THE BEGINNINGS

OF DOING
PHILOSOPHY
 What do you think might have
happened if Thales failed to go
against mythological tradition of
ancient Greece?
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Philosophy in Ancient Greece:
The Pre-Socratics
 Miletus– melting pot of
ideas from other cultures in
other parts of the globe
 Thales was known to have
brought back geometry
from Egypt, where he
would travel for his olive
oil trade.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/144467100524093405/
The Milesians: Thales, Anaximander and
Anaximenes
 Considered as triumvirate of the Milesians
 Thisfirst group of philosophers were the first thinkers who gave
us a non-mythological account of the nature of reality and the
universe without the aid of instruments, by merely using their
RATIONAL faculty together with their ability to observe and
speculate.
 They were considered as HYLOZOISTS – belief in the concept
that the universe is a live or animate and material.
Thales
 one of the seven sages
 Philosopher,
mathematician,
astronomer
 According to him, the
underlying substance
that reality is made of
is water.

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Anaximander
Prose writer
Claimed that the
fundamental
substance of reality is
infinite or apeiron

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Anaximenes
Fundamental
substance of reality
is air

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Pythagoras
 He treated philosophy as a way of life.
 Philosophy and religion are connected and
merged into one.
 Considered philosophy and mathematics as
good for the purification of the soul
 Gave importance to the contemplative life
for this cathartic process of purification
 The primary constituent of reality would be
numbers

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Heraclitus
 Known for his mystical nature
of philosophy, especially his
idea about change
 He believes that the only thing
that is permanent in this world is
change.
 Used flames of fire to emphasize
the idea of change.

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 “You cannot step twice into
the same rivers, for fresh
waters are ever flowing in
upon you. We step and do
not step into the same
rivers, we are and are not.”
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Parmenides
The only thing that is permanent in this world is
being, change is merely an illusion. There is
something indestructible, immovable, complete
without beginning or end, which is called
“being”.
Empedocles
Proponent of the
notion that reality is
made up of the four
elements, namely,
earth, air, fire and
water.
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Anaxagoras
Believed that there is not
just one element that reality
is made of. Matter is
infinitely divisible,
whenever you divide
matter, each separated part
will contain elements of
everything else.
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According to him, the
nous or the mind, which
was conceived of as
external but is infinite and
is self-ruled and according
to him, “has the greatest
strength and power over all
things”

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Zeno of Elea
He believed that
there is no motion.

http://www.massline.org/PhilosDog/Z/Zeno.htm