Introduction to Philosophy Liz Beitler & Mr. P.

The Early Greek Philosophers

Philosopher	Where & When	Main Argument
Thales (13)	Greece, Asia Minor Caost - 585 BC	What is the world made of? Everything comes from water in different forms; water is a life-force; Milesian School
Anaximander (13)	610 BC-546 BC, Miletus	Pupil of Thales; Milesian School; Earth, which is a cylinder that floats like a drum, is suspended in space because it is equidistant from everything else; didn’t agree with Thales that Earth was made of water.
Anaximenes (13)	Asia-Minor, 610 BC	Milesian School; Earth was flat – like lid on a boiling saucepan. Earth was supported by something; influenced the Pythagoreans
Heraclitus (14)	Asia-Minor, 610 BC	Opposites don’t exist; they are two halves of the same thing; glass half full= glass half empty; UNITY of OPPOSITES; beginning to explain the nature of things
Pythagoras (15)	570 BC – 497 BC, Samos	Mathematics has a role in the understanding of the world; everything in the world can be calculated; math is the logical reason for the ways of the worlds – he brought Math & Philosophy together - came up with the word Philosophy (love of wisdom);
Xenophanes (15)	Crete, 6^th Century BC	All knowledge can be replaced by something else; knowledge changes over time; truth changes; “As for certain truth, no man has known it.”
Parmenides (16)	5^th Century BC – Southern coast of Italy	Nothing has not, cannot, will not exist; invented the conservation of mass; there doesn’t necessarily have to be a beginning; first expression of the idea “eternal” Everything has always existed.
Empedocles (17)	5^th Century BC - Sicily	Thought he was immortal; matter cannot come from nothing and go into nothing; four basic elements: earth, water, air, fire; believed that there were two different forces: love (brought stuff together), strife (drove things apart) Threw himself into a volcano!
Lucipus & Democritus (18)	5^th Century BC, Thrace	The “Atomists.’ Everything is made up of atoms that are too small to be seen and subdivided; all change in the universe relates to atoms; made no attempt to explain natural phenomenon
Anaxagoras &Protagoras (18)	Athens, 5^th Century BC	Introduced philosophy to Athens; wanted to understand the nature of the world around them; theorized on the largest possible scale; “Man is the measure of all things” – view of what is important changes from the world to man – Bridge between Pre-Socratics and Socrates/Plato/Aristotle