Presokratic Philosophers

[Andrew]

The presocratic philosophers are the inaugurators of the Greek Philosophy , a philosophy that gave birth to what we call "the western thinking".with their reflections and postulations gave birth to terms like logic (λογική) , geometry(γεωμετρία / doric γαμετρία), atom (άτομο) etc. They inaugurated the profound (find what lies beneath)and methodical (based on rules) reflection on nature and the universe. They (and more especially the Pythagorians) named the universe «κόσμος» (Kosmos , κοσμώ = decorate , put in order) , that is "set in order" and by searching to define that "order" they opened the road for the Western Science.
Exactly that "order" is defined by them with the beautiful greek word αρμονία (harmony , αρ-μονάς meaning "golden combination/union" , "just ratio" among things). The range in which "harmony" functions was called «μέτρον» (measure ,norm) and was all ready defined by the Seven Sapients that preceded the Prosocratics (specifically by Kleoboulus of Lindos with his «μέτρον ἄριστον» , " the norm is perfect" and the Athenean Solon with his «μηδέν ἄγαν» , "never exaggerate").
There were many presocratic philosophers and we can classificate them in Majors and Minors .More frequently the Majors opened schools of a certain thought from where , later , came out many Minors.
The more famous Major Presocratics , in temporal order ,were:
1)Thales from Miletus (Θαλής ο Μιλήσιος)
2)Anaximander from Miletus (Αναξίμανδρος ο Μιλήσιος)
3)Anaximenes from Miletus (Αναξιμένης ο Μιλήσιος)
4)Pythagoras from Samos (Πυθαγόρας ο Σάμειος)
5)Other Major Pythagorians as Archytas (Αρχύτας) and Philolaus (Φιλόλαος) from Taras (Ταραντίνοι).
6)Xenophanes from Kolophon (Ξενοφάνης ο Κολοφώνιος)
7)Herakleitus from Hephesus (Ηράκλειτος ο Εφέσιος)
8)Parmenides from Elea (Παρμενίδης ο Ελεάτης)
9)Empedokles from Akragas (Εμπεδοκλής ο Ακραγαντίνος)
10)Anaxagoras from Klazomemeae (Αναξαγόρας ο Κλαζομένιος)
11)Demokritus from Abdera (Δημόκριτος ο Αβδηρίτης)

The name "Presocratics" was given to them by Schleiermacher (1812) , because they were "physical philosophers" (invastigating on nature , φύσις) and with Socrates we have the turn in greek philosophy. The invastigating object wasn't anymore nature , but the very essence of human , that is his soul (ψυχή , psyche). Aristoteles , later defined very well this turning point when he noted that «ἐπί Σωκράτους ...τὸ δἒ ζητεῖν τὰ περὶ φύσεως ἔληξεν ,προς δὲ τὴν χρήσιμον άρετὴν καί τὴν πολιτικήν ἀπέκλινον οἱ φιλοσοφοῦντες» (Περί ζῶων μορίων 642a28) , that is "during Socrates' time investigating nature was over and the philosophers shifted to the study of useful Virtue and Politics".
Even the simple word φύσις (physis , nature) like a term has an interesting story. It's etymology derives from φύομαι (grow) and that showes that the Greek of the Archaic period identified nature as a dynamic system , rich in processes and phenomena . From Aristoteles and later on the term φύσις was refering to the "real substance" of a thing and ...so... that showes that the postsokratic philosophers lost some part of the presocratic dynamic perception of the world.
To understand the language and terminology of the Presocratics one must understand that they named their inovative ideas with terms loaned from the ordinary greek language of their time. After them terms like λόγος , αριθμός , κόσμος , μέτρο etc became "scientific" terminology , but before them they were ordinary terms (some time ambiguus and with different meanings). For example the term λόγος means speach,reason,rapport,ratio,counting,collect, rationality etc.

In the following posts I will try to present the thought and quotes of the major Presocratics.

[kostas68]

If i'm not wrong,Andrea,unfortunately we haven't any saved text written by these philosophers.All that we know about their teaching is relied on the descriptions of posterior ancient authors.As for Empedocles,is it truth that he commited suicide jumping into the crater of Aetna's volcano?I find it amazing!This end behoves to a real philosopher!

