Pre-Socratic Concepts of Reality: The Arche
The Arche in Pre-Socratic Philosophy
The arche represents the basic reality, the fundamental principle or substance from which everything originates and is composed. It is the beginning foundation, the element or substance underlying all things.
Milesian School: Material Monism
- Thales of Miletus: Considered the first philosopher, Thales believed the arche is water, observing its necessity for all living organisms. He also held that everything possesses a soul (hylozoism), implying universal life.
- Anaximander: Proposed the arche is an indefinite, boundless, abstract substance called the Apeiron. He believed elements emerge from it through the separation of opposites (e.g., hot/cold, wet/dry).
- Anaximenes: Argued that air is the primary substance (arche). He theorized that different states of condensation and rarefaction of air give rise to other elements.
Heraclitus: Change as Reality
Heraclitus famously stated, “Everything flows” (panta rhei), meaning reality is in constant flux and change. This is illustrated by his saying, “One cannot step twice into the same river,” as both the person and the river are continuously changing. He identified the arche with fire, likely as a metaphor for this perpetual transformation and energy, rather than a literal substance. Heraclitus believed the true nature of things is hidden and accessible only through reason.
Pythagoras: Number as Arche
Pythagoras and his community were among the first to identify as “philosophers.” They sought the structure or form of the cosmos, rather than its material origin like the Milesians. They believed everything could be related through numerical expressions and that mathematics reveals the universe’s structure. For them, the arche was number. They associated geometric solids with elements (e.g., tetrahedron with fire, octahedron with air, hexahedron with earth, icosahedron with the cosmos). Mathematics was the tool for understanding the world and, according to Pythagorean thought, could help liberate the soul imprisoned in the body.
Parmenides: The Unchanging Being
Parmenides presented views directly contrasting with Heraclitus. He argued that sensory appearances suggesting change are illusory and must be denied by reason. Trusting reason over the senses, he followed the “unquestionable truth” purportedly revealed by a goddess: “Being is, and non-being is not.” From this, he concluded that change is pure illusion, as it would involve transitioning from being to non-being or vice-versa, which is impossible.
Parmenides asserted that Being must be:
- Unique: If there were multiple beings, non-being would have to exist between them to distinguish them, which is impossible.
- Eternal: It cannot come into being (from non-being) or cease to be (become non-being).
- Unlimited/Infinite: It cannot be limited by non-being.
- Unchanging: Change implies a mixture of being and non-being.
Therefore, reality for Parmenides is a single, eternal, unchanging, indivisible whole.
The Pluralists: Reconciling Being and Change
Later philosophers, known as the Pluralists, attempted to reconcile Parmenides’ logic with the observable reality of change. They accepted Parmenides’ premise that true being cannot come from non-being, nor can it perish into non-being. However, they rejected the idea of a single, monolithic reality to explain the world (physis) materially.
Their solution was to postulate that reality emerged not from a single element or principle, but from multiple fundamental, material elements. These base elements are eternal and unchanging, conforming to Parmenides’ “rules.” Change, variety, and diversity in the world arise not from the creation or destruction of substance, but from the mixing and separation of these fundamental, eternally existing elements. The total amount of Being remains constant, neither growing nor declining.
Key Pluralists include:
- Empedocles: Proposed four eternal roots (earth, air, fire, water) combined and separated by the forces of Love and Strife.
- Anaxagoras: Suggested an infinite number of qualitatively different “seeds” (spermata) present in everything, organized by an external force called Mind (Nous).
- Democritus (and Leucippus): Developed atomism, positing that reality consists of infinite, indivisible, eternal particles (atoms) moving in an empty void. Atoms themselves are unchanging (like Parmenidean Being), but their combinations and rearrangements create the changing world we perceive.