Pre-Socratics
Starting to begin Philosophizing
- moving away from myth toward PhilosophyPhilosophy
Philosophy
How the Great Conversation works: [[Great Conversation]]
Abuse of power often leads to philosophical change
When reading a philosopher, ask what problem he is trying to solve, and whether his solution would work
The Major Questions
what do I know?
how do I know that?
can a man know God / transcendent things?
or can we know the physical world?
Types of Philosophy
Descriptive
Prescriptive
starts with first principles
Euclid for the world
simple ...- Upanishads, atman, Brahma
- contemplation
- Homer
- what moves heroes? not cosmos
- best course - pay homage to gods
- reason is more powerful than religion
- goal of Philosophy
- solve practical problems (begin, sustain, defend)
- build power & wealth to pursue
- personal gods -> impersonal gods
- chaos -> cosmos
- find the arche
Why Were the Greeks the Ones who Started Philosophizing?
- estranged from the world - here alone
- trade w/ people w/ very different ideas
- they want to understand the world
- no final authority on truth
| Name | ~ Date | Philosophy |
|---|---|---|
| Thales | 585 BC | arche is water |
| Pythagoreans | 570 BC | cosmos is organized by number |
| Anaximander | 550 BC | apeoron- unlimited and undefined something unlike anything else |
| Anaximenes | 535 BC | fire, water, air, earth, stone |
| Heraclitus of Ephesus | 535 BC | everylasting world; everything in flux |
| Empedocles | 494 BC | earth, air, fire, water; mixed by love & strife |
| Parmenides | 500 BC | all change is logically impossible; taught Zeno |
| Zeno of Elea | 490 BC | motion is an illusion; reason over senses |