The Early Greeks

Early experiments (as told by Herodotus) –Psammethichus and the kids (7 th cent. BC) –Croesus and the Oracles (5 th cent. BC) –Both attempts to control conditions of inquiry, but not science as we know it Earliest science (ca 600 BC) in Greece –Some knowledge in Egypt and Babylonia, but mixed with magic and superstition. –Search for knowledge for its own sake begins in Greece

Early Greek thinkers –“cheery obliviousness” to divisions among specialized fields; embraced all that exists Science and philosophy are one Some practitioners (physicians, lawyers, engineers), but philosopher-scientists took on the whole universe—any aspect that struck their fancy. Goal: seems to have been a synthesis of all knowledge” –Roots of Psychology in this philosophy/science and medicine

Many modern psychological concepts found in early Greek cosmologies –E.g., attempt to reduce universe to it elements, I.e., reduce the complex to the simple This is start toward making the world intelligible (as long as you don’t look too far beyond common sense) Has repeatedly proved its effectiveness by achievement A dominant tendency of human beings faced with complex situations

Thales –Basic element = water –Whole world is alive and animated-- even rocks Question: why in the world would a smart guy say things like this? –Answer: all objects have power of movement if one knows how to bring it about »Huh? Think about magnets; static electricity

Anaximenes (ca 540 BC): air Empedocles (ca 440 BC): –earth, air, fire, water plus forces of love and strife –Rudimentary theory of evolution Democritus –Atoms –Different types of atom: soul atoms; body atoms Soul atoms smaller and more active Because soul atoms can interpenetrate body atoms, mind can make contact with and affect physical world. –Bingo! Solution to mind/body problem (yeah, right) and commitment to materialism and determinism.

Heraclitus (ca 500 BC) –Now let’s just wait a second here… this is nutty –At core of universe, there is no lasting substance; nothing solid; no stable element –Basic element: Fire. Why? Significant characteristic is impermanence or change (even mountains change over time; can’t step in the same stream twice…. Yada yada). Only change is real.

–Note the point here: Only change is real. “Things” are not real; they are always changing. Senses reveal what seem like substantial objects, but thought, which transcends experience, perceives reality, which is change. –Sensations are static and relative to a point in time, an individual, etc –While common sense sees things, Heraclitus saw processes.

Parmenides: –Exactly opposite view: all change is an illusion. Only one reality, and it is infinite, uniform, motionless, fixed. –This is the start of Rationalism

Democritus (ca 420 BC) –All sensations are false There isn’t anything corresponding to them Of course there is color, sweet, cold., etc… but they are caused by something else…. The atoms in the void, which are not sensed. Senses give no information about reality; all are subjective –Centuries later, these came to be called secondary qualities and became important to Galileo, Descartes, Locke, and others.

So.. Along comes Anaxagoras. –Also believed it’s not possible to reduce the world to material substance, although he did propose a large number of different elements –The thing is: Anaxagoras didn’t care. Even if one knew the elements, still couldn’t account for the world. The order of the world, as well as its elements, must be explained. Protest against reduction to elements – Holy gestalt, Batman!

Pythagoras –Basic explanation for everything could be found in numbers and numerical relationships. –Tho these are abstract, they are still real and influence the empirical world (I am now getting a headache). –World of numbers known only through reason. –Dualistic universe: one part abstract, permanent, and intellectually knowable the other part is empirical, changing, and known through the senses

OK… OK… Time out! –The Sophists You could probably make any argument about the ultimate nature of reality and there would be no way to confirm it. Thus, likely that no single truth exists; truth is relative. –Sophism marked a change in philosophy. Question was no longer “what is universe made of?”, but”what can humans know and how can they know it?” Shift toward epistemological questions

Summary of Issues What is the universe made of? Is there a primary element? If so, what? Do things constantly change or do they never change? –What, if anything, is permanent enough to be known with certainty? –If sensory experience provides information only about a constantly changing world, how can it be a source of knowledge?

–Is there a distinction between mind and body? Most early philosophers were monists: No real difference between mind and body; both accounted for by the elements (whatever they might be) Some were dualists (most prominent: Pythagoras) –Difference between mind and body (between physical and abstract). For Pythagoras, sensory experience inhibits attainment of abstract knowledge and should be avoided). Mind or soul is immortal.