Phil 101 Week 3

	This week we are studying the presocratics, the first known Western philosophers, whose home was ancient Greece. As the term implies, presocratics were the philosophers who existed before Socrates (this alone shows you how important Socrates remains to philosophy). Before going directly into their ideas, it is useful to know the historical context. What were the presocratics developing their ideas in response to? These first philosophers arose in a world of myth, in world where the explanations for the mysteries of existence were the interactions of Gods and Goddesses. The presocratics sought explanations that were rational, that were based on ideas that built on each other. However strange and off-base their initial explanations seem, we have to remember that these first philosophers were trying something new and different, something that reached beyond mythological explanations. Thales (624-545 b.c.e.) Take, for example, Thales, the first known Western philosopher. He came up with the idea that one substance underlies all things: water. Again, this seems almost childish to us, but that’s because we live in a world where information is everywhere, where we have access to the greatest ideas of many cultures from many times and places (just check Wikipedia). Today it is almost common sense for us to think that nothing happens without a reason. Even religious followers invoke God as the reason, or religions like Buddhism (if you’re OK with calling it a religion) employ principles like karma. Of course, this idea came from the presocratic philosopher Anixamander (611-546 b.c.e.) in searching for what held the earth up. It is known as the principle of sufficient reason.
Heraclitus (500 b.c.e.) Heraclitus, an important presocratic, sought an underlying principle for the stages of matter. If matter goes through different stages, what holds it all together? Heraclitus thought it was something called "logos." For Heraclitus, it was the underlying principle of all things, what unified everything. As Soccio points out, the word “logos” itself means numerous things in Greek. Do you see a connection to the Tao here? Heraclitus' writings come from fragments found in the writings of other authors. For some of these fragments, check this website: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/heraclitus.html Heraclitus distinguished between the way things appear and the way things really are. By doing so he started a philosophical theme that is still being discussed today. We’ll talk more about this when we get to Descartes. To modernize his example, Heraclitus would say that a guitar string seems at rest only because the string and the guitar pull equally against each other. There is actually a tension between the two. What does this mean? It can be seen as a metaphor for the entire world. The world, at the level of reality and not appearance, is like the guitar string. Parmenides (5th Century b.c.e.) Parmenides sought a solution to the one and the many. That is, how does the one underlying nature of the cosmos (the logos) appear to be many things? If there is one unifying principle underlying all of reality, why are there multiple people, and rocks, and cities, (etc.)? Parmenides reasoned, like Heraclitus, that there is a difference between appearance and reality. While it appears that things change, at the fundamental level of reality, things do not change. For Parmenides, the fundamental level of reality is being. He thought being was eternal since being could not have come from nothing. Nothing, being by nature nothing, cannot produce something, he reasoned. Thus being is an eternal, unchanging thing. This is all very abstract, isn’t it? If you feel like you’re in the dark here, don’t worry. As long as you have a basic grasp of these ideas, or at least of what these early thinkers were trying to do, you’ll be fine. Much of philosophy is theorizing like this about the nature of reality, about what produces the reality we experience. This abstract reasoning will help you build a foundation for understanding other philosophers. Not all philosophy is overly abstract, but it’s necessary to get through and understand the abstract initially.
	While Parmenides thought that being was one and was unchanging, Empedocles (5th Century b.c.e.) thought that being was one, but that change still occurred. He thought that motion occurred within the existing reality. In other words, there is one being and parts of it exchange places with each other. The attempts to solve the problem of the one and the many eventually led the presocratic philosophers to posit the existence of small entities that combine in certain ways to form other, larger objects at our level of experience. Those small entities were called “atoms” and the larger entities they form are people, chairs, grains of sand, etc. Thus atoms were thought by the presocratics to be the ultimate foundation of life. You cannot divide atoms further; there is nothing smaller. Atoms alone cannot be sensed or seen, but when combined with other atoms, they become visible to us. Democritus (460-370 b.c.e.) Democritus, who ultimately developed atomism, made a distinction that went beyond the one Parmenides tried to make between being and not being. Basically, Democritus said that even being can have empty space. The term he used for this empty space was “void.” (See the chart in Soccio p75.) Interestingly, Democritus thought there was no order to the universe, no guiding intelligence. He thought atoms came together based on some sort of internal logic that needs no outside explanation. He thought elements of the world could be predicted if we only had the proper knowledge. This insight will play a role in determinism (which we’ll study later in the semester). Determinism makes the claim that every action you make is simply a result of natural laws over which you have no control. Notice how, in some sense, these early Greeks were scientists, dividing up the world and giving names to its components. And also notice how many of their terms and ideas have been built upon by scientists throughout the centuries: "atoms," "the void."

