As previous monist philosophers, Heraclitus claimed that arche was fire, which was subject to change- that makes him a materialist monist. From fire all things originate and return to it again in a process of eternal cycles. Fire becomes water and earth and vice versa. These everlasting modifications explain his view that Kosmos ...was and is and will be. The idea of continual flux is also met at the "river fragments". There, Heraclitus claims that we can not step twice into the same river twice, a position summarized with the slogan ta panta rhei (everything flows). One of those fragments reads as: Into the same rivers we both step and do not step; we both are and are not (DK 22 B49a). Heraclitus is seemingly suggesting that not only the river is constantly changing, but we do as well, even hinting at existential questions about humankind.

Another key concept of Heraclitus is that opposites are somehow mirroring in each other, a doctrine name as Unity of opposites. Two fragments relating to this concept is "As the same thing in us is living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old. For these things having changed around are those, and those in turn having changed around are these" (B88) and Cold things warm up, the hot cools off, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet"" (B126). Heraclitus doctrine on the Unity of opposites suggests that unity of the Word and its various parts is kept through the tension produced by the opposites furthermore, each polar substance contains its opposite- in a continual circular exchange and motion that results in the stability of the Kosmos. This heraclitus doctrine is also highlighted in another of his famous axioms (B53) "War is father of all and king of all; and some he manifested as gods, some as men; some he made slaves, some free" where War means the creative tension that brings things into existence.

A fundamental role in of Heraclitus though is logos, an ancient Greek word with a variety of meanings; Heraclitus might have used a different meaning of the word with each usage in his book. Logos seems like a universal law that unites kosmos, according to a fragment: Listening not to me but to the logos, it is wise to agree (homologein) that all things are one (DK 22 B50). While logos is everywhere, very few people are familiar with it. B 19 reads: [hoi polloi] "...do not know how to listen [to Logos] or how to speak [the truth]" Heraclitus' thought on logos influenced the Stoics, who referred to him in support of their belief that rational law governs the universe.

Pythagoreanism

Pythagoras (582-496 BC) was born in Samos, a small island near Miletus. He moved to Croton at about the age of 30 years old where he established his school and acquired political influence. Some decades later he had to flee Croton and relocate to Metapontum.

Pythagoras was famous for studying numbers and the geometrical relations of numbers. His doctrine was adopted and extended by a large following of Pythagoreans, who advanced his ideas, reaching the claim that everything consists of numbers, the universe is made by numbers and everything is a reflection of analogies and geometrical relations. Numbers, music and philosophy, all interlinked, could comfort beauty seeking human soul and hence Pythagoreans espoused on studying mathematics.

Pythagorianism perceived the world as perfect harmony, dependent on number, and aimed at inducing humankind likewise to lead a harmonious life, including ritual and dietary recommendations. Their way of life was ascetic, restraining themselves from various pleasures and food- they were vegetarians and placed enormous value on friendship. Pythagoras politically was an advocate of a form of aristocracy a position which later Pythagoreans rejected, but generally, they were reactionary and notably depressed women. Pythagoras believed in re-incarnation, for which he was mocked by other pre-Socratic philosophers.

Notable Pythagorians included Philolaus (470-380 BC), Alcmaeon of Croton, Archytas (428-347 BC) and Echphantus. Most notable were Alcmaeon, a medical and philosophical writer. Alcmaenon noticed that most organs in the body come in pair and suggested that human health is dependent on harmony between opposites (hot/cold, dry/wet) and illnes is due to an imbalance of them. He was the first to think of the brain as the center of senses and thinking. Philolaus advanced cosmology with discovering heliocentricism- Sun lies in the middle of the earth's orbit and other planets.

Pythagoreanism influenced later Christian currents as Neoplatonism, and its pedagogical methods were adapted by Plato. Furthermore, there seems to be a continuity in some aspects of Plato's philosophy. As prof. Carl Huffman notes, Plato had a tendency to invoke mathematics in explaining natural phenomena, and he also believed in the immortality, even divinity of the human's soul.

The Eleatics: Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus

According to Parmenides, Being, what exists, is like the mass of a perfect Sphere- Undifferentiated, indivisible, unchangeable mass.

