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THE QUEST OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY.

ANCIENTANCIENT-GREEK PHILOSOPHY
(cosmocentric) They were not the first thinkers, they have the records.

ANCIENTANCIENT-GREEK PHILOSOPHY
(cosmocentric) During this time, when gods embodied nature and interfered in human lives, the journey from mythos to logos began.

WHAT DO WE KNOW OF THE PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS? Not much ... not a single original work has survived intact for us to study! The only sources are 1. Fragments --- a few quotations from Presocratic works that have survived in works written later. 2. Testimonia --- comments in the writings of Plato and Aristotle on Presocratic ideas. 3. Doxography --- summaries of Presocratic works.

The Greek World

THALES of Miletus
624 - 546 BCE WATER IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE (urstuff)

1. The first to ask, "What is the basic substance of the universe?" 2. Water is the source or material principle (arche) of everything (arche) 3. Earth is a flat disk floating on water 4. Said to have predicted a solar eclipse of 584 BC (probably myth) 5. No difference between living and nonliving matter: "All things are full of gods." (~ life-germs?) life-

ANAXIMANDER OF MILETUS
610 --- 540 BCE

EARTH IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE (urstuff)

1. The first principle of all other things is the infinite "apeiron" (no single substance, indefinite) 2. From this, the heavens and the worlds in them arise 3.The earth is aloft, not supported by anything, because it is of equal distance from everything 4. Earth is cylindrical in shape

ANAXIMENES OF MILETUS fl. c. 545 BCE

AIR IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE (urstuff)

HERACLITUS fl. c. 500 BC (born in Ephesus)

FIRE/ FLUX IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE (urstuff)

1. All things are an exchange of fire 2. Change is the most important principle of the universe "everything flows" 3. Universe eternal: no beginning, forever changing 4. Heraclitus trusted his senses, observing the world in a state of neverending flux.

PARMENIDES OF ELEA
540 - 480 BCE

NO CHANGE Change is but an illusion!

1. Nothing can come out of nothing 2. Everything in the world is eternal 3. Rejected the possibility of actual change 4. Our senses and observations of change are unreliable 5. We follow the Way of Opinion (illusion), not the Way of Truth

EMPEDOCLES
c. 492 --- 433 BC (born in Acragas)

The urstuff is composed of four elements.

1. Four primary and irreducible elements: earth, air, fire, and water 2. Physical world is made of these unchanging eternal elements in various changing combinations 3. Combinations of the four elements are determined by the interaction of Love (attraction) and Strife (repulsion) >>> chemistry! today we call them positive and negative electric charge (unlike charges attract, like charges repel)

DEMOCRITUS
c. 460 --- 370 BC (born in Abdera)

ATOM IS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE

CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHERS ANTHROPOCENTRIC

Protagoras
480480-410 BCE

MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS

Socrates
469469-399 BCE

The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David (1787)

Socratic Method
 There is only one thing that I know; that is I know nothing!

PLATO
427427-347 BCE

World of Forms and World of Ideas.

Allegory of the Cave

Aristotle
384384- 322 BCE

Aristotle believed that truth is found by observing the universe.

Medieval Philosophy
THEOCENTRIC Fall of the Roman Empire

Medieval Philosophy

Rise of Christianity as a religion

FEUDALISM
Land Textiles Horses

St. Augustine of Hippo

354354-430 CE My Heart is Restless until it rest unto Thee!

St. Thomas Aquinas

12271227-1274 CE

Summa contra Gentiles Summa Theologiae

St. Bonaventure
12211221-1274 CE

Renaissance
The Renaissance, also known as "Il Renaissance, "Il Rinascimento" Rinascimento" (in Italian), was an influential Italian), cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, history. at the dawn of modern European history. It marks the transitional period between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Modern Age. The Age. Renaissance is usually considered to have originated in the 14th century in northern Italy and Europe. begun in the late 15th century in northern Europe.

The Re-Birth Re(Humanism)

CONTEXT
ReRe-birth meant the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek Latin heritage through ancient manuscripts and the humanist method of learning. These new ideas from the past (called the "new learning" at the time) triggered the coming advancements in art, science and other areas.

Another possible starting point is the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. It was 1453. a turning point in warfare as cannon and gunpowder became a central element. In addition, Byzantine-Greek scholars fled Byzantinewest to Rome bringing renewed energy and interest in the Greek and Roman heritage, and it perhaps represented the end of the old religious order in Europe.

Niccol Machiavelli
3, 21, 1527) (May 3, 1469 - June 21, 1527)

Francis Bacon
(1561 - 1626)

Thomas Hobbes
15881588-1679

Thank You