Ancient Philosophy

Who Were the Pre-Socratics?

The thinkers of the early period in the history of ancient Greek philosophy are categorized into the following groups:

1. Ionian (older) philosophers: Thales and his school.
   II. The Pythagorean mystical-religious union.
   III. Heraclitus.
   IV. The Eleatics: Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea.
   V. Younger natural philosophers: Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus.
   VI. Sophists: Protagoras, Gorgias, and others.

Aristotle draws our attention to the fact that the early philosophers viewed the origin of all things in matter, believing it to be the substance from which everything exists, from which it emerges, and into which it transforms. This essence, which remains unchanged despite the variations in states of affairs, they termed "element," signifying the beginning of all existence.

Ultimately, Greek philosophy does not commence with practical inquiries but with a quest for theoretical understanding. Reason, in examining the multiplicity of objects and phenomena, invariably seeks the foundation of these phenomena, primarily the material first principle (the primordial substance) of nature. The first cause is that primordial foundation from which all that exists derives and to which everything transforms. Ancient philosophers also referred to this foundation with the term "physis," meaning "nature," but not in the conventional sense; rather, it denotes a primary, fundamental, and enduring reality in contrast to the secondary, derivative, and mutable.

Regarding what substance should be considered the foundation of all existence, the opinions of philosophers varied.

The first chronologically noted representative of the Ionian school is Thales of Miletus (624-547 BCE), who identified water as the primordial substance of all existence, asserting that moisture is an essential condition for life: food and seeds are moist. He referred to the element of moisture as water. However, drinking water is merely one of the states of such "physis." It might seem that he could be categorized as a materialist, yet for him, water is associated with the divine principle. Moisture, as that which generates life, is itself life, and the world is living and full of deities. "All is full of gods" should be understood as a new rational conception of the divine (everything permeated by the first principle), meaning that everything is alive and possesses a soul (panpsychism). Thales articulates his judgments in accordance with reason, grounding them in logos. His reflections led to several discoveries, including calculating the day of a solar eclipse (585 BCE), which astonished his contemporaries; determining the length of the year to be 365 days; predicting weather based on stars; forecasting lunar eclipses; and proving several geometric theorems.

Here are characteristic aphorisms attributed to Thales: — What is older than all?
— God, for He is unbegotten.
— What is the largest?
— Space, for it encompasses the entire world, which contains all things.
— What is the most beautiful?
— The world, for all that is beautifully arranged is part of it.
— What is the most harmful?
— Vice, for in its presence almost everything is corrupted.
— What is the strongest?
— Necessity, for it alone is unconquerable.
— What is the easiest?
— That which aligns with nature, for even pleasure can be tiring.

Anaximander (610-546 BCE), like his teacher Thales, was an active political figure (he managed the migration from Miletus to Apollonia) and a seeker of the world's first principle. For Anaximander, water is something derivative from the infinite "physis," which is indeterminate (apeiron) and from which all things originate. Anaximander introduced an abstract concept to denote the first principle, considering it qualitatively and quantitatively indeterminate, yet the source of other things, limiting them in various ways. All things are produced from the beginning—apeiron—coexisting with it and in it, as apeiron governs all and sustains everything as an infinite origin that is immortal and immutable. Thus, the philosopher emphasizes the divine nature of the apeiron; however, unlike the Greek gods, apeiron does not arise but exists eternally. Consequently, according to Anaximander, at one moment in eternity, the first two opposites emerged: cold (liquid) and hot. Their interaction resulted in the emergence of air and water. The Earth, in the shape of a cylinder, remains in a suspended state, and on it, due to the influence of the sun on the liquid element, living organisms are born, leading to the emergence of increasingly complex forms.

Next among the Greek philosophers of the Ionian school is Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585-525 BCE), who identified air (pneuma) as the all-pervading fundamental substance. Anaximenes envisioned the first principle as infinite, equating it with air, which he regarded as an unlimited substance. Like other Milesians, Anaximenes imbued air with divine qualities. Comparing the soul to breath, he perceived air as an entity that permeates the body and governs it; in a similar manner, air permeates and governs the universe. Breath and air encompass the entire cosmos; we are born through its influence, thus it is infinite and generous enough never to harm.

