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RPC 2013
The Pre-Socratics
The roots of Western philosophy (as opposed to Eastern, i.e., Indian and Chinese) are to be found in the pre-Socratic philosophers, beginning in the sixth century BCE. These philosophers lived, as the term implies, before Socrates, so that they obviously did not consider themselves as pre-Socratics; this is a term that was imposed upon them by later generations. The fact the they are called "pre-Socratics" implies that ancient Greek philosophy should be organized around Socrates and Plato. This implies that all pre-Socratic philosophers were preliminary to or preparatory of Socrates and Plato. That this is true is, however, a presupposition that should not necessarily be accepted as fact. Most of the so-called pre-Socratics came from the eastern or western parts of the Greek world; Athens would only later enter the philosophical fray.
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"Pre-Socratic" is the expression commonly used to describe those Greek thinkers who lived and wrote between 600 and 400 B.C. It was the Pre-Socratics who attempted to find universal principles which would explain the natural world from its origins to man's place in it. Although Socrates died in 399 B.C., the term "Pre-Socratic" indicates not so much a chronological limit, but rather an outlook or range of interests, an outlook attacked by both Protagoras (a Sophist) and Socrates, because natural philosophy was worthless when compared with the search for the "good life." To give the Pre-Socratic thinkers their full due would require an article of encyclopedic scope. Given that, I have decided to list a number of sites on individual Pre-Socratic thinkers.
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The Milesians
Miletus was an Ionian city; Ionia was a Greek colony on the Aegean coast of western Asia Minor. In the sixth century BCE, Miletus produces three philosophers: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. These philosophers seek the one, unchanging material principle of all things. Aristotle says of the first philosophers, which includes the Milesians:
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Of the first philosophers, then, most thought the principles (tas archas) which were of the nature of matter (tas en huls) were the only principles of all things (archas pantn). That of which all things that are consist, the first from which they come to be, the last into which they are resolved (the substance remaining, but changing in its modifications), this they say is the element and this the principle of things, and therefore they think nothing is either generated or destroyed, since this sort of entity is always conserved, as we say Socrates neither comes to be absolutely when he comes to be beautiful or musical, nor ceases to be when loses these characteristics, because the substratum, Socrates himself remains, just so they say nothing else comes to be or ceases to be; for there must be some entity-either one or more than one-from which all other things come to be, it being conserved. (Metaphysics 983b)
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Born in the sixth century BCE, Heraclitus was an Ephesian, who, by all accounts, was not a terribly social creature. Diogenes Laertius reports that Heraclitus refused to participate in public life in Ephesus, heaping scorn on his fellow citizens and the city's constitution; he eventually "became a hater of mankind" (misanthropesas), and withdrew from Ephesus, wandering in the mountains and eating grass and other plants. Only when he became ill did he return to Ephesus, where he died of the illness that drove him back to the city (Lives, 9. 2-4). Many of his sayings provide evidence of Heraclitus' contempt for human kind. Fr. 29, for example, says, "The best choose one thing in place of all else, 'everlasting' glory among mortals; but the majority are glutted like cattle" (Clement, Strom. V. 59, 5). Fittingly, Hippolytus describes him as follows, "But Heraclitus, a natural philosopher of Ephesus, surrendered himself to universal grief, condemning the ignorance of the entire of life, and of all men; nay, commiserating the (very) existence of mortals, for he asserted that he himself knew everything, whereas the rest of mankind nothing" (Refut. 5).
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All Things Are in Flux Heraclitus teaches that all things are flux or change; contrary to what sense data might indicate at times, nothing is permanent, but everything is constantly becoming something else or going out of existence.
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It is said that for the Pythagoreans the elements of number are the even and the odd, the limited and the unlimited; this is because numbers derive from the One and the One from the even/unlimited and the odd/limited. Although obscure, perhaps owing to an inadequate philosophical lexicon, Pythagoreanism seems to hold that originally (temporal and/or logically) there exists the principle of the unlimited (or even), as a type of prime matter, without order or formal identity, co-eternal with which is the principle of the limited (or odd), which imposes order and formal identity on the unlimited The unlimited is passive, whereas the limited is active.
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Parmenides
Plato claims that Parmenides visited Athens at the age of 65 c. 450 BCE, when Socrates was a young man, thus making him an older contemporary of Socrates (Plato, Parmenides, 127a-c). If Platos account is trustworthy, then Parmenides was born in the later part of the sixth century, c. 515-10 BCE. Diogenes Lartius claims, however, that Parmenides flourished just before 500 BCE, which would put his year of birth earlier c. 540 BCE (Lives, 9.23). So the date of Parmenides birth is uncertain. Belonging to a wealthy and prominent family, Parmenides resided in Elea, a Greek city in southern Italy, which, according to Herodotus, had been founded by Ionian Greeks fleeing the Persians just before 535 BCE (1.164). For this reason, his philosophy is often referred to as Eleatic philosophy. Plato has Socrates say that he was impressed by Parmenides when he met him as a young man: "Parmenides seems to me to be, in Homer's words, 'one to be venerated' and also 'awful'. For I met him when I was very young and he was very old, and he appeared to me to possess an absolutely noble depth of mind." Two of Parmenides more prominent followers were Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos. Also Parmenides had an influence on Plato, who wrote a dialogue named Parmenides.
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Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras was born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor c. 500 BCE; c. 480-79 BCE he came to Athens, where he became the first Athenian philosopher of note. Plato relates that Anaxagoras had a close association with Pericles, the famous Athenian statesman, orator and general: "And that is what Pericles acquired to supplement his inborn capacity. He came across the right sort of man, I fancy, in Anaxagoras, and by enriching himself with high speculation and coming to recognize the nature of wisdom and follyon which topic Anaxagoras was always discoursinghe drew from that source and applied to the art of rhetoric what was suitable thereto" (Phaedrus, 270a). According to Diogenes, when someone lamented the fact that Anaxagoras would die in a foreign land, he replied, "The descent to Hades is much the same from whatever place we start" (Lives, 2. 11). While in Athens, Anaxagoras was indicted for holding that the sun was actually a mass of red-hot metal, and not a god, presumably, and for treasonable correspondence with Persia; he was condemned to death. Pericles, however, intervened on his behalf and the death sentence was commuted (Lives, 2.12-14).
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Everything in Everything Anaxagoras also asserts that there are quantities of everything in everything. Although one type of seed may predominate, thereby determining how something will appear ("But each single thing is and was most manifestly those things of which it has most in it
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Xenophanes
Xenophanes was born c. 570 BCE, and was a native of Ionia Colophon in Asia Minor. With the coming the Persians, early in his life, he took up residence in Sicily, where he supported himself as a poet in the court of Hieron; he expressed his philosophical views in verse, much of which was satirical. From Sicily, he went to Magna Graecia (southern part of Italy), where he became a celebrated philosopher. Xenophanes was reputed to have been the founder of the Eleatic school, of which Parmenides is the best known representative (see Plato, Sophist 242c-d; Aristotle, Metaphysics 986 b 10-25).
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Empedocles
Empedocles was born in Akgragas, a Greek city in Sicily, sometime in the early fifth century BCE. He played an important role in the political affairs of his city, being known as a defender of democracy. He was also reputed to have been a religious teacher and leader, probably being involved in some form of Pythagoreanism. Empedocles wrote two philosophical poems entitled On Nature and Purifications, of which several fragments have survived. Some of the fragments are too brief to be of much use in reconstructing his philosophical views, but there are others that are longer and quite useful. In addition, later philosophers summarize Empedocles' view and, in some cases (e.g., Aristotle), are critical of them.
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Reincarnation
It seems that Empedocles believes that human beings are actually "daemons" (or spirits) that are forced to wander from one existence to another because they have followed "Strife" by acting violently and shedding blood. It follows that all human beings are in a desperate situation because all are forced into a corporeal life because of the guilt of past transgressions. Otherwise they would be residing with the immortal gods
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