Natural Philosophers
Thales c. 585 BCE Greek (Miletus, Asia Minor)
* water = source of all life * all things are full of gods * accurately predicted 585 BCE solar eclipse
Anaximander c. 585 BCE Greek (Miletus, Asia Minor)
* Earth is one of many worlds * 'the boundless' = source of all things * creations are limited
Anaximenes c. 570-526 BCE Greek (Miletus, Asia Minor)
* air/vapor = source of life * condensed air = water; condensed water = earth; rarefied air = fire
Democritus 460-370 BCE Greek (Abdera) Materialist
* all things = atoms, rest = empty space * nature flows but atoms stay the same * no soul. no cause except natural causes. * soul atoms disperse @ death; soul isn't immortal, but soul atoms are * methods: reason & observation
Plato 428-347 BCE Greek (Athens)
* estab'd Philosophy Academy: students discussed like Socrates * concerned w/ nature's immutable & external things * Theory of Ideas: tangible things flow, forms (eternal & immutable) stay * forms = ideas; eg. idea horse -> horses * women have the same thinking capacity as men * state should raise children & give them full-time education
Parmenides c. 540-480 BCE Greek (Elea, S. Italy) Rationalist
* everything has always existed; there's no actual change * our senses give an incorrect picture of the world
Protagoras & the Sophists
* man is the measure * laws aren't nature's product, but of specific cultures * truth is found in the relationship to man & culture * middle class should pay Sophists for court success * taught rhetoric, adversarial courts, gentleman qualities
Heraclitus c. 540-480 BCE Greek (Ephesus, Asia Minor) Empiricist
* nature = constant change/flow * good & bad (opposites) let the world exist * there's universal reason/law
Anaxagoras 500-428 BCE Greek (b. Asia Minor, moved to Athens)
* nature = infinite # of small, invisible particles * there's something of everything in ea. particle (seeds) * moon has no light of its own * kicked out of Athens for Atheism
Empedocles c. 490-430 BCE Greek (Sicily)
* natures 4 elements: earth, fire, water, & air * natural processes = combo. of elements; eyes = 4 elements to see the world * natural forces = love & strife * love creates, strife separates * changes come from chance & necessity * biggest contrib. to science: air is a separate substance
Socrates 470-399 BCE Greek (Athens)
* ppl have innate reasoning to tell them right from wrong * socratic irony: feigned ignorance -> ability to expose weaknesses in people's thinking * killed by drinking hemlock (poison) b/c accused of introducing new gods & corrupting youth
Aristotle 384-422 BCE Greek (Macedonia)
* refused idea theory: forms aren't independent of their copies * everything w/i human mind has been seen in nature * everything has its category * 3 Forms of Happiness: life of pleasure & enjoyment, free & responsible citizen, and thinker & philosopher * 3 Good Forms of Constitution: monarchy (not tyranny), aristocracy (not oligarchy), democracy (not mob rule) * women = unfinished men, passive * child only gets male characteristics, men = form & women = substance