The ability of air to condense and rarefy gives rise to earth, water, and fire. Anaximenes introduced for the first time in the history of human thought the principle of dynamic causation, which establishes harmony with the first principle, with physis. The Milesians’ holistic reality disaggregates into objects of study for separate sciences. At this juncture, four commonly used meanings of the word "philosophy" were formed:

1. The love of wisdom (Pythagoras). Wisdom itself is a property of the gods, accessible to humans only as a love for wisdom.
2. A specialized science concerning the first causes of existence, which came to be known as the first philosophy or metaphysics (that is, after physics, as named by the publisher of Aristotle's works, who placed them after those on physics).
3. Later, philosophy began to encompass any knowledge, equating philosophy with science in general.
4. The development of philosophy required that metaphysical inquiries be supplemented by other related sciences. In this sense, philosophy encompasses (in addition to metaphysics) logic, epistemology, and additionally includes the philosophies of specific sciences, philosophy of religion, philosophy of law, philosophy of history, etc. It is broader than the second meaning and narrower than the third.

Plato defines wisdom as that which perfects humanity. A person, in essence, is nothing other than consciousness and soul (or intellect and will, as this would later be articulated). Wisdom must fill both aspects within a person, with the latter as a consequence of the former, so that the soul, enlightened by consciousness, through knowledge of high matters is directed toward the choice of the best.

The most exalted matters in the world are those pertaining to the understanding of God and reflections upon Him: the best things are those that aim for the good of all humankind; the first are divine matters, the second are human matters.

Thus, true wisdom should teach the knowledge of divine things to guide human affairs toward the highest good. Such wise individuals were the poet-theologians who founded culture in Greece, and the teachers of wisdom, for example, were referred to by the Latins as astrologers.

In time, wisdom was ascribed to educated individuals for the beneficial advice they offered to humanity, akin to the Seven Sages of Greece.

Later, wisdom began to be attributed to those who established states for the good of nations and governed them wisely.

Subsequently, the term "wisdom" was employed to denote the science of supernatural divine matters, that is, metaphysics, which seeks to understand human consciousness in God, acknowledging God as the source of all truth.

Among the Jews, and later Christians, wisdom came to signify the study of eternal truths revealed in Revelation.

Pythagoras (c. 570 — c. 495 BCE, exact years of life unknown) hailed from the island of Samos in Ionia, near Miletus. In his youth, he traveled extensively, notably visiting Egypt, where he engaged with various teachings and arts. It is likely that Pythagoras was acquainted with his elder contemporaries, Thales and Anaximander of Miletus. The Pythagorean community he founded in Southern Italy (in the city of Croton, where he relocated in his mature years) resembled a brotherhood or, more precisely, a religious order, governed by revered laws considered divine, aimed at achieving a particular state of existence through the pursuit of universal good. Pythagorean teachings were perceived as mysteries, and the disclosure of these secrets was strictly forbidden and punishable. "I do not teach wisdom; I heal ignorance," Pythagoras was fond of repeating.

According to Pythagoras, the foundational element is the unit, the one, the indivisible. The Pythagoreans represented numbers as points forming figures (likely arranging them with stones on sand). In this way, numbers emerged as distinct entities, visibly reflecting certain regularities as properties of numbers. From these, they derived the properties of all things, perceiving that their combinations were rooted in numbers. Pythagoras noted that the pitch of a sound depends on the length of the string or the weight of the hammer striking the anvil. Harmonious consonances arose when the lengths of strings or the weights of hammers maintained specific ratios, which could again be expressed in numbers.

Each number held particular interpretations for the Pythagoreans. For instance, the unit, as a point, was understood as wholeness, unity, and unequivocal definition; the pair represented division and ambiguity, an infinite line; the trio defined a limited area marked by points; and the quartet symbolized a pyramid, a volumetric body. Together, these four numbers (the tetractys) bore special significance. Their sum, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, was regarded as sacred and embodied the Universe.

For Pythagoras's followers, numbers were akin to the essence of things. Just as the relationships between numbers adhered to specific regularities, so too did the things in the Universe exist in similarly patterned relationships. The nature of things resides within the relationships of numbers. All things are numbers.

Heraclitus (535—475 BCE), a scion of the royal Androclid family who founded his native city of Ephesus in Ionia, perceived the fundamental substance of the world as a mutable element, which he interpreted as the cosmic fire. The entirety of Heraclitus's cosmology is built upon the transformations of fire; he was the first to employ the term "cosmos" (from Greek—"order, pattern, ornament") in his writings and introduced the Greek word "logos" into philosophy in the sense of "word, order," understanding it as the law governing the changes and transformations of all things. For Heraclitus, the logos is not only the principle of order and measure but also the driving force through which all occurs, with everything incessantly transforming in a specific order. For the mind, it is the word, the understanding, which is also the expression of the logical structure of the cosmos, to which "all things hearken." Thus, for Heraclitus, the world is an ordered cosmos, eternal and infinite, that inevitably ignites and extinguishes in accordance with natural laws. Hence his famous aphorisms, "Everything flows; everything changes," and "One cannot step into the same river twice." All in the world passes through conflict, through which harmony is established: "In that which is born, all unites; from that which is divided arises the most beautiful harmony, and everything traverses through strife." Even war, for Heraclitus, is "the father of all, the king of all."

