What is the Fabric of the Cosmos? The Immaterial Edition What if reality is not made up of Material Objects (stuff), but immaterial objects (thoughts, minds, ideas, numbers, etc.)?

Metaphysics: The Immaterial Branch Some pre-Socratics believed the ultimate nature of reality was not physical at all Matter as we know it is often associated with different atoms organized in different ways, which created different physical effects (color, smell, texture, etc.) However, due to the changing nature of these entities, some philosophers argued there were more basic elements of reality “underneath” these changes Pythagoras, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea

Pythagoras of Samos (571 – 497bce): The High Priest of Numbers Believed numbers were the ultimate nature of reality; they’re eternal and indestructible; numbers do not change He created a secret order of mathematicians who worshipped sacred numbers/shapes. [Possibly] vegetarian due to religious beliefs/practices There is a numerical basis for all things (Musical scales), thus reality may have a numerical basis (Arithmetic  Geometry  Reality). Argued that the Primary Matter (most basic substance) is FORM (limit, numbers provide a limit). Plato adopts idea of Form. Evidence = Music & Evidence = Medicine Believed in a Wheel of Reincarnation “The whole of heaven is a musical scale and a number.” -Pythagoras

Parmenides Founder of Eleatic School of Philosophy (539 -492bce): An early Solipsist Therefore, reality is unknown to us; all that we experience is a false reality Criticisms of Heraclitus: If all of existence is made from one substance, then the concept of change is false. Change is an illusion. How can change exist? How can something that is not become something that is? Something either is or is not. Only one path is available for us to speak of “The path that is.” Change is the confusion of appearance with reality. Reality is eternal, changeless, motionless…unreal

Parmenides Continued “One cannot say that anything ever had ‘non-being’ Let’s try this quote: “It is impossible to think of change in any clear way since the only thing one can think about is being, or what actually is. It follows, therefore, that being is absolute, that being is not divisible, since all being is alike, and, [Parmenides says] all is full of being. The assumption of change, or of becoming, is just this, that something changes from non-being to being or from being to being. But for Parmenides this assumption made no sense for the following reason: If one says that something arises out of being, as Thales and other Milesians did, there cannot be any coming-into-being, for if it arises out of being, it already is. Similarly, if something is said to arise out of non-being, one assumes that non-being is something.”

Zeno of Elea (400s bce): Parmenides’ Student Motion doesn’t exist either! Bane of the Pythagoreans Compiled a host of paradoxes that come up when obeying laws of nature [i.e., motion, divisibility of space] (Zeno’s Paradoxes). Attempted to argue against Pythagoreans that existence is not divisible, it is all One substance. Proof was to be found in his paradoxes (Racecourse, Achilles Shooting an arrow, etc). His argument was: With a plurality of the world, motion cannot exist. Agreed with Parmenides that what reality is must be unchanging Would debate often in markets with anyone Believed our senses only gave us the appearance of reality; one needs to apply reason/logic to find reliable knowledge. (Millet Seed Example) Challenge: See pg. 21 Achilles shooting an arrow; how does one solve this paradox?

The Return of Heraclitus – Change & Logos In response to those who sought unchanging reality, Heraclitus said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” The world is in flux; the world is ever-living fire “Change is unity as diversity” (from his writings) Can a person step into the same river twice? “The ultimate reality is change!” But wait…what about Logos (the principle underlying the changes we experience) All things change but the laws of nature…