Greek philosophers were "seekers and lovers of wisdom".

They studied and analyzed the world around them using

logic and reason. One of the key points of Ancient Greek philosophy was the role of reason and inquiry. It
emphasized logic and championed the idea of impartial, rational observation of the natural world. This pondering on
impartial, rational observation of the natural world will, eventually, realize science and scientific method. Although
we often think of philosophy as religion or "the meaning of life", the Greek philosophers were also scientists. Many
studied mathematics and physics as well.
Pre-Socratic philosophers mostly investigated natural phenomena. They believed that humans originated from a
single substance, which could be water, air, or an unlimited substance called “apeiron.”
1. Thales of Miletus, (born c. 624–620 bce—died c. 548–545 bce), philosopher renowned as one of the
legendary Seven Wise Men, or Sophoi, of antiquity. He is remembered primarily for his cosmology based on
water as the essence of all matter, with Earth a flat disk floating on a vast sea.
Thales was the founder of the philosophy that all of Nature had developed from one source. According to
Heraclitus Homericus (540–480 BCE), Thales drew this conclusion from the observation that most things turn
into air, slime, and earth. Thales thus proposed that things change from one form to another.
2. Socrates (c. 470–399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western
philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought.
Socrates was the big-city philosopher in ancient Athens. Accused and convicted of corrupting the youth, his
only real crime was embarrassing and irritating a number of important people. His punishment was death.
Famous quote: "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Socrates didn't write books; he just liked to ask probing and sometimes humiliating questions, which gave rise
to the famous Socratic Method of Teaching. This street-corner philosopher made a career of deflating pompous
windbags.
Socrates demonstrated that people can't explain their own beliefs. We fall - quickly - into confusion,
incoherence, and then silence, and thereby betray little or no understanding of our own basic conceptions and
principles for judgment and decision making. Calling Socratic scepticism “semantic” may mislead.
3. Empedocles (c.493–c.433 BC), Greek philosopher, born in Sicily. He taught that the universe is composed of
fire, air, water, and earth, which mingle and separate under the influence of the opposing principles of Love and
Strife. So Empedocles argued that the world is underpinned by love and strife. Love is the force that unites
things, that brings them together. Love mixes and blends and combines. Strife is the counter-force that
separates things out.
4. Hippocrates is considered to be the father of modern medicine because in his books, which are more than 70.
He described in a scientific manner, many diseases and their treatment after detailed observation. Hippocratic
Oath: to treat the ill to the best of one's ability, to preserve a patient's privacy, to teach the secrets of
medicine to the next generation, and so on.
5. Aristotle (382-322 B.C.) invented the field of formal logic, and he identified the various scientific disciplines
and explored their relationships to each other. Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where
he spent most of the rest of his life studying, teaching and writing. Some of his most notable works include
Nichomachean Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics, Poetics and Prior Analytics.
6. Archimedes (212 -287 B.C.) Archimedes was also a talented inventor, having created such devices as the
catapult, the compound pulley, and a system of burning mirrors that was used in battle to focus the sun’s rays on
enemies’ ships. In fact, many of Archimedes’ inventions came about as solutions to problems related to the
defense of Syracuse in battle.
7. Ptolemy, about 100 A.D. The main idea of the Ptolemaic System was that the planet Earth was the center of
the universe and all of the other planets, stars, and the Sun revolved, or circled, around it. Theories about
the universe, like Ptolemy's, that view the earth as the center are called geocentric.
8. Democritus, known in antiquity as the ‘laughing philosopher’ because of his emphasis on the value of
‘cheerfulness,’ was one of the two founders of ancient atomist theory. He elaborated a system originated by his
teacher Leucippus into a materialist account of the natural world. The atomists held that there are smallest
indivisible bodies from which everything else is composed, and that these move about in an infinite void. Of the
ancient materialist accounts of the natural world which did not rely on some kind of teleology or purpose to
account for the apparent order and regularity found in the world, atomism was the most influential. Even its
chief critic, Aristotle, praised Democritus for arguing from sound considerations appropriate to natural
philosophy.
9. Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher who made important developments in mathematics, astronomy, and
the theory of music. The theorem now known as Pythagoras's theorem was known to the Babylonians 1000
years earlier but he may have been the first to prove it. Historians generally agree that Pythagoras of Samos
(born circa 569 BC in Samos, Ionia and died circa 475 BC) was the first mathematician. He is an
extremely important figure in the development of mathematics, yet relatively little is known about his
mathematical achievements.
10. Plato was a philosopher during the 5th century BCE. He was a student of Socrates and later taught Aristotle. He
founded the Academy, an academic program which many consider to be the first Western university. Plato
wrote many philosophical texts—at least 25. He dedicated his life to learning and teaching and is hailed as one
of the founders of Western philosophy. In metaphysics Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of
the forms and their interrelations, starting with the most fundamental among them (the Good, or the One); in
ethics and moral psychology he developed the view that the good life requires not just a certain kind of
knowledge (as Socrates had suggested). His most famous contribution is the theory of Forms known by pure
reason, in which Plato presents a solution to the problem of universals known as Platonism (also ambiguously
called either Platonic realism or Platonic idealism).
11. Aristarchus (310-230 BCE) was certainly both a mathematician and astronomer and he is most celebrated as
the first to propose a sun-centred universe. He is also famed for his pioneering attempt to determine the sizes
and distances of the sun and moon. He did this by observing the Moon during a lunar eclipse and by
estimating the angle and the size of the Earth. Aristarchus was certainly both a mathematician and astronomer
and he is most celebrated as the first to propose a sun-centered universe. He is also famed for his pioneering
attempt to determine the sizes and distances of the sun and moon.
12. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, (born c. 276 BCE, Cyrene, Libya—died c. 194 BCE, Alexandria, Egypt), Greek
scientific writer, astronomer, and poet, who made the first measurement of the size of Earth for which any
details are known. He cited countries and used parallel lines to divide the map into sections, to give
accurate descriptions of the realms. This was a breakthrough and can be considered the beginning of
geography. For this, Eratosthenes was named the "Father of Modern Geography."
13. Theophrastus (371-287 BCE) was a scholar, botanist, biologist, and physicist. The most important of his
books are two large botanical treatises, Enquiry into Plants, and On the Causes of Plants, which constitute the
first systemization of the botanical world and were major sources for botanical knowledge during antiquity and
the Middle Ages.

Morris M. Centeno
STS Teacher