What is the Fabric of the Cosmos?  Is the basic element of existence subjective or objective?  Is the basic element of existence knowable?  How can we test for the basic element of existence?

Metaphysics (all dates and stories are approximate truths): The First Metaphysicians (Materialism)  Miletus (585bce): Early metaphysicians all posited that reality was made of physical elements.  Early Philosophers (or the earliest we know of in the West) attempted to discover what the nature of reality was from observing physical nature.  Almost twenty-six hundred years ago, the first philosopher recorded his thoughts on the nature of reality  He was known to be eccentric; he once fell into a well while thinking about the stars (‘Little Bear’). He argued the nature of reality was Water…

THALES (624 – 546bce): First Western Philosopher  Lived in Miletus along the Mediterranean Sea  Left no writings; references to his writings/life  Became wealthy from Olive Oil business; invented tools of measurement, solved military problems during wars with Persia  “Water is the ultimate reality”: comprehensible, solid, substantial (substance); What does our textbook say is so monumental about this assertion? How does it reflect modern science’s attempt to explain metaphysics? (see pg 114)  He believed water passed the Ontological tests. All things, he believed, were made of water.  In what ways is he correct?  In what ways is he wrong?

Anaximander (610 – 546bce), student of Thales  Reality is made of apeiron (indefinite)  Reality is unknowable, mysterious  It is the most basic component of reality  We cannot experience it; we can only know if its manifestations.  All was once infinite and boundless; then from this indefinite infinity, finite things broke off  Humans crawled from the sea and changed into other creatures over time. Other worlds exist, other galaxies exist.  “From what source things arise, to that they return of necessity when they are destroyed…”  What problems arise with this solution to reality? Challenge: Read Anaximander’s quote on pg 114. Explain what he means

Anaximenes (585 – 528bce), student of Anaximander  Lived in Miletus and studied with Anaximander; Last of the Milesian philosophers  Attempted to combine both Anaximander and Thales’ ideas to come up with his assertion  Air  Air is boundless (everywhere); also specific and tangible substance  Water was thickened air  Earth was thickened (even more) air  “[Air] differs in essence in accordance with its rarity or density. When it is thinned it becomes fire, while when it is condensed it becomes wind, then cloud, when still more condensed it becomes water, then earth, then stones. Everything else comes from these.” -Anaximenes

Heraclitus from Ephesus (536 – 470bce): Believer in Fire  Shifted the discussion to most basic substance to ‘the problem of change’  All things are in flux.  [Modern assertion] Reality is energy and change, matter is an effect of energy  Fire is the most basic substance (because it is ever-changing)  Fire is always changing and consuming  Fire seemed necessary to constructing most important materials  “The world that is the same for all, neither any god nor any man shaped it, but it ever was and is and shall be ever-living Fire that kindles by measures and goes out by measures.” - Heraclitus

Democritus (460 – 371bce): An early Atomist  Believed the most basic element was an atom  He claimed they were tiny indestructible materials (atoms); they could combine and recombine to form different elements  Elements might change or be destroyed, but not their atoms.  Atoms (protons, neutrons, electrons) made up reality, Democritus claimed.  How similar is this view to today?  What has changed?