Pythagoras founded a philosophical and religious school based on Mathematics Followers known as mathematikoi, had no personal possessions and were vegetarians, obeyed strict rules. The beliefs that Pythagoras held were (1) that at its deepest level, reality is mathematical in nature, (2) that philosophy can be used for spiritual purification, (3) that the soul can rise to union with the divine, (4) that certain symbols have a mystical significance, and (5) that all brothers of the order should observe strict loyalty and secrecy.

Discovered numerical principles of Music and Astrology. ~ Dynamics of world structure depends on the interaction of contraries,(pairs of opposites) ~ soul is a self-moving number experiencing successive reincarnation in different species until its eventual purification ~ all existing objects were fundamentally composed of form and not of material substance. Pythagoras believed that the planets produced sounds while tracing out their orbits, producing the "harmony of the spheres."

Thales of Miletus 585 B.C. (1 st Philosopher ?) Used Mathematics and Astronomy to predicted a solar eclipse

The search for the first Material Principle

Metaphysics. “What is the world made of?" and "What is the ultimate substance of all reality?” Something physical? (Matter or energy) This is called materialism. Something more spiritual or mental, such as ideas or ideals? This is called idealism.

Ultimate nature was known in Greek as physis, (root of Physics and Physiology). Looking For Element and first principle of existing things Most of the first philosophers thought that principles in the form of matter were the only principles of all things (Monist Materialists). The original source of all existing things, that from which a thing first comes-into-being and into which it is finally destroyed, the substance persisting but changing in its qualities, No absolute coming-to-be or passing away, on the ground that such a nature is always preserved... for there must be some natural substance, either one or more than one ( pluralist), from which the other things come-into-being, while it is preserved.”

Thales "For moist natural substance, since it is easily formed into each different thing, is accustomed to undergo very various changes; that part of it which is exhaled is made into air, and the finest part is kindled from air into aether, while when water is compacted and changes into slime it becomes earth. Therefore Thales declared that water, of the four elements, was the most active, as it were, as cause." Anaximanes- Air

Heraclitus – Fire "This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be, an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures." “Into the same rivers we step and do not step, we are and are not.” (Heraclitus Homericus)

Studied the disappearance and reappearance of the moon at the end and beginning of a month He explained the sun and moon as bowls full of fire. As the moon's bowl rotated it caused the phases. Eclipses were the result of a rotation of the convex side of the bowls to face the earth. We have no reports about the earth itself, but we may suppose that, like his predecessors, Heraclitus viewed it as flat. Evaporations from the earth and sea apparently provided fuel for the heavenly bodies, which burned like oil lamps. All things that happen are good, but humans do not perceive them to be so. To God all things are fair, good and just, but men suppose some things are unjust, some just. Conflict (including presumably human conflict) keeps the world going.

Studied the disappearance and reappearance of the moon at the end and beginning of a month He explained the sun and moon as bowls full of fire. As the moon's bowl rotated it caused the phases. Eclipses were the result of a rotation of the convex side of the bowls to face the earth. We have no reports about the earth itself, but we may suppose that, like his predecessors, Heraclitus viewed it as flat. Evaporations from the earth and sea apparently provided fuel for the heavenly bodies, which burned like oil lamps.

Anaximander a different substance (apeiron )that is limitless or indeterminate, from which there come into being all the heavens and the worlds within them. Things perish into those things out of which they have their being, according to necessity. (Aristotole).

From the apeiron opposing pairs emerge (e.g., the wet/dry and the hot/cold) and contend with one another, until one of the pair is annihilated, becoming the other. For example, day will be transformed into night or winter into summer. This is what Anaximander means when he says that things do injustices to one another. “God is day night, winter summer, war peace, satiety hunger, and he alters just as fire when it is mixed with spices is named according to the aroma of each of them.”

Leucippus and Democritus These ancient atomists theorized that the two fundamental and oppositely characterized constituents of the natural world are indivisible bodies—atoms—and void. Void is described simply as nothing, or the negation of body.

Atoms are by their nature intrinsically unchangeable; they can only move about in the void and combine into different clusters. Since the atoms are separated by void, they cannot fuse, but must rather bounce off one another when they collide. Because all macroscopic objects are in fact combinations of atoms, everything in the macroscopic world is subject to change, as their constituent atoms shift or move away. Thus, while the atoms themselves persist through all time, everything in the world of our experience is transitory and subject to dissolution.

Because all macroscopic objects are in fact combinations of atoms, everything in the macroscopic world is subject to change, as their constituent atoms shift or move away. Thus, while the atoms themselves persist through all time, everything in the world of our experience is transitory and subject to dissolution. The cosmos consists of nothing but identical, indestructible particles moving randomly in a void.

What Motivates Human Behavior Thales – soul or mind produces physical force that is the source of human behavior.

Epistemology How do we know what is true or false, what is real or not? Can we know anything for certain, or is it ultimately hopeless? True” reality (noumenon) and “apparent” reality (phenomenon). Explored the idea that there is an “unreal seen” beneath the seen real. Empiricism, which says that all knowledge comes through the senses. Rationalism, which says that knowledge is a matter of reason, thought. These are not mutually exclusive ideas!! If not from the gods, where does the mind obtain the raw materials of thought?

Philosophy Explore the Parameters Nativist Empiricist Idealist Materialism MonistDualist DeterminismFreewill