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

7. 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 didn’t believe in a universe of chaos  He did believe that a rational, intelligible structure or order underlay the world’s 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

9. 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.”

10. A test from my past  The question:  Outline the dimensions of the problem of change via the positions of Heraclitus and Parmenides.

11. 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)

12. The Principle of Non- Contradiction  Nothing cannot both be said to be and not be at the same time and in the same respect.

13. Common Premise: There 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)

14. 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

17. Anaxagoras  1 st 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