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A number of important theorists in ancient Greek natural philosophy held that the
universe is composed of physical ‘atoms’, literally ‘uncuttables’.

Leucippus, Democritus, developed a systematic and comprehensive natural

philosophy accounting for the origins of everything from the interaction of
indivisible bodies, as these atoms strike against one another, rebound and interlock
in an infinite void.

As a philosophical concept, gnosiology broadly means the theory of knowledge,

which in ancient Greek philosophy was perceived as a combination of sensory
perception and intellect and then made into memory. When considered in the
context of science, gnosiology takes on a different meaning: the study of
knowledge, its origin, processes, and validity.

Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies concepts such as existence, being,
becoming, and reality. It includes the questions of how entities are grouped into
basic categories and which of these entities exist on the most fundamental level.

The Greek word has the general sense ‘one who exercises wisdom or learning’.
As Sophia could designate specific types of expertise as well as general sagacity in
the conduct of life and the higher kinds of insight associated with seers and poets,
the word originally meant ‘sage’ or ‘expert’.

A key figure in the emergence of this new type of sophist was Protagoras of
Abdera, a subject city of the Athenian empire on the north coast of the Aegean.
Abdera was also the birthplace of Democritus, whom some later sources
represented as the teacher of Protagoras.
Protagoras’ account of social morality in the Great Speech, according to which the
universal acceptance of justice and self-restraint is necessary for the perpetuation
of society, and thereby for the preservation of the human species, places
Protagoras firmly on one side (the conservative side, we should note) of the debate
about the relation between law and convention (nomos) on the one hand and
nature or reality (phusis) on the other, which was central to moral and social
thought in the fifth and fourth centuries.
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Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as one of the
founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the
Western ethical tradition of thought.
The beliefs of Socrates, as distinct from those of Plato, are difficult to discern.
Little in the way of concrete evidence exists to demarcate the two. The lengthy
presentation of ideas given in most of the dialogues may be the ideas of Socrates
himself, but which have been subsequently deformed or changed by Plato, and
some scholars think Plato so adapted the Socratic style as to make the literary
character and the philosopher himself impossible to distinguish. Others argue that
Socrates did have his own theories and beliefs distinct from Plato.