The Presocratics flourished from 600 B.C. to 500 B.C.E. in two regions.
In south
of present Italy
Along coast of present Turkey
GREATER GREECE
ASIA MINOR
c. 600 B.C. PYTHAGORAS c. 600 B.C. THALES
* *
* *
c. 500 B.C. PERMANENT
<---- IMPASSE ----->
HURRY-UP
PARMENIDES
HERACLEITUS
___________________________________________________________________________________________
In the Golden Age of Greece (500 B.C.E.-400 B.C.E.), emphasis shifted from cosmological concerns to human (ethical, political) concerns.
SOCRATES THE SOPHISTS
1. There are universal, objective
No universal, objective standards
standards
(like NAGDEO?).
There is a higher way. No higher way, except perhaps "winning."
Socrates: "THAT there are
universal
standards I know; WHAT they are
in detail, I don't know; I seek."
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2. Key Question: a WHAT
Key question: a WHO (authority)
question
question:
WHAT CAN BE SAID FOR &
WHO IS TO SAