ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN

PHILOSOPHY
Part 1.
Ancient Greece civilization 
 Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek
history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to
the end of antiquity. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy,
had a powerful influence on ancient Rome, which carried a version
of it to many parts of the Mediterranean Basin and Europe. For this
reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal
culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture
 and is considered the cradle of Western civilization.
 In many ways, it had an important influence on modern philosophy,
as well as modern science. Clear unbroken lines of influence lead
from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers to medieval Muslim
philosophers and Islamic scientists, to the European Renaissance
 and Enlightenment, to the secular sciences of the modern day.
 Athena Pallada, the goddess of wisdom of the ancient Greeks
The philosophy of nature in Ancient Greece and the Milesian school as its
original center.

 Miletus was a city-state on the coast of

the Aegean sea in Ionia (modern day
Turkey).
  The first ancient Greek philosophers,
Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes,
were all from Miletus, and so they are
known as the Milesian School.  They
primarily researched cosmology, the order
and interaction of the elements, and
nature.  
 Thales
 Thales was the first member of the Milesian
School.
 Не believed that the elements are alive, that “all
things are full of gods” or spirits, including dead
things. Thales argued there was “no difference”
between being alive and being dead. When asked
by a skeptical critic why then Thales should not
just die, Thales replied, “because there is no
difference”.
 Thales had a teleological view of the cosmos. The
cosmos is alive and sentient, and movements have
purposes. Thales believed that God was the
intelligence that gives form to everything out of
water.
Water
 For Thales, water is the primary element, the principle
of all things. Things are born out of chaos, stabilizing
to become what they are, then destabilizing and falling
back into the general flow.
 Thales saw that water breaks things into their
components, which he saw as evidence that water was
the primordial element. Water’s ability to clean and
separate gives water a dual role as destroyer yet
purifier. When Thales claims that water is the basic
element, this puts him in line with cosmology
scientists, who claimed that out of chaos comes order
and distinction of elements. Modern post-chaos theory
calls order out of chaos ‘emergence’.
Anaximander

 As we have no writings from Thales,

Anaximander gives us the first preserved
written lines (a single fragment) of Greek
philosophy. His ‘On Nature’ is lost, but one
fragment of it comes to us:
 “The things that are perish into the things out of
which they come to be, according to necessity,
for they pay penalty and retribution to each other
for their injustice in accordance with the
ordering of time”.
Dike
 So, here is a balance such that for every
motion there is an equal and opposite motion,
a balance or ‘justice’ that works throughout
the cosmos. For Anaximander, justice was
the goddess Dike, keeper of the order,
balance, and justice of the cosmos presided
over by Zeus, her father. Zeus is order, and
Dike settles disorders.
 Dike is sometimes pictured with scales to
weigh things, just like Anubis from Egypt.
Apeiron

 For Anaximander, the basic element is the

limitless, the infinite, Apeiron, unlimited by
time or space (temporally and spatially
infinite), unlimited in potency and power,
unlimited by quality or quantity.
 Anaximander argued it was unborn, and will
not die. Things begin and end, and this itself
does not begin or end. The infinite is also that
is not bounded by human reason or concepts,
that remains beyond understanding.
Universe
 Whether we live in an open infinite universe or a
closed finite universe is still debated by
astrophysicists today.
 There are three theories or possibilities:
 1) the universe is closed with an edge, so a rocket
could hit the edge,
 2) the universe is closed but loops back on itself, so
a rocket would eventually wind up back where it
started if it kept flying in a single direction,
 3) the universe is open and infinite, so a rocket
would never hit an edge or return if it kept flying.
 Anaximander argues the third and last of these.
Against each other
 Out of Apeiron come the elements fire, air, earth,
and water, and these are the components of all
particular things.
 This works according to the four qualities of hot,
cold, wet, dry. Specifically, fire is hot, water is
wet, air is cold, and earth is dry.
 When things are in balance everything flows
smoothly, and when they are out of balance, they
must “pay for their injustice”, getting rebalanced
by counter-reaction.
 The elements encroach on each other and commit
injustice against each other like nations fighting
for disputed territory.
Cosmology.
 According to Anaximander’s own cosmology, the
world grew out of a seed encased in fire and air, which
then fall apart into rings, which then compose the sun,
moon, planets and stars. Anaximander said that the sun
and moon make full circles, passing beneath the earth,
and earth floats unsupported in space.
 Anaximander put the stars nearest to earth, then the
planets, then the moon, and farthest away the Sun. This
means he thought stars disappeared because they pass
in front of the moon, not behind it, and the moon
outshines them at night the way the sun does during the
day.
 The cosmos is shaped like a drum, with the planets on
wheels circling around the sides and the disc of the
earth in the center, rising and falling with the seasons.
Мap of the world.
 Anaximander made a map of the world,
supposedly the first in ancient Greece, with the
circle of the earth surrounded by the ocean,
which presumably also floats in place.
 The Mediterranean Sea is in the center of the
earth, the northern part of the world is
“Europe”, the eastern part of the world is
“Asia”, and the southern half “Libya”
(Africa), divided into thirds.
 It is not known whether Anaximander was the
first to use these names. Only the coasts were
habitable, the north coast including Greece, the
south coast including Egypt, and the east coast
including Babylon, Assyria and Persia. In the
far north, lived mythical snow people (Western
Europeans), and in the far south mythical fire
people (Africans).
 Herodotus follows Anaximander and divides
the world into the same three continents.
“Europe” would not be the culturally accepted
name of the continent in Europe until the late
middle ages, just before the Renaissance. 
Snowman
Anaximenes

 Anaximenes (585 – 528 BCE) follow Anaximander.

 Anaximenes’ arche, his primary essence or principle element, was
infinite like Anaximander. It was the element air.
 Air is the element in ancient cosmology associated with breath and
along with fire, life. When an animal or human dies, the heat and
breath leaves the earthly and watery behind, which then sinks
downward while the fire and air presumably rise.
 Anaximenes argued that through that all substances are produced
from air. Air condenses into visual vapor, fog and rain, and from
water, as Thales supposed, is condensed earth and even stone.
Water is itself not the primary element, the most elemental element,
but condensed air. Air, when dissipated, ignites and becomes fire.
 The earth as a leaf on air
 To prove this, Anaximenes explained that when we blow on a hand
with an open mouth, it is hot, but with tightened lips, it is cold. This
shows that condensed air is cold and dispersed air is hot.
Unfortunately, we now know that when you condense a gas it often
heats up as the molecules move more rapidly, the opposite of what
he proposed.
 The earth was formed through a felting process, condensed from air
and shooting out the stars in the process, like sparks kicked out of a
campfire. The earth does not float simply on the center, but as a leaf
on air. So are the sun and moon, which are themselves floating discs
on air, on fire due to their speed.
 For Anaximenes, earthquakes are not due to the earth floating on
water, but due to air drying out the earth, which then cracks and in
places collapses. Lightning is caused by winds cutting into clouds at
great speeds. Hippocrates, the famed Greek doctor, seems to have
followed Anaximenes and saw air as central to understanding
disease, disorders of the body.
The flux and fire philosophy of Heraclitus.
 Heraclitus
Heraclitus was born in Ephesus, an important ancient city located on the
Ionian Coast, in about 535 BCE. Living relatively close to Miletus, he
undoubtedly would have been familiar with Thales and the rest of the Milesian
school. It is likely that Heraclitus would have been born to aristocracy. His
casual disregard for the masses would seem to suggest he favored a political
system that entrusted power to a handful of wise leaders rather than a free for
all democracy like the one born to Classical Athens.
Heraclitus was rather critical of his predecessors as well as much of
humanity in general. He tells us that we are like children, fumbling around in
the dark, clueless to the true nature of reality. We remain pathetically oblivious
to truth, even when we experience it every day. Heraclitus compares our
inability to realize the true nature of the universe to a man waking from sleep,
unable to recall his dreams.
 Logos
 What is this truth that remains just out of our grasp? For
Heraclitus, it was a divine Logos. Normally referring to an
account of reason or a logical argument, Heraclitus’ Logos takes
on a rather different meaning. It represents a unifying principle,
an underlying constitution for all things in all places.
 This divine Logos, or law of the universe, centers around the idea
of eternal flux, that things within the universe are constantly
changing. Heraclitus explains this flux by examining the unity of
opposites. It can be found that all things undergo transformations so
that they may become their opposites. That which is hot will
inevitably become cold. Every life is guaranteed death and with
each death, there can be found new life.
 All things are caught up in an endless cycle of change,
transformation, and rebirth. It is this notion that is at
the heart of Heraclitus’ doctrine of flux and his
divine Logos.
 Heraclitus tells us that there is a world order that
exists like…“…an everlasting fire.”
 Heraclitus does not mean to say that all things literally
come from fire. Instead, this world order, much like
fire, is constantly changing, transforming eternally.
This leads us back to the doctrine of flux. It is not
unreasonable to say that fire is the physical
incarnation of the abstract notion of a universe with
constantly shifting elements.
 The river paradox
Basically, the paradox tells us that it is impossible to step into the
same river twice. This is because as soon as you step in a river, the
water moves downstream and the composition of the river has changed
slightly.
This is not to say that the river completely has changed. It is the
elements that make up the river that have shifted. In fact, it is only due
to having constantly shifting water that the river exists as a river rather
than a pond or a lake. Similarly, the universe remains harmoniously
stable even as the elements within undergo constant transformation, and
it is only due to these constant changes that our universe exists in the
way that it does.
This fiery world order, despite how it may sound, is not chaotic.
This constant flux, this transformation of opposites, is not in conflict.
Heraclitus tells us that these opposites exist in harmony with one
another. Without night, there could be no day. It is only with
experiencing some sicknesses that we fully appreciate health. And it is
the prospect of death that compliments life, giving it a measured
potential within the world.
Pythagoras’s teaching about mystery of numbers.
Pythagoras was the first of the great teachers of ancient Greece. Born
in 580 B.C., Pythagoras became one of the most well-known philosopher
and mathematician in history. Creating the Pythagorean Brotherhood, his
teachings greatly influenced Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Pythagoras is
considered as the first pure mathematician; he also founded a
community/society based on religion and science. He is most widely known
as the author of the Pythagorean Theorem. Some even believe that the
word “philosophy” was invented by Pythagoras.
The Teachings of Pythagoras revolved around the idea that when
considering the deepest level, reality is essentially mathematical in nature.
Pytahgoreans believed there was a system of principles existed behind
numbers. The principles form a foundation for many concepts of traditional
Western thought. One of his most basic notions revolves around the
symbolism and beauty associated with the Divine Proportion.
 The Mystery of Numbers

