Three Milesians Ask Whats the Basic Stuff

1
Three Milesians Ask Whats the Basic Stuff?

• Thales (640-546 B.C.) said it was water
• Anaximenes (585-528 B.C.) said it was air
• Anaximander (611-547 B.C.) said it was apeiron,
  material stuff that is
• neutral
• boundless
• indefinite
• indeterminate

2
Pythagoras (582-507 B.C.) and Numbers

• According to Aristotle, Pythagoras held that
  everything is composed of numbers
• According to his wife, Theano, Pythagoras held
  that everything is in accordance with numbers
• In either case, Pythagoras introduced the view
  that reality involves things that are immaterial,
  perfect, unchanging, and known only by reason

3
Heraclitus and Parmenides

• Heraclitus (535-475 B.C.)
• ceaseless change (flux) is the essential feature
  of reality
• all change is governed by logos, the principle
  that underlies the unity of opposites
• Parmenides (fifth century B.C.)
• he used the a priori method of inquiry
• he held that reality is one, eternal, perfect,
  and unchanging

4
Particle Theory Empedocles and Anaxagoras

• Empedocles (495-435 B.C.)
• everything is made of different combinations of
  earth, air, fire, and water particles
• the particles themselves never change, only their
  arrangements do
• Anaxagoras (500-428 B.C.)
• for each kind of observable substance there is a
  corresponding kind of particle
• each particle is infinitely divisible
• theres a little of everything in everything

5
The Atomists Leucippus (fifth century B.C.) and
Democritus (460-370 B.C.)

• All things are composed of atoms
• Atoms are
• tiny and imperceptible
• indestructible and indivisible
• eternal and uncreated
• infinitely numerous and eternally in motion
• materially identical different in size and shape
• completely determined by physical laws of motion

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Common Themes of the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

• There is an underlying reality that is different
  from appearances (the appearance/reality
  distinction)
• This underlying reality is knowable
• Reality is best understood by depersonalizing it,
  so mythological explanations and accounts should
  be avoided or rejected