The First Philosophers of Ancient Greece Prof. Rose Cherubin

The First Philosophers of Ancient Greece

• Prof. Rose Cherubin

• Department of Philosophy

• George Mason University

• http://www.gmu.edu/courses/phil/ancient/index.htm

Thales of Miletus (late 7th to mid-6th century BCE) Miletus is in Ionia, in western Asia Minor.

• Why is what is the way it is? →

• What is what is?

• “Water stands under everything as a source.” (paraphrase of Thales in Diogenes Laertius)

• advances in geometry and astronomy

Anaximander of Miletus (very late 7th - late 6th century BCE)

• The apeiron as the source of all things

• apeiron means unlimited, indeterminate, or infinite

• geometry→gnomon as seasonal sundial→map of the world→model of the cosmos→cosmological theory

• “discovery of space”

• questions of order and direction

Anaximenes of Miletus (early 6th – late 6th BCE)

• aer (misty air)

• constant change and renewal

• the “how” of things: felting

Pythagoras of Samos (c.570 – c.500) and the early Pythagoreans of Croton and Tarentum (Samos is an island off the coast of Ionia.)

• all things are fundamentally number, or numbers and things have a common source

• some connection between this idea and moral, political, and religious principles used to organize Pythagorean communities

Xenophanes of Colophon (c.570 – c.478) Colophon is in Ionia, not far from Miletus.

• Under what conditions could knowledge be possible?

• What would it take to make the universe work? (The Greek gods don’t have what it takes...)

Heracleitus of Ephesus (c.540 – c.480) Ephesus is also in Ionia, not far from Miletus and Colophon.

• Stability and change: are they both real? How if at all can we account for both?

• Proposal: the Logos (account, word, speech, reason) is a principle that would explain the universe in a way that takes into account regularities, unity, opposition, and change. (It is not clear that we can completely grasp the Logos.)

The Eleatics: Parmenides, Zeno, Melissus

• These three philosophers are often grouped together. Their work shares many common elements, but there are also important differences.

• Zeno is reported to have been a student of Parmenides, and indeed came from the same town. Melissus’ word choices and content indicate that he studied Parmenides’ work.

• All three argued that the claim that there are multiple things results in contradictions, as does the claim that anything moves.

Parmenides of Elea (c.515 – mid-5th century) Elea is in southwestern Italy, at Velia (near Paestum).

• The earliest surviving example of deductive reasoning in ancient Greek thought appears in Parmenides’ poem.

• In Parmenides’ poem, a goddess argues that on a viable road of inquiry, signs indicate that what is is one, unchanging, eternal, continuous.

Zeno of Elea (c.490 – at least mid-5th century)

• Zeno’s paradoxes attempted to show that if we assume that there are multiple things or that anything moves, we are led to contradictory conclusions.

• Zeno did not conclude from this that what is is one and unmoving. Evidence suggests that his point was to ask whether and how there could be a coherent account of the nature of what is.

Melissus of Samos (c.480 – late 5th century)

• Melissus argued that what is simply is one and unmoving, and that all impressions to the contrary must simply be wrong.

• Melissus does not seem to have considered (as Zeno did) whether the assumption that what is is one has any contradictory or incoherent consequences.

Taking on the Eleatic Challenge: Philosophy in the late 5th and early 4th centuries

• How can there be a coherent, non-contradictory account of the existence of multiple and changing things?

• How can we account for diversity and commonality?

• How can we account for change and motion without saying that anything comes to be from nothing, perishes into nothing, or is both discrete and continuous in the same way at the same time?

Empedocles of Acragas (c.492 – c.432) Acragas is in Sicily, at Agrigento.

• “sampled” phrases from Parmenides and Heracleitus

• first philosopher to suggest that there are exactly 4 fundamental and eternal elements: air, earth, fire, water

• held that these combined and separated in evolutionary processes, under the influence of the forces of Love and Strife

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (c.500 – c.428) Clazomenae is in Ionia.

• response to Parmenides and Zeno

• Seeds whirled by cosmic Mind formed, and are forming, the universe.

• Each thing and each seed is named for what predominates in it.

• earliest known example of a non-cyclical cosmic evolution in Greek thought

Philolaus of Croton (c.475 – late 5th or early 4th) Croton and Tarentum were Pythagorean communities in southeastern Italy (modern Crotona and Tarento).

• A Pythagorean of the second generation, Philolaus responded to issues raised by Parmenides and Zeno.

Democritus of Abdera (c.460 – c.360) and Leucippus of (maybe) Abdera (born somewhat earlier than Democritus) Abdera is in the northern part of the Greek peninsula.

• The basic components of what is are tiny uncuttable (atomos) things of uniform, colorless, odorless, temperatureless material. These move through empty space.

• This conception was developed further by Epicurus in the later 4th century, and survived into early modern times (Hobbes and Gassendi, 16th-17th century CE).

Coming Attractions

• Socrates of Athens (469 – 399 BCE)

• Plato of Athens (428 – 328 BCE)

• Aristotle of Stagira (384 – 322 BCE)