 Of all shapes, the circle is the parent of

all following shapes.
 When a circle is mirrored, two mirrors are
created. These two circles side by side build a
foundation for all numbers. The overlap of the
circles allows each one to share the center of
the other. This shaped created is called the
vesica piscis (Latin for “fish’s bladder”).
 From this shape, a triangle, square, and
pentagon can be produced. And the
relationship between these figures justifies the
existences of further number principles.
“fish’s bladder”
 Monada
 Believing that nothing exists without a center,
mathematical philosophers started with a point and drew a
circle around it. This symbol is called the monad and
represents the number one. This figure is the most stable,
and the mathematical philosophers also called it The
First, The Essence, The Foundation, and Unity.
Pythagoras believed the monad to be god and the good.
The monad is origin of the One. The monad in relation
to other numbers preserves the identity of every other
number or anything it encounters. Any number multiplied
by one is itself, and any number divided by one is itself.
 “The Pythagoreans believed that nothing exists
without a сenter around which it revolves. The center is
the source and it is beyond understanding, it is
unknowable, but like a seed, the center will expand and
will fulfill itself as a circle”.
The teachings of the Eleatic school
  The members of this school were Being and
concerned not so much with the origin of things
as with the principles of the world of things.
Becoming
Their inquiries centered round the problem of
change, and in their solution of this problem
they introduced the notions of Being and
Becoming.
The chief representatives of the school are
Xenophanes the theologian, Parmenides the
metaphysician, Zeno the dialectician, and
Melissus, who shows a tendency to return to
the views of the Earlier studies of nature.
 Xenophanes was born at Colophon, in Asia Minor,
about the year 570 B.C. He was a disciple of XENOPHANES
Anaximander. After wandering through Greece as a
rhapsodist, he settled at Elea in southern Italy; from
this city is derived the name of the school which he
founded. The date of his death is unknown.
In his Didactic Poem Xenophanes opposes to the
polytheistic belief of the time. "Each man," he says,
"represents the gods as he himself is: the negro as
black and flat-nosed, the Thracian as red-haired and
blue-eyed; and if horses and oxen could paint, they, no
doubt, would depict the gods as horses and oxen". So,
also, he continues, men ascribe to the gods mental
characteristics which are human; they do not
understand that God is "all eye, all ear, all intellect."
 Unity of all things
 Аll that is said in the sacred poem of
Xenophanes is to be referred to the
unity and eternity of the totality of being.
Everything is limited and infinite.
Everything is single and plural. All is
divine and material. Everything is a
consciousness, a feeling, a thinking, and
everything is material.
Xenophanes holds the idea of
continuity, unity, eternity things, which
undoubtedly influenced the whole Elea
school.
PARMENIDES
Parmenides, who was,
perhaps, the greatest of all the
pre-Socratic philosophers, was
born at Elea about 540 B.C.
According to Aristotle, he
was a disciple of Xenophanes,
whose doctrines he took up and
developed.
 Parmenides is the creator of the
philosophical ontology. For the first time in Being and mind
history, he splits up the true truth and
human thoughts about it.
For Parmenides, the most important
definition of life - the comprehension of his
mind: something that can only be understood
by reason, and there is being.
Thinking is the ability to comprehend
unity in non-contradictory forms, the result of
thinking - knowledge (episteme).
All things in what mortals see the truth, is just the
name of the emptiness
Sensitive perception deals with a multitude of
different things and individual objects that surround
a person. A person may have a view, an ordinary,
everyday representation that opposes knowledge.

He is interested in what remains inevitable in

the eternal flow of general change. From the direct
gift of being as a plural Parmenides goes to the
recognition of existence. He believed that without
the existence of the world as a single would not be
his sensual plurality.
ZENO OF ELEA

Zeno is known for his aphorisms (paradoxes, so

called “aporias” ), which tried to prove the falsity of the
visible, sensuously given plurality of things and their
movement. He believed that the true picture of the world
is comprehended by thinking.
Objectively, Zenon Eleussky's philosophy played a
progressive role in the development of ancient dialectics,
since he spontaneously approached the question of the
contradictory nature and the expression of this
contradiction in the concepts.
Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic.
 The Arguments against Motion are as follows.
First argument : A body, in order to move from one point to another, must move through an infinite
number of spaces; for magnitude is divisible ad infinitum. But the infinite cannot be traversed;
therefore motion is impossible.
Second argument: The problem of Achilles and the tortoise.
Third argument: A body which is in one place is certainly at rest. Now, the arrow in its flight is at each
successive moment in one place; therefore it is at rest.
Fourth argument: This is based on the fact that two bodies of equal size move past each other twice as
fast (if they move with equal velocities in opposite directions) as one would move past the other if this
latter were stationary. Motion, therefore, is an illusion, because one of its fundamental laws - that
bodies with equal velocities traverse a certain space in equal times - is not true.
MELISSUS
Melissus was a native of Samos. We have no
reason for doubting that he was, as Plutarch says,
the commander of the Samian fleet which defeated
the Athenians off the coast of Samos in the year 442
B.C. He was, therefore, a younger contemporary of
Zeno, and it is possible that, like Zeno, he was a
disciple of Parmenides.
All that we know of Melissus' doctrine
concerning Being may be summed up in the four
propositions:
(1) Being is eternal;
(2) Being is infinite;
(3) Being is one;
(4) Being is unchangeable.
The primordial principles of mechanistic explanation of
nature: Anaxagoras' and Empedocles' doctrines.