History of Western Philosophy: The Pre-Socratics

Introduction

• Begins in Greece and Asia Minor, specifically around the Aegean area.
• First known philosopher: Thales of Miletus.

Rise of Western Philosophy

• Crossroads of East and West: Interaction with Eastern culture challenged traditional ideas.
• Pre-Scientific Scientists: Early Greek philosophers asked questions about natural world and processes.
• Cosmic and Moral Order: Early Greek poets believed in a cosmic justice, influencing philosophical thought.

Philosophical Lines of Thought

• Physical Cosmos: Focus on natural order and elements.
• Moral Order: Reflection on the existence of a moral universe.

Pre-Socratic Philosophers

• Grouped into monists and pluralists:

Monism

• Qualitative Monism: One basic element.
• Qualitative Pluralism: Many basic elements.
• Quantitative Monism: One numerically all-inclusive entity.
• Quantitative Pluralism: Many distinguishable things.

Key Philosophers and Ideas

• Thales: Everything derived from water.
• Anaximander: Basic element is undefinable (Apeiron).
• Anaximenes: Air as the basic element.
• Heraclitus: Emphasized change, using fire as a metaphor.
• Pythagoras: Dual aspect theory; order in nature can be represented numerically.

Eleatics

• Parmenides: Change and plurality are illusory, only abstract thought provides truth.
• Zeno: Paradoxes demonstrating the illusion of change and plurality (e.g., the race between the hare and the tortoise).

Pluralists

• Empedocles: Combination of four elements (earth, air, fire, water) through love and hate.
• Anaxagoras: Seeds theory; cosmic mind (Nous) brings order.
• Democritus: Atom theory; mechanistic universe with atoms combining by chance.

Mechanism vs. Teleology

• Mechanistic Materialism (Democritus): Blind forces and chance.
• Teleological Explanation (Anaxagoras): Mind or rational order guiding the cosmos.

Philosophical Agenda

• Metaphysics: Nature of reality, basic elements, causal processes.
• Epistemology: Theory of knowledge, reliability of sense experience and abstract thought.
• Ethics and Social Philosophy: Pursuit of a rationally ordered life.

Importance of Pre-Socratics

• Formulated an agenda that Western philosophy continues to explore.
• Influence on later sciences and philosophical inquiry.

Questions to Explore

• Nature of elements and processes in the universe.
• Relationship between empirical experience and rational thought.
• Ethical implications of living a rational life in an ordered universe.