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by kostas68

If i'm not wrong,Andrea,unfortunately we haven't any saved text written by these philosophers.All that we know about their teaching is relied on the descriptions of posterior ancient authors.As for Empedocles,is it truth that he commited suicide jumping into the crater of Aetna's volcano?I find it amazing!This end behoves to a real philosopher!

Most of them have writen books "Περί Φύσεως" (On nature) , but ...yes you're wright ... from their books we have only simple fragments and later testimonies ...Any way ,we have an almost clear view on their ideology.

About Empedokles , his death is a myth ..there are several versions ..the volcano version ...the "left the house version" etc ..Empedokles and Pythagoras were the most "mystic" features and as Nietzsche said "in their mind there was a constant battle among the rational scientist and the hamble believer". They maintained a certain "mystical orientalism" in their Ideologies (a side with their rational works) , but all the other Presocratics managed to "SAVE" western thinking from that oriental mystisism and base it to simple λόγος (reason) !! At least until the arrival of Christianism in Europe and the middle ages ..after tha twe have a revitalization of the "Reason".

[kostas68]

Originally Posted by Andrew

Most of them have writen books "Περί Φύσεως" (On nature) , but ...yes you're wright ... from their books we have only simple fragments and later testimonies ...Any way ,we have an almost clear view on their ideology.

About Empedokles , his death is a myth ..there are several versions ..the volcano version ...the "left the house version" etc ..Empedokles and Pythagoras were the most "mystic" features and as Nietzsche said "in their mind there was a constant battle among the rational scientist and the hamble believer". They maintained a certain "mystical orientalism" in their Ideologies (a side with their rational works) , but all the other Presocratics managed to "SAVE" western thinking from that oriental mystisism and base it to simple λόγος (reason) !! At least until the arrival of Christianism in Europe and the middle ages ..after tha twe have a revitalization of the "Reason".

Since you spoke about Christianism,what's your oppinion for the term<Ellinochristianikos politismos>?(Greek-Christian civilisation).Don't you find it somehow contradictory?(If i'm not wrong it was introduced during Metaxas' dictatorship.)I mean,regarding the treatment that had the ancient Hellenic civilisation by the first Christians in Byzantine era,do you believe that Christianism was influenced by Hellenic spirit and in what degree?Off course we know that Vasilios the Great,Ioannis Chrysostomos and Grigorios Theologos were studying the ancient Greek philosophers and were promoting the reading of their works,but aren't we talking about two totally different philosophies?How it comes that we had such a composition?I wonder some times what would be happen if Julian the Apostate had prevailed.Can you imagine a Byzantium without Christianism?How differently could be written history?

[Andrew]

He was contemporarly one of the Seven Sapients and the first presocratic philosopher.
Like a Sapient his quotes are more empirical guidelines for social life. His most famous ones are:
1) «χαλεπόν τὸ ἑαυτόν γνῶναι» , "It's dificult to know your self "
2) «μὴ τὴν ὄψιν καλλωπίζου , ἀλλ'ἐν τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν ἴσθι καλός» , "Don't adorn your aspect , but adorn your acts that matter in life".
3) «μέτρῳ χρῷ» , "use the norm in your life".
4) «μή πλούτει κακῶς» , "don't get rich bawdily".
5) «μὴ πᾶσι πίστευε» , "don't believe everyone"

In his gravestone it was writen : «ἦ ὀλίγον τόδε σᾶμα Θάλητος, το δε κλέος οὐρανόμακες» , "this small tomb is of Thales who's glory reached the sky"
Note that even in the Early Ionic dialect the word for length/height was "μάκος" , just like the North Western variant (hence Μακεδονία).