This week we are studying the presocratics, the first known Western philosophers, whose home was ancient Greece. As the term implies, presocratics were the philosophers who existed before Socrates (this alone shows you how important Socrates remains to philosophy).

Before going directly into their ideas, it is useful to know the historical context. What were the presocratics developing their ideas in response to? These first philosophers arose in a world of myth, in world where the explanations for the mysteries of existence were the interactions of Gods and Goddesses. The presocratics sought explanations that were rational, that were based on ideas that built on each other. However strange and off-base their initial explanations seem, we have to remember that these first philosophers were trying something new and different, something that reached beyond mythological explanations.

Thales (624-545 b.c.e.)

Take, for example, Thales, the first known Western philosopher. He came up with the idea that one substance underlies all things: water. Again, this seems almost childish to us, but that’s because we live in a world where information is everywhere, where we have access to the greatest ideas of many cultures from many times and places (just check Wikipedia).

Today it is almost common sense for us to think that nothing happens without a reason. Even religious followers invoke God as the reason, or religions like Buddhism (if you’re OK with calling it a religion) employ principles like karma. Of course, this idea came from the presocratic philosopher Anixamander (611-546 b.c.e.) in searching for what held the earth up. It is known as the principle of sufficient reason.

Heraclitus (500 b.c.e.)

Heraclitus, an important presocratic, sought an underlying principle for the stages of matter. If matter goes through different stages, what holds it all together? Heraclitus thought it was something called "logos." For Heraclitus, it was the underlying principle of all things, what unified everything. As Soccio points out, the word “logos” itself means numerous things in Greek. Do you see a connection to the Tao here?

Heraclitus' writings come from fragments found in the writings of other authors. For some of these fragments, check this website: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/heraclitus.html

Heraclitus distinguished between the way things appear and the way things really are. By doing so he started a philosophical theme that is still being discussed today. We’ll talk more about this when we get to Descartes. To modernize his example, Heraclitus would say that a guitar string seems at rest only because the string and the guitar pull equally against each other. There is actually a tension between the two. What does this mean? It can be seen as a metaphor for the entire world. The world, at the level of reality and not appearance, is like the guitar string.

Parmenides (5th Century b.c.e.)

Parmenides sought a solution to the one and the many. That is, how does the one underlying nature of the cosmos (the logos) appear to be many things? If there is one unifying principle underlying all of reality, why are there multiple people, and rocks, and cities, (etc.)? Parmenides reasoned, like Heraclitus, that there is a difference between appearance and reality. While it appears that things change, at the fundamental level of reality, things do not change. For Parmenides, the fundamental level of reality is being. He thought being was eternal since being could not have come from nothing. Nothing, being by nature nothing, cannot produce something, he reasoned. Thus being is an eternal, unchanging thing.

This is all very abstract, isn’t it? If you feel like you’re in the dark here, don’t worry. As long as you have a basic grasp of these ideas, or at least of what these early thinkers were trying to do, you’ll be fine. Much of philosophy is theorizing like this about the nature of reality, about what produces the reality we experience. This abstract reasoning will help you build a foundation for understanding other philosophers. Not all philosophy is overly abstract, but it’s necessary to get through and understand the abstract initially.

While Parmenides thought that being was one and was unchanging, Empedocles (5th Century b.c.e.) thought that being was one, but that change still occurred. He thought that motion occurred within the existing reality. In other words, there is one being and parts of it exchange places with each other.

The attempts to solve the problem of the one and the many eventually led the presocratic philosophers to posit the existence of small entities that combine in certain ways to form other, larger objects at our level of experience. Those small entities were called “atoms” and the larger entities they form are people, chairs, grains of sand, etc. Thus atoms were thought by the presocratics to be the ultimate foundation of life. You cannot divide atoms further; there is nothing smaller. Atoms alone cannot be sensed or seen, but when combined with other atoms, they become visible to us.

Democritus (460-370 b.c.e.)

Democritus, who ultimately developed atomism, made a distinction that went beyond the one Parmenides tried to make between being and not being. Basically, Democritus said that even being can have empty space. The term he used for this empty space was “void.” (See the chart in Soccio p75.) Interestingly, Democritus thought there was no order to the universe, no guiding intelligence. He thought atoms came together based on some sort of internal logic that needs no outside explanation. He thought elements of the world could be predicted if we only had the proper knowledge. This insight will play a role in determinism (which we’ll study later in the semester). Determinism makes the claim that every action you make is simply a result of natural laws over which you have no control.

Notice how, in some sense, these early Greeks were scientists, dividing up the world and giving names to its components. And also notice how many of their terms and ideas have been built upon by scientists throughout the centuries: "atoms," "the void."