The Natural Philosophers

1
The Natural Philosophers

• The Pre-Socratics

2
Pre-Socratic Philosophers

• Asked two main questions
• Of what is the natural world made?
• To what degree do things remain the same over
  time?
• These questions are within the realm of
  cosmology or metaphysics

3
Thales of Miletus (624 BCE 546 BCE)

• Most objects in the world, were more or less
  water ? water the basic substance of all things
• basic philosophical process
• Asked a fundamental question ? used sense
  experience reason (i.e. his rational mind) ? an
  attempted answer

4
Anaximander (611 BCE 547 BCE)

• All life from the sea
• Suggested that the basic substance, apeiron
  (literally, that which has no boundaries) a
  limitless, mysterious concept

5
Anaximenes (585 BCE 528 BCE)

• Air is the basic element of all things.
• As air becomes finer ? it becomes fire as it
  becomes thicker ?wind, clouds, water, earth
  stones..
• A less mysterious, more observable approach,
  explains how one substance becomes many things.

6
Pythagoras (571 BCE 496 BCE)

• His school had a strong mystical element, his
  followers more like disciples than students.
• Tried to establish the basic or universal forms
  (shapes) of life. (substance form become
  important later for philosophers)
• Numbers are the basic element of all things. (1
  point, 2 line, 3 surface, 4 solid)
• Numbers could be assigned to all things

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Heraclitus (540 480 B.C.E.)

• Reputation for haughtiness, disliked
• Considered problem of permanence change
• Believed all things in a state of constant
  change (constant state of flux)
• it is impossible to step in the same river
  twice.
• Fire the prime example of change

8
More Heraclitus

• He didnt believe in a universe of chaos
• He did believe that a rational, intelligible
  structure or order underlay the worlds
  impermanence
• This order logos may not be understood by human
  consciousness
• Believed everything that exists is fundamentally
  connected beyond the temporary nature of our
  apparently ever-changing world

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Parmenides (510-480 B.C.E.)

• Everything which exists has always existed
• Nothing can become anything other than what it is
  already.
• Change can never occur
• Admits that change SEEMS to occur
• SENSES Way of seeming ? fool us
• REASON Way of Truth
• That which is, is. That which is not, is not.

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A test from my past

• The question
• Outline the dimensions of the problem of change
  via the positions of Heraclitus and Parmenides.

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My notes in planning

• One the many the many are an expression of the
  one
• Heraclitus and Parmenides have a common major
  premise
• There is an incompatibility between the notion
  of non-contradiction becoming
• (and we now know this to be false)

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The Principle of Non-Contradiction

• Nothing cannot both be said to be and not be at
  the same time and in the same respect.

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Common PremiseThere is an incompatibility
between the principle of non-contradiction and
becoming

• Heraclitus
• sense knowledge becoming is real (true)
• reality is unintelligible
  (false)

• Parmenides
• intellect, the real is intelligible (true)
• becoming is an illusion (False)

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Yin Yang

• Universe made of opposites
• Always in a state of change
• Yin ? yang yang ? yin
• Yin ? active
• Yang ? passive
• Relative / not absolute
• Things exist in complementary opposition
• Opposition required for change/movement

15
Contradiction between Reason the Senses

• To search for truth of universe
• Senses ? perceive
• Reason ? understand
• Which is best to find truth?

16
Zeno (follower of Parmenides)

• Senses ? things changeable
• Reason ? all ideas / objects are permanent
• That which is, is. That which is not, is not.
• Parmenides is correct
• Reason ? knowledge
• Permanence is truly real
• Examples (paradoxes)
• Seed (1 silent bushel makes sound)
• Achilles Tortoise

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Anaxagoras

• 1st Athenian philosopher with some historical
  record
• Distinguished between mind matter
• Mind brings order to matter
• Without mind, matter confusing, ever-changing
• Orders sensory data into categories concepts

18
Democritus

• Everything made of indestructible eternal atoms
• move about in space
• the basic elements of matter