History of Philosophy

Ancient Philosophy

The Presocratics

The philosophical schools of Early Antiquity, collectively referred to as the Presocratics, emerged from various Greek city-states in Asia Minor and Italy. Their primary aim was to understand the essence of the world in which humanity resides.

• The first recorded philosophical school was the Milesian school, which originated in the Greek city of Miletus in Asia Minor. The central question that this school grappled with was the nature of the fundamental substance underlying all existence: amidst the vast array of diverse things in the world, could they all be composed of a single substance capable of taking various forms and undergoing transformations? This fundamental substance is known as the archê (ἀρχή), or "principle." The school is recognized for three philosophers who sought to define the nature of the archê:

◦ The first known representative of this school was Thales. He posited that the archê of all things is water. Water is capable of assuming all three possible states of matter (solid, liquid, and gaseous); without water, no life could exist. According to Thales, all things are merely different states of water. Yet, for Thales, water was not just a material substance. It was alive, animated, and divine. Thus, everything in the world is composed of water and is both living and animated.

◦ Thales' successor was Anaximander. He extended Thales' inquiry. If the archê is the foundation from which everything is composed, then it must be formless, a pure chaos and pure potentiality that becomes actualized by assuming various forms. Accordingly, Anaximander argued that nothing observable in the world can be the archê. The archê can only be something that has no boundaries, no delineations, and cannot be described. Therefore, the only thing that can be said about the archê is that it is the apeiron (ἄπειρον), or the "boundless." The apeiron, like Thales' water, is animated and divine.

◦ The third representative of the Milesian school was Anaximenes. He asserted that among all existing things, air is the most elusive to description. One cannot perceive air through touch, taste, smell, or sight. However, when air is absent, its lack is keenly felt. This implies that air exists, though it cannot be perceived or described. If it cannot be described, then it is the apeiron of the archê.

The Milesian school thrived in the 6th century BCE. By 494 BCE, it ceased its activities due to the destruction of Miletus in war. Nevertheless, the influence of this school on subsequent philosophical discourse was immense.

• At the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century BCE, the eminent philosopher Heraclitus was active in the Greek city-state of Ephesus in Asia Minor. He concentrated his reflections on the problem of the world’s flux. Everything is in a state of constant change: things come into being and perish, living beings are born and die, and everything is in constant motion. If everything changes, then motion is the sole universal characteristic of existence. Of all things in the world, fire is the most changeable, for its flames constantly flicker and never cease. Thus, Heraclitus proposed fire as the fundamental principle of all existence, just as Thales proposed water and Anaximenes air. However, constant motion in the world is not chaotic: all plants grow with their crowns upwards and roots downwards, not the other way around; water always flows from above to below; the sun always rises in the East and sets in the West; a person is first born and only later dies, not the other way around. This suggests that the constant changes in the world are governed by an eternal and unchanging law that directs everything. Heraclitus referred to this law as the Logos. The Greek word "λόγος" (Logos) has many meanings, one of which is reason. By using this concept, Heraclitus demonstrated that the world is structured according to the principles of reason. Since the world is logically organized, reason can comprehend it.
• In the 6th century BCE, a philosophical school founded by Pythagoras emerged in Southern Italy. This school is known as the Pythagorean Brotherhood. The thinkers of this school aimed to discover the fundamental principle present in all things and the basis of their construction. They identified this fundamental principle with numbers. Numbers were seen as the category to which everything in the material world is subordinated. There is no physical or chemical property of a thing that cannot be quantified numerically. Numbers transform chaos (χάος) into order (κόσμος). For the Pythagoreans, numbers were not merely a means of calculation but a rational principle upon which the world is founded. The deity created the world through mathematical methods. Thus, numbers were regarded as the divine principle of the world. The Pythagorean Brotherhood was not only a group of scholars but also a religious community, for whom numbers were the object of religious veneration and meditation, as it was through numbers and the order they imposed that the divine expressed itself in the world. It is believed that Pythagoras was the first to use the term "philosophy."
• The Eleatic school played a significant role in Presocratic philosophy:

◦ The first representative of this school, Xenophanes (c. 570-470 BCE), was a traveling poet and theologian who questioned the religion of the ancient Greeks. Xenophanes believed that the Greek belief in many gods was erroneous. Since God is the highest being, He must be one, and any other deities venerated by people are either mere expressions of the One God or human inventions. Xenophanes also held that all existence is composed of earth, thus considering the earth as the archê of all existence.

◦ The second representative of the Eleatic school was Parmenides (c. 540-480 BCE). He extended the principle of unity, which Xenophanes applied to God, to all being. Parmenides wrote that in mystical inspiration, he ascended to the gates separating day from night, where he was met by Dike (the goddess of justice), who revealed to him the truth. Dike showed Parmenides that the human world is full of contradictions and, therefore, is merely an illusion, not true being. True being is without contradiction. Parmenides asserted, "Being is, and non-being is not." This means that true being cannot come into being or perish, change, or move. Being cannot be known through the senses, as senses perceive only what exists in the world, and the world is a mere appearance, not reality. Only reason can grasp true being, as reason can penetrate the essences of things and see deeper than the senses.