As a philosopher Thales thought as "arche" (αρχή , primal substance) the Water. He thought that by condensation water gives the solid mater and by rarefaction it gives air mater. He gave importance to the water simply because he noted that it's necessary for life and it's fluent (always in motion , hides somekind of "energy").He consieved the world as "full of souls" , that is mysterius forces (causes of phenomena).By his travels to Egypt and Babylon we became familiar with oriental Astrology and primitive geometry and arithmetics. By watching a babylonian table of the eclipses he understood it's periodicity and "prognosticated" the next one.
In Egypt the legent says that he managed to measure the height of the pyramid by using the law of proportion (later known as theorem of Thales).
He originaly thought that "sun treats everything in the same way (proportion) ...so when my shadow equals my height , then the pyramid's shadow will be also equal to it's height). The term «αναλογία» (analogy) came natural , since λόγος meant simply "ratio" (ratio of shadow and height).
He expalined the phenomenon of solar eclips as the "hidding of sun behind the moon , which must have an earthly (γαιώδης) form". A trained eye under the term "earthly" can see the sperm of the later , scientific term "planet". He also was the first to say that the moon is lighted by the sun («ὑπό τοῦ ἡλίου φωτίζεσθαι τὴν σελήνην»).
As a mathematician Thales is considered the man who brought geometry to the Greek soil ...even if we had to Wait until the Pythagorians to speak about geometry with a more "abtract" sense. Except the theorem of proportion , Thales is also credited with the demonstration of the equalty of the two base angles of a isoscel triagle and for the equalty of the "κατά κορυφήν" angles. (an angle is formed by two linear segments , if we prolungate the segments from the other side we get an equal angle).
He also believed in what was later "conservation of mass" in physics , since he said that "things don't disappear , but during their "decay" form mixtures and change "form".

[Andrew]

Anaximander was a student and successor of Thales in the "Milesian hylozoistic" school.
His «αρχή» (primal substance of all things) was the «άπειρον» ("infinite" , but in greek proper etymology "something that no one has experience of ").He believed that from "apeiron" derived all the couples of opposite things (hot and cold , dry and wet etc) and that all the parts of the universe (πᾶν) are altered in a manner that the "whole" (πᾶν) remains constant (again we can see a sperm of the conservation theories in physics).He believed that the earth was a sfere (!) hovering in the center of the universe and that "hovering" was possible due to equidistance from all the other things (!!). He was the first to design a geographical map of the coasts , a map which certainly his cocitizen Hecataeus of Miletus must of used fro making his own map.
The more important thought of his philosophy were the following two:
1) He believed that Humans originaly derived from the fishes (!!) («τὸν δὲ ἄνθρωπον ἑτέρῳ ζώῳ γεγονέναι , τουτέστι ἱχθῦι , παραπλήσιον κατ'ἀρχάς» ,"the man derived from another animal , that is fish , with which was similar at the begining"). Let's try to find out how did he came to that conclusion.
i)It is said that once he had found an embryon of a shark and noticed the similarities with the human embryon. Modern embryology has proved that all the vertebrates' embryos (mammals,fishes,birds and reptiles) are similar in a phase that is called "the phylotypical phase".
ii) He noticed that the human embryon develops in the water (amnionic liquid) and that human (as all the terrestrial animals) has constant need of water during his life.
iii) The most important and philisophicaly "brilliant" arguement of his was that human among all animals is the one who needs his parents mostly during his early years. A child must stay with it's parents at least for the first 15 years of it's life and , in the mean time , a dog stays with it's mother about 6 months and the animals that derive from eggs have very little or no need at all for their parents. So Anaximander postulated that the original "primitive animal" had no parernts and it can't be human because humans need the most their parents.
It's the very first quotation of species evolution (!) , although it lacked the scientific structure and causal mecchanisms (natural sellection) that were given much later (2400 years later !!!) by Charles Darwin. To understand how progressive and inovative was Anaximander's thought and how progressive and open was the ancient greek society notice that no one hunted him for his opinion , under contrarly with Darwin 2400 years later and the Western Christian world !!!
To undestand the depth of Anaximander's intuition one must know that modern science believes that life was born in "water" (of course as primitive monocellular, autoreplicant biosystems and not as fishes as Anaximander said).
2) His other great thought was about the laws that govern physical phenomena and processes. He said that everything happens «κατά τό χρεών και κατά τήν τοῦ χρόνου τάξιν» ("like it must happen and by the order of time"). That quote of his makes us understand that Anaximander thought that there existed some inviolable ("must") laws in nature that govern the natural phenomena and their "ordinary" evolution through time (!!).