Moreover, in his quest to explain the nature of all phenomena universally, Heraclitus attributed a fiery nature to the human soul. He stood as a critic of contemporary philosophers, as evidenced by his famous remark: "Knowledge of many things does not add to wisdom; for if it did, it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and Xenophanes with Hecateus."

It is noteworthy that Heraclitus was a solitary philosopher, having neither a school nor followers during his lifetime, yet he was distinguished by notable epithets—"The Obscure" (for his complex and enigmatic presentation of thoughts, laden with obscure metaphors) and "The Weeping Philosopher" (for the lamentable state of humanity, which seemed worthy only of tears). Heraclitus’s life, having renounced royal power in favor of his brother, concluded in the mountains, where he spent his final years as a recluse.

The Eleatics. The founder of the Eleatic school is considered to be Xenophanes of Colophon, who lived around 570—478 BCE. For the first time in Greek philosophy, Xenophanes proposed the idea of one singular god (monotheism), conceived as pure intelligence, whose power is manifested in wisdom. This notion of a singular wise god became foundational for the school of Parmenides (540—480 BCE), who posited the idea of a singular being, and his disciple Zeno. According to Parmenides, since all that is thought to exist does exist, and to think of nothing means to think of nothing at all, being is, while non-being is not. "The thought and that about which thought is the same." Being, for Parmenides, is eternal, neither coming into existence nor being destroyed, remaining always identical to itself. In the realm of knowledge, he acknowledged only that which is true, which is apprehended through intuition, as the senses provide an illusory representation of the world.

Zeno of Elea (490—430 BCE) articulated a worldview that argued for the existence of the One by negating the notion of the Many through a method he invented, which refuted an opponent's thesis by reducing it to absurdity. These refutations have entered the annals of philosophy as Zeno's paradoxes (from Greek—"difficulty, unresolved contradiction"). Of the 45 paradoxes, only nine have survived to the present. For instance, the paradox of the "Moving that does not move either where it is or where it is not"; the paradox of the "Flying Arrow," wherein Zeno demonstrates that the motion of an arrow is impossible: if one assumes the continuity of space, then at any moment of its motion the arrow occupies a position equal to itself; thus, at that moment, it can be perceived as at rest, with its motion merely being the trajectory composed of these states of rest. Hence, the arrow does not move.

The paradox "Against Space" challenges the reality of space, wherein Zeno argues: if an object is located in space, then that object and that space are situated in another space, which, in turn, resides within yet another space, and so forth to infinity. Therefore, one cannot be located everywhere and nowhere, nor can one conceive of an infinite multitude of spaces nested within each other, all of which collectively denies the reality of space.

In the "Dichotomy" paradox, Zeno posits that a body cannot move from its place and initiate movement, for to traverse half a distance, it must first traverse another half, and to do so again requires passing through yet another half, and so forth to infinity. Consequently, a body cannot cover an infinite number of segments in a finite time.

In the paradox "Achilles and the Tortoise," the swift Achilles cannot catch up to the slow tortoise, since while he runs the distance that separates them, the tortoise will also advance, ad infinitum. Despite the distance diminishing, it will never fully disappear.

Zeno's arguments were designed to bolster the position of the logos, which negates sensory experience and asserts itself as the omnipotent law.

Democritus (460—370 BCE) and his teacher Leucippus (550—440 BCE) stand as the final representatives of the philosophy of physios. They maintained that all bodies are composed of atoms. An atom is an indivisible corporeal particle; it is eternal, unchangeable, neither arising nor perishing. Atoms differ in volume, shape, and solidity, and are separated by void. The mechanical movement of atoms in the void constitutes the eternal natural state of the cosmos. Thus, order (cosmos) arises from the mechanical interaction of atoms, not as a product or projection of the mind. The intellect merely follows; it does not precede the order of atomic combinations, and the human soul consists of the most mobile, fiery atoms. These are the divine atoms, as Democritus termed them. Truth in knowledge is attained solely through reason, while sensory experience is merely a fleeting impression of the world. No entity arises randomly or without cause; rather, it always does so as a necessity, imbuing Democritus's philosophy with determinism and even fatalism: an infinite chain of causes and effects forms an unavoidable necessity, with randomness merely representing a cause unknown to human understanding.