The Eleatic school is named after Elea, an ancient Greek town located in the southern Italian Peninsula. Parmenides is considered the founder of the school. Other eminent Eleatics include Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos. According to Aristotle and Diogenes Laertius, Xenophanes was Parmenides' teacher, and it is debated whether Xenophanes should also be considered an Eleatic.

Look at things which, though absent, are yet present firmly to the mind; for you will not cut off for yourself what is from holding to what is, neither scattering everywhere in every way about the world nor coming together. [8 4)

Parmenides, On Nature, Way of Truth

Parmenides was born in Elea to a wealthy family estimated c. 515 BCE. Parmenides of Elea was interested in many fields, such as biology and astronomy. He was the first to deduce that the earth is spherical. He was also involved in his town political life.

On philosophy, his contributions has been paramount, not only to ancient philosophy but his work birthed western metaphysics and ontology. Parmenides wrote a hard to interpret poem, named On Nature or On What Is, that substantially influenced later Greek philosophy. Only 150 fragments of this poem survive. It tells a story of a young man (kouros in ancient Greek) dedicated to finding the truth who is carried by a goddess in a long journey to the heavens. The poem consists of three parts, the proem (i.e., preface), the Way of Truth and the Way of Opinion. Very few pieces from the Way of Opinion survive. In that part, Parmenides must have been dealing with cosmology, judging from other authors' references. The Way of Truth was then, and is still today, considered of much more importance. In the Way of Truth, the goddess criticizes the logic of people who do not distinguish the real from the non-existent ("What Is" and "What Is Not"). In this poem Parmenides unfolds his philosophy: that all things are One, and therefore nothing can be changed or altered. Hence, all the things that we think to be true, even ourselves, are false representations. What is, according to Parmenides, is a physical sphere, that is unborn, unchanged, and infinite. This is a monist vision of the world, far more radical than that of Heraclitus. Goddess teaches Kouros to use his reasoning in order to understand various claims whether are true or fault, discarding senses as fallacious. Other fundamental issues raised at Parmenides poem is the doctrine that nothing comes from nothing and the unity of being and thinking. As quoted by DK fragment 3: To gar auto noein estin te kai einai (For to think and to he is one and the same).

Zeno and Melissus continued Parmenides' thought on cosmology. Zeno is mostly known for his paradoxes, i.e., self-contradictory statements which served as proofs that Parmenides monism was valid, and that pluralism was invalid. The most common theme of those paradoxes involved traveling a distance, but since that distance comprises infinite points, the traveler could never accomplish it. His most famous is the Achilles paradox, which is mentioned by Aristotelis: "The second is called the “Achilles” and says that the slowest runner will never be caught by the fastest, because it is necessary for the pursuer first to arrive at the point from which the pursued set off, so it is necessary that the slower will always be a little ahead. (Aristotle Phys. 239b14–18 [DK 29 A26])" Melissus defended and advanced Parmenides' theory using prose, without invoking divinity or mythical figures. He tried to explain why we think various non-existent objects exist.

Eleatic's focus on Being through means of logic, initiated the philosophical discipline of ontology. Other philosophers infulenced by Eleatics (such as sophists, Plato and Aristotle) further advanced logic, argumentation, mathematics and especially elenchos (proof). Sophists even placed Being under the scrutiny of elenchos. Due to Eleatic effect Reasoning was acquiring a formal method.

The pluralists: Anaxagoras and Empedocles

The Pluralist school marked a return to Milesian natural philosophy, though much more refined as a result of Eleatic criticism.

Anaxagoras was born in Ionia, but was the first major philosopher to immigrate to Athens. He was soon associated with Athenian statesman Pericles and, probably due to this association was accused by a political opponent of Pericles for impiety as Anaxagoras held that the sun was not associated with divinity, it was merely a huge burning stone. Pericles helped Anaxagoras flee Athens and return to Ionia. Anaxagoras was also a major influence on Socrates.

