The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece

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The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece

• The Presocratics
• c. 585-400 B.C.E

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The Presocratics Basic Question

• What isor wasthe arkhe of all things (i.e., of
  either the cosmos or else of everything there
  is)?
• Two possible meanings of this question
• How did all thisthe whole cosmosbegin?
• What is everything at bottom?
• The question almost surely had only the first
  meaning to begin with, but later on, the second
  meaning comes almost entirely to replace the
  first in other words, cosmogony gives way to
  physics

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The Milesians

• Thales fl. c. 585 BCE
• The arkhe water or the moist
• Echoes of ancient Mesopotamia?
• Anaximander fl. c. 570 BCE
• The arkhe the indefinite (to apeiron)
• Separation, injustice, and retribution
• Anaximenes fl. c. 555 BCE
• The arkhe boundless (apeiron) air
• The mechanism condensation and rarefaction

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Three Transitional Figures.

• Xenophanes of Kolophon (c. 570-c. 478)
• The arkhai earth and water
• The first real pluralistor the first real
  monist?
• Helped to spread the new form of thought to the
  West
• Puthagoras of Samos (c. 570-c. 500)
• The arkhai the one? Or maybe the one and the
  two?
• Taught philosophy as a way of life (and a way of
  death)
• Also helped spread the new form of inquiry to the
  West
• Herakleitos of Ephesos (c. 540-c. 480)
• The arkhe fire (or the logos, or the divine)

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Eleatic Monism

• Parmenides of Elea (c. 515-c. 450)
• No arhke! And yettwo arkhai fire and night (?!)
• The way of truth and that which is (to eon)
• The way of opinion and what? Error?
• Zenon of Elea (c. 490-c.440)
• The arkhe? None? (No positive doctrine in Zenon)
• The paradoxes as reductio ad absurdum arguments
  designed to defend Parmenides monism
• The lines are now drawn monism vs. pluralism

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Post-Eleatic Pluralism

• Anaxagoras of Klazomenai (c. 500-c. 428)
• The arkhai basic things (seeds)
• Empedokles of Akragas (c. 492-c. 432)
• The arkhai the elements or roots of things
  earth, air, fire, and water
• The Atomists Leukippos (fl. c. 435) and
  Demokritos of Abdera (c. 460-c. 470)
• The arkhai what is and what is not (or being and
  non-being, or atoms and the void)

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Next time.

• More on Parmenides and Zenon an examination of
  their arguments
• The Sophists reflections concerning their
  interest in argument and in rhetoric
• How all this led people to want to learn how to
  argue wellwhich, as well see, may be what
  Sokrates was especially interested in learning
  how to do.

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• Sokrates (469-399 BCE)

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The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece

• The Sophists
• c. 450-350 B.C.E

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Educators of the Democracies

• The Sophistic movement arose in the wake of the
  adoption of democratic constitutions in Athens
  and other Greek city states
• Their claim to be able to make men good, i.e.,
  capable of doing well in these new communities
• Their method instruction in a wide variety of
  arts, but especially in the art of rhetorici.e.,
  effective public speakingall for a fee
• The sophists came from all over, but most wound
  up being drawn to Athens

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The Early Sophists

• Protagoras of Abdera (c. 480-411)
• Claimed to be able to make men just
• Taught that Man is the measure (in his work On
  Truth)
• Was agnostic with respect to the gods and a
  conventionalist in morality
• Gorgias of Leontini (483-378)
• Especially famous for his oratorical ability
• Gave public demonstrations of his speaking skill,
  and indeed, the piece for which he became
  especially known (On Nature, or That Which Is
  Not) may well have been designed, in effect, as a
  piece of shameless self-promotion
• Even served as ambassador for Athens on several
  occasions

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Other Well-Known Sophists

• Hippias of Elis (c. 460?-c.400?)
• Claimed to be able to teach all thingseven how
  to make ones own clothes (so the Sophists
  werent all just teachers of rhetoric)
• Not a conventionalist in morality, Hippias
  nticipated the Stoics conception of
  cosmopolitanism the good and the wise are akin
  and should regard one another as citizens of a
  single state
• Honored today by the only search engine on the
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• Prodikos of Keos (483-378)
• Especially interested in language and in nuances
  of sense. Sokrates liked to claim him as his
  teacher
• A critic of religion who may even have taught
  atheism

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• Sokrates (469-399 BCE)

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The Northeastern MediterraneanThe Cradle of
Greek Philosophy
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