Pre-Socratic Philosophers: From Myth to Reason

Posted on Jan 24, 2025 in Geology

Replacing Myth with Reason: Pre-Socratic philosophers replaced mythical narratives with rational explanations.
Order in the World: They sought to give the world a necessary order, moving away from the idea that tragic things occur arbitrarily.
Focus on *Physis* and *Arche*: They focused on *physis* (nature) and the *arche* (the fundamental principle or origin of everything).
Discovering Truth: The scientist discovers what is behind phenomena, and the principle that constitutes the truth, or *aletheia* (unveiling).

Thales of Miletus: Believed that everything comes from and returns to water. Water is the *arche*. Everything is full of gods, and everything that is animated is alive (*hylozoism*).
Anaximander: Argued that *physis* is determined, and the *arche* is something indeterminate (*apeiron*). Everything arises from the dislocation of contraries and should be in equilibrium (justice).
Anaximenes: Proposed that the *arche* is air. Things come from air through condensation (clouds) and rarefaction (fire). Air is the soul.

Dualism: The soul is immortal and belongs to the world of the gods, while the body is mortal and belongs to the terrestrial world. The soul transmigrates to another body.
Numbers as *Arche*: Numbers are the *arche*. They are defined by their opposition to each other, giving rise to duality.

Becoming as Change: Change occurs through the dislocation of contraries.
Fire and *Logos*: Growth and decline are explained using a two-way process:
- Ascending: The sun, pure fire, turns into clouds and rain, which go to the sea and land.
- Descending: Earth and water turn into evaporations, which warm up over time to become fire that goes to the sun.
Logos is the law governing it all.

Two Ways: The way of truth (sages) and the way of opinion (*doxa*, mortals).
Truth (*Aletheia*): Being is, and non-being is not. Being is:
- Eternal: It is not generated, as it would have to proceed from non-being (from nothing, nothing comes).
- One: It cannot be two, as they would differ in something, and that something would be non-being. It is continuous and solid.
- Indivisible: It cannot have parts.
- Immutable: It does not change.
- Limited.
Opinion (*Doxa*): Opinion is not invalid, as without being, it could not remain veiled.
Zeno: Argued that multiplicity and change are not rationalizable. He employed the dialectic method.

Concept of *Arche*: Things are composed of elements, which are combinations of simpler parts.
Empedocles: The world is constituted by four roots (earth, air, fire, water). Movement is caused by Love (uniting) and Hate (separating).
Anaxagoras: Proposed *homeomerias*, infinitely divisible elements that join and separate to form things (*Nous*).
Atomists (Democritus and Leucippus): The world is composed of atoms and the void, allowing for movement. This movement is governed by chance (mechanistic and anti-finalist).

Professional Teachers: They charged for their lessons.
Practical Focus: Lessons were oriented toward practical, political purposes (speech and dialectic).
Methods: They used rhetoric (the art of good speech) and eristic (the art of dispute).
Content of Teaching:
- Distinction between *physis*, *nomos*, and *ethos*.
- Focus on *ethos* and *nomos*.
- Abandonment of the notion of truth, focusing on *doxa* (there is nothing behind phenomena).
- They questioned the being of things, not the being of everything.
- This led to skepticism regarding knowledge and moral relativism regarding laws.
New Understanding of Culture: Cultural training is not mythical.