Anaxagoras is known for his “theory of everything”. He claimed that "in everything there is a share of everything." Interpretations differ as to what he meant. Anaxagoras was trying to stay true to the Eleatic principle of the everlasting (What is) while also explaining the diversity of the natural world. Anaxagoras accepted Parmenides' doctrine that everything that exists (What is) has existed forever, but contrary to Eleatics, he added the ideas of panspermia and nous. All objects were mixtures of various elements, such as air, water, and others. One special element was nous, i.e., mind, which is present in living things and is the cause of motion. Nous, according to Anaxagoras, was one of the elements that make up the Kosmos. Things that had nous were alive. According to Anaxagoras, all things are composites of some basic elements; although it is not clear what these elements are. All objects are a mixture of these building blocks and have a portion of each element, except nous. Nous was also considered a building block of the Kosmos, but it exists only in living objects. Anaxagoras writes: “In everything there is a portion (moira) of everything except mind (nous), but there are some things in which mind too is present.” Nous was not just an element of things, somehow it was the cause of setting the universe into motion. Anaxagoras advanced Milesian thought on epistemology, striving to establish an explanation that could be valid for all natural phenomena, and he also furthered the exploration on metatheoretical questions such as the nature of knowledge, in which he was influenced by the Eleatics.

Empedocles was born in Akragas, a town in the southern Italian peninsula. According to Diogenes Laertius, Empedocles wrote two books in the form of poems: Peri Physeos and the Katharmoi. Some contemporary scholars argue that these two books might actually be one, and all agree that interpreting Empedocles is difficult.

On cosmological issues, Empedocles takes from the Eleatic school that the universe is unborn, has always been and always will be. He also continues Anaxagoras' thought on the four "roots" (i.e., classical elements), that by intermixing, they create all things around us. These elements are fire, air, earth, and water. Each element corresponds to a particular god: Zeus, Hera, Adonis, and Nestis. Crucially, he adds two more components: love and strife. These last two are opposite forces that unite in harmony or tear apart the four roots, with the resulting mixture being all things that exist. Empedocles uses an analogy of how this is possible: as a painter uses few basic colors to create a painting, the same happens with the four roots. It is not quite clear if love and strive co-operate or have a greater plan, but love and strife are in a continual cycle that generates life and the earth we live in. Other beings, apart from the four roots and love and strife, according to Empedocles Purifications are mortals, gods, and daemons. Like Pythagoras, Empedocles believed in the transmigration of the soul and was vegetarian.

Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus

Leucippus and Democritus both lived in Abdera, in Thrace. They are mostly famous for their atomic cosmology even though their thought included many other fields of philosophy, such as ethics, mathematics, aesthetics, politics, and even embryology.

The atomic theory of Leucippus and Democritus was a response to the Eleatic school, who held that motion is not possible because everything is occupied with what-is. Democritus and Leucippus reverted the Eleatic axiom claiming that since motions exist, what-is-not must also exist; hence void exists. Democritus and Leucippus were skeptics regarding the reliability of our senses, but they were confident that motion exists. Atoms, according to Democritus and Leucippus, had some characteristics of the Eleatic what-is: they were homogeneous and indivisible. These characteristics allowed answers to Zeno's paradoxes. Atoms move within the void, interact with each other, and form the plurality of the world we live in, in a purely mechanical manner.

One conclusion of Atomists was determinism - the philosophical view that all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. As Leucippus said, (DK 67 B2) “Nothing comes to be random but everything is by reason and out of necessity” Democritus concluded that since everything is atoms and void, several of our senses are not real but conventional. Color, for example, is not a property of atoms; hence our perception of color is a convention. As Democritus said, (DK 68 B9)"By convention sweet, by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention colour; in reality atoms and void” This can be interpreted in two ways. According to James Warren there is an eliminativist interpretation, such that Democritus means that color is not real, and there is a relativist interpretation, such that Democritus means that color and taste are not real but are perceived as such by our senses through sensory interaction.

Sophists

Sophists were a philosophical movement in flourished in Ancient Athens before Socrates. They advanced philosophy but due to Plato's attack for their acceptance of pay for teaching they received a bad name that accompanied them until the recent years. Indeed they received payment for their teaching but Plato's argument against them was antiegalitarian: he thought philosophy should be kept for those who had the appropriate intellect to understand it whereas sophists were letting people from various backgrounds to familiarize themselves with philosophy. Also, contrary to Socrates, sophists either did not originate from Athens or were well travelled. Sophists were keen in rhetoric and address an issue from various viewpoints. Since sophists and their pupils were persuasive speakers at the court or on public, they were accused of moral and epistemological relativism. Prominent sophists were Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, Thrasymachus, Prodicus, Callicles and the two Athenians Antiphon and Critias.

Sophists attacked traditional thinking, from gods to morality, paving the way for further advances of philosophy or other disciplines as drama, social sciences, mathematics, history, among others.

