The

PHILOSOPHY AND
BIOGRAPHY
EDWIN M. CABUNGCAL
11-HUMSS APHRODITE

PLATOS
DEMOCRITUS
Plato is considered by many to be the

most important philosopher who ever

Democritus, (born c. 460

lived. He is known as the father of

bce—died c. 370), ancient

idealism in philosophy. His ideas were

Greek philosopher, a central

elitist, with the philosopher king the

figure in the development

ideal ruler. Plato is perhaps best known

of philosophical atomism

to college students for his parable of a

and of the atomic theory of

cave, which appears in Plato's Republic.

the universe. Knowledge of

Plato was a philosopher during the 5th

Democritus's life is largely

century BCE. He was a student of

limited to untrustworthy

Socrates and later taught Aristotle. He

founded the Academy, an academic

tradition.
program which many consider to be

the first Western university. Plato

Thales of Miletus,
wrote many philosophical texts—at
Thales of Miletus, (born c.

least 25 624–620 BCE—died c. 548–

545 BCE), a philosopher

Socrates renowned as one of the

Viewed by many as the founding figure

legendary Seven Wise Men, or

of Western philosophy, Socrates (469- Sophoi, of antiquity. He is

399 B.C.) is at once the most exemplary

remembered primarily for his

and the strangest of the Greek

cosmology based on water as

philosophers. He grew up during the

the essence of all matter, with

golden age of Pericles' Athens, served

Earth a flat disk floating on a
with distinction as a soldier, but became

best known as a questioner of

vast sea.
everything and everyone.

ARCHIMEDES
ARISTOTLES
Archimedes was born about

Aristotle was one of the greatest

287 BCE in Syracuse on the

philosophers who ever lived and the first

island of Sicily. He died in that

genuine scientist in history. He made

same city when the Romans

pioneering contributions to all fields of

captured it following a siege

philosophy and science, he invented the

that ended in either 212 or 211

field of formal logic, and he identified the

BCE. One story told about

various scientific disciplines and explored

Archimedes' death is that he

their relationships to each other. was killed by a Roman soldier

after he refused to leave his

mathematical work.

RENÉ DESCARTES
PROTAGORAS
René Descartes (1596–1650) was

Protagoras (490–420 BCE ca)

a creative mathematician of the

was one of the most

first order, an important

important sophists and

scientific thinker, and an

exerted considerable

original metaphysician. During

influence in fifth-century

the course of his life, he was a

intellectual debates. His

mathematician first, a natural

teaching had a practical and

concrete goal, and many of

scientist or “natural philosopher”

the surviving testimonies and

second, and a metaphysician

fragments suggest that it was

third. René Descartes is most

mainly devoted to the

commonly known for his

development of

philosophical statement, “I
argumentative techniques.

think, therefore I am” (originally

Protagoras is known primarily

for three claims (1) that man

in French, but best known by its

is the measure of all things

Latin translation: "Cogito, ergo

(which is often interpreted as

sum”). a sort of radical relativism) (2)

that he could make the “worse

(or weaker) argument appear

the better (or stronger)” and

HIPPOCRATES, (3) that one could not tell if

the gods existed or not.

Hippocrates, (born c. 460 bce,

island of Cos, Greece—died c. 375

PYTHAGORAS
bce, Larissa, Thessaly), ancient
Pythagoras was born in

Greek physician who lived during

Samos and likely went to

Greece's Classical period and is

Egypt and Babylon as a young

traditionally regarded as the

man. He emigrated to

southern Italy about 532 bce,

father of medicine. The central

apparently to escape Samos's

idea of Hippocratic philosophy is

tyrannical rule, and

the principle of wholeness,

established his ethico-

summarized by Plato in the

political academy at Croton

sentence "The certain knowledge

(now Crotone, Italy). (1)

of nature is solely possible from

Pythagoreanism is the

philosophy of the ancient

medicine and only when it is

Greek philosopher Pythagoras

correctly approached as a whole". (ca. 570 – ca. 490 BCE), which

prescribed a highly structured

way of life and espoused the

doctrine of metempsychosis

(transmigration of the soul

after death into a new body,

human or animal).