◦ The third representative of the Eleatic school was Zeno (c. 490-430 BCE). He did not develop his own philosophical system but was a continuer of Parmenides' ideas. To prove Parmenides' assertion that the human world is illusory, Zeno formulated paradoxes demonstrating logical contradictions present in the world. The paradox of "Achilles and the Tortoise" is framed as follows: if Achilles runs ten times faster than the tortoise, and the tortoise starts ahead of Achilles by a thousand paces, then by the time Achilles covers the distance to the tortoise (a thousand paces), the tortoise will have moved forward by another hundred paces, and while Achilles covers these hundred paces, the tortoise will move forward another ten paces; thus, Achilles will never overtake the tortoise. The paradox of "Dichotomy" is stated as follows: to traverse a path, one must first cover half of it, and to cover half, one must first cover half of that half.

• Empedocles (c. 490-430 BCE) synthesized the four archê elements—water (Thales), fire (Heraclitus), air (Anaximenes), and earth (Xenophanes)—into a single system and asserted that everything in the world is composed not of one element but of four, which combine with one another. As these four elements are combined in varying proportions in each thing, each thing is different. The combination of elements in things is not constant: things decay, and from their elements, new things arise. Everything in the world changes. These changes are governed in turn by two forces—Love and Strife. When Love predominates, the world moves towards perfection, eventually achieving a perfectly even distribution of elements in things. When Strife prevails, the world moves towards chaos. These cycles constantly alternate.
• The ancient Greeks believed that humans are a microcosm of the world. Hence, they referred to the world as the macrocosm (great world) and humans as the microcosm (small world). If a human is a small copy of the world, then the same principles should be reflected in them as in the world. Based on this, Greek doctors Hippocrates (c. 460-377/356 BCE) and Galen (129/131-200/217 BCE) concluded that if the world is composed of four elements as Empedocles said, then a human must also be composed of four elements. In each person, these elements are combined in different proportions, making each person unique. Galen and Hippocrates developed a theory of temperaments: people who are dominated by phlegm are phlegmatic; those dominated by bile are choleric; those dominated by blood are sanguine; and those dominated by black bile are melancholic.
• In the 5th century BCE, the school of Atomists emerged, with the most prominent representatives being Leucippus (c. 500-440 BCE) and Democritus (c. 460-370 BCE). Atomists claimed that the world is composed of an infinite number of uniform atoms. Atoms are in constant motion, which allows them to combine and form a variety of things. Since motion involves moving from one place to another, and to move from one place requires empty space, Atomists argued that there is emptiness between atoms. In their movement, atoms fill the void.
• A similar concept was proposed by Anaxagoras (c. 496-428 BCE). He asserted that the world consists of indivisible particles he called homeomeric parts. Anaxagoras’ homeomeric parts possess similar properties to Leucippus’ and Democritus’ atoms. The difference lies in that Atomists maintained that all atoms are identical, whereas Anaxagoras believed that each homeomeric part is unique. Atomists believed that the movement of atoms is spontaneous and unregulated. Anaxagoras, however, contended that homeomeric parts move according to the law of Divine Mind, which he named Nous, a term translated from Greek as "spirit" or "mind."
• The era of the Presocratics concluded with the Sophist school. The term "Sophist" derives from the Greek word "σοφία" (sophia), meaning "wisdom." The word "Sophist" translates to "wise man," or more precisely, one who does not seek the truth but manipulates it. Sophists emerged in the context of democracy in some Greek city-states. In a democratic setting, political influence is gained by those skilled in persuasion. Consequently, in democratic Greek city-states, the ability to persuade and oratory were highly valued. Those who excelled in rhetoric built successful political careers and triumphed in courts. Mastery of rhetoric brought substantial rewards, prompting many to learn how to speak effectively and manipulate public opinion. The demand for rhetoric training gave rise to a corresponding supply. Sophists were philosophers who did not aim to discover truth but merely to persuade others. As orators earned financial and political benefits from their skills, sophists began charging for their lessons. Until then, philosophers had not charged for their teachings, believing that truth could not be sold. Sophists, however, provided their students with practical skills and means to earn money, allowing them to charge for their services. Sophists established an ideological foundation for their activities. They not only did not seek to find the truth but also believed that objective truth did not exist. What is true for each person is what benefits them. With changing circumstances, truth also changes. The most renowned sophists included Gorgias (c. 483-375 BCE), Protagoras (c. 481-411 BCE), and Prodicus (c. 465-395 BCE). Protagoras’ slogan was "Man is the measure of all things: of those that are, that they are, and of those that are not, that they are not." With this phrase, Protagoras indicated that the criterion of truth is human interest.