Protagoras is mostly known for two of his quotes: First is that "[humans are..] the measure of all things, of things that are that they are, of things that are not that they are not"(F1b) which was interpreted as relativistic, having deer moral consequences. But an argument could be made that it is statements underlines that knowledge is only relevant to humankind. Moral rightness as well as other forms of knowledge is relevant and limited to human mind and perception. The other quote of Protagoras Concerning the gods, I cannot ascertain whether they exist or whether they do not, or what form they have; for there are many obstacles to knowing, including the obscurity of the question and the brevity of human life” (F3), resonating with the latter explanation.

Gorgias wrote a book named, as usual, On Nature where he attacked the concept of eleatic what is and what is not. The end point of his argumentation on what is not is that it is absurd to hold that Nonexistence exists. What is was also impossible since it had to either be generated or be unlimited and both of these explanation is sufficient. There is an ongoing debate among modern scholars was a serious thinker, a precursor of extreme relativism and skepticism, or he was merely a charlatan. Antiphon placed natural law against the law of the city. One shouldn't obey the city's laws as long as he won't get caught. One could argue that Antiphon was a careful hedonist- rejecting dangerous pleasures.

Philolaous of Croton and Diogenes of Apollonia

Philolaus of Croton and Diogenes of Apollonia from Thrace (born c. 460 BC) are considered the last generation of pre-socratics. Rather advancing a cosmologic perspective on how our universe is constructed, they are mostly noted for advancing abstract thinking and argumentation.

Philolaus was influenced by Pythagorianism, Anaxagiras and Empedocles. He had to explain both variety and unity of Kosmos. He addressed the need to explain how the various masses of the universe interact among them and coined ‘’Harmonia’’, a binding force that allows mass to take shape. The structure of kosmos consisted of ‘’apeira’’ (unlimiteds) and “perainonta’’(limiters.

Diogenes of Apollonia returned to Milesian monism, but with a rather more elegant though. As he says in DK64 B2 ‘’“It seems to me, overall, that all things are alterations of the same things and are the same thing”’’ He goes on explaining that ontologically, something, even when changing shapes, ontologically, remains the same.

Topics

Knowledge

The mythologoi, Homer and Hesiod, along with other poets, centuries before the Pre-Socratics, thought that true knowledge was exclusive to the divine. But starting with Xenophanes, the Pre-Socratics moved towards a more secular approach to knowledge. The Pre-Socratics sought a method to understand the Kosmos, while being aware that there is a limit to human knowledge. While Pythagoras and Empedocles linked their self-proclaimed wisdom to their divine status, they tried to teach or urge mortals to seek the truth about the natural realm- Pythagoras by means of mathematics and geometry and Empedocles by exposure to experiences. Xenophanes thought that human knowledge was merely an opinion that cannot be validated or proven to be true. According to Jonathan Warren, Xenophanes sets the outline of the nature of knowledge. Later, Heraclitus and Parmenides stress the capability of humans to understand how things stand in nature through direct observation, inquiry, and reflection.

Theology

Pre-Socratic thought contributed to the demythologization of the Greek popular religion. The narrative of their thought contributed both in shifting the course of Ancient Greek philosophy and religion away from the realm of divinity and even paved the way for teleological explanations. They attacked traditional representations of gods that had been established by Homer and Hesiod and put Greek popular religion under scrutiny and begun the schism between natural philosophy and theology. Pre-Socratic philosophers did not have atheistic beliefs, but it should be kept in mind that being an atheist those days was not without social or legal dangers. Despite that, arguments rejecting deities were not barred from the public sphere which can be seen in Protagoras's quotation on the gods: "About the gods I am able to know neither that they exist nor that they do not exist."

The theological thought starts with the Milesian philosophers. It is evident in Anaximander's idea of the apeiron steering everything which had other abilities usually attributed to Zeus. Later, Xenophanes developed a critique on the anthropomorphism of the gods. Xenophanes set three preconditions for God: he had to be all good, immortal and not resembling humans in appearance which had a major impact on western religious thought.

The theological thought of Heraclitus and Parmenides are not entirely certain, but it is generally accepted that they believed in some kind of divinity. The Pythagoreans and Empedocles believed in the transmigration of life. Anaxagoras asserted that cosmic intellegence(nous) gives life to things. Diogenes of Appollonia expanded this line of thinking and constructed the first teleological argument: "it would not be possible without Intellection for it so to be divided up that it has the measures of all things—of winter and summer and night and day and rains and winds and fair weather. The other things, too, if one wishes to consider them, one would find disposed of in the best possible way." While some pre-Socratics were trying to find alternatives to divinity, others were setting the foundation of explaining the universe in terms of teleology and intelligent design by a divine force.

Medicine

As with other issues, health and illness were thought to be governed by Gods, prior to pre-Socratic's era. Pre-Socratic philosophy and medicine not only did advanced in parallel out of the mythical world, but medicine was also a part of philosophy and vice versa. Many philosophers of the pre-Socratic and classical era were also physicians- such as Empedocles, Democritus, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Diogenes of Apollonia, Plato, Aristotle and others. It was Hippocrates (often hailed as the father of medicine) that separated- but not completely- the two domains. It is also evident that physicians had incorporated pre-Socratic philosophical tendencies about the nature of the world in their theoretical framework, hence the border among the two domains is blurred. An example is the study of epilepsy, which was thought to be a divine intervention to human life by popular religion, but Hippocrates school attributed it to nature, just as Milesian rationalism demythologized other natural phenomena such as earthquakes. The systematic study of anatomy, physiology, and illnesses, led to the realization of the cause-effect relations, allowed the first experimental observations, a more sophisticated terminology and understanding of the diseases that ultimately yielded rational science.

Cosmology

Pre-Socratics were the first to attempt to reduce the explanations for a plethora of natural phenomena.

Firstly, they were preoccupied with the mystery of the cosmic matter- what was the basic substance of the universe? Anaximander suggested apeiron (limitless), which hints, as Aristotle analyzed, there is no beginning and no end to it, both chronologically and within the space. Anaximenes placed aêr (air) as the primary principle, probably after realizing the importance of air to life and or/the need to explain various observable changes.Heraclitus, also needed to address the issue of everchanging world, placed fire as the primary principle of the universe, that transforms to water and earth to produce the universe. Fire evertransforming nature is summarized by Heraclitus axiom panta rhei (everything is in a state of flux). Parmenides suggested two ever-lasting primary building blocs, night and day, which together, interblended they form the universe. Empedocles increased the building blocs to four, named them roots, while also added Love and Strife, to serve as the driving force for the roots to mingle. Anaxagoras extended even more the plurality of Empedocles, claiming everything is in everything, myriads of substances were mixing among each other except one, Nous (mind) that orchestrates everything- but didn't attribute divine characteristic to Nous. Leucippus and Democritus asserted that universe consists of atoms and void, while the motion of atoms is responsible for the changes we observe.

But how it all started? How did the substance of the universe arose? Pre-socratics were as puzzled with this question as modern scientists.

Rationalism, observation and the beginning of scientific thought

Pre-socratic revolution of thought liberated human mind from the mythical world, filled with fears and misery, and initiated a march towards reason and scientific thought that yielded modern western philosophy and science. Pre-Socratic set to understand the various aspects of nature by means of rationalism, observations and offering explanations that could be deemed as scientific, giving birth to what became western rationalism, and has been the first baby steps of scientific thought. Thales was the first to seek for a unitary ‘’archai’’ of the world. Whether it archai meant the beginning, the origin, the main principle or the basic element is unclear, but was the first attempt to reduce the explanations of the universe to a single cause, based on reason and not guided by any sort of divinity. Anaximandros offered the principle of sufficient reason a revolutionary argument that would also yield nothing comes out of nothing principle. Also, pre-socratics seemed indifferent to the concept of teleology, unless of the Atomists who fiercely rejected the idea. According to them, the various phenomena were the consequence of the motion of atoms without any purpose. 449-450 Xenophanes also advanced anthropomorphic religion critique by high lightening in a rational way the inconsistency Greek popular religion limns the gods

Undoubtedly, pre-Socratics paved the way towards science but whether what they did could constitute science is a matter of debate. Thales had offered the first account of a reduction and a generalization, a significant milestone towards scientific thought. Other pre-socratic also seek to answer the question of archai, offering various answers, but the first step towards scientific though was already taken

Reception and legacy

Antiquity

The Pre-Socratics had a direct influence on Classical antiquity. Later philosophers (sophists), historians, playwrights were heavily influenced by the philosophic thought produced by pre-Socratics.

Socrates, along with Xenophon and Cicero was highly influenced by the "physiologoi" (naturalists) as they were named in ancient times. Young Socrates was impressed by the naturalists and was himself interested in the quest of the substance of Kosmos, but his interest waved as he steadily became more focused on human, epistemology, virtue, and ethics rather than things. The reason was, according to Xenophon, Socrates acknowledges that we can people can not understand the nature of Kosmos. Plato, at Phaedo, claims that Socrates was uneased with the materialistic approach of pre-socratics, particularly highlighted by Anaxagoras. Even though Socrates was accused of impiety since he continued to examine pre-socratics opinions on nature, and sentenced to death, according to Diopeithes Degree Cicero analyzed his views on pre-Socratics in his Tusculanae Disputationes, as he distinguished the theoretical nature of pre-socratic thought from previous sages who were interested in more practical issues. Xenophon, as Cicero saw the difference between pre-socratics and Socrates being his interest in human affairs (ta anthropina), marking a tradition of viewing pre-Socratics named as Socrato-Ciceronian.

Both Plato and Aristotle were deeply influenced by pre-Socratics.Aristotle discussed pre-Socratics at his first book of Metaphysics, as an introduction to his own philosophy, in a quest of archai He was the first to consider that philosophy starts with Thales. It is not clear whether Thales talked of water as arche, or that was a retrospective interpretation by Aristotle, who was examining his predecessors under the scope of his views. but more crucially, Aristotle is critical to pre-Socratics for not identifying a purpose as a final cause, a fundamental view of Aristotelian. Plato also attacked pre-Socratic materialism.

Later, during Hellenistic era, philosophers of various currents focuses on the study of nature and advance pre-Socratic currents. Materialistic Stoics incorporated features from Anaxagoras and Heraclitus, such as nous and fire respectively. Epicureans saw Democritus atomism as their predecessor while scepticists were linked to Xenophanes.

Modern era

Pre-Socratic along with the rest of ancient Greek have invented pillar-concepts of the West: freedom, democracy, autonomy, rationalism and shaped western's, a concept first shaped since Renaissance humanism.

Friedrich Nietzsche found brilliance at Socratics which he named as "tyrants of the spirit" to mark their antithesis and his preference against Socrates and what followed him. Pre-Socratic antiteleology, coupled with materialism, as was especially the case with Democritus, was also weaponized for his attack to Christianity and its morals, and saw them as the first ancestors of contemporary science- linking Empedocles to Darwinism and Heraclitus to physicist Helmhlotz. According to his narrative, limned in many of his books, the pre-Socratic era was the glorious era of Greece- and that was in contrast with the so-called Golden Age that followed- an age of decay according to Nietsche. Nietsche incorporated pre-Socratics in his Apollonian and Dionysian dialectics, with them representing the creative Dionysian aspect of the duo. Martin Heidegger spotted Pre-Socratics as the roots of phenomenology, considering Anaximander, Parmenides, and Heraclitus, as the original thinkers on Being, identified in their work as physis, logos or alitheia(truth).

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Further reading

• Cornford, F. M. 1991. From Religion to Philosophy: A Study in the Origins of Western Speculation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
• Graham, D. W. 2010. The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy: The Complete Fragments and Selected Testimonies of the Major Presocratics. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Furley, D. J., and R. E. Allen, eds. 1970. Studies in Presocratic Philosophy. Vol. 1, The Beginnings of Philosophy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Jaeger, W. 1947. The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
• Lloyd, G. E. R., Early Greek Science: Thales to Aristotle. New York: Norton, 1970.
• Luchte, James. 2011. Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn. New York: Continuum
• McKirahan, R. D. 2011. Philosophy Before Socrates. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
• Robb, K., ed. 1983. Language and Thought in Early Greek Philosophy. La Salle, IL: Hegeler Institute.
• Giannis Stamatellos, Introduction to Presocratics: A Thematic Approach to Early Greek Philosophy with Key Readings, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
• Vlastos, G. 1995. Studies in Greek Philosophy. Vol. 1, The Presocratics. Edited by D. W. Graham. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.

External links

• Collections Containing Articles on Presocratic Philosophy
• Pre-Socratic philosophy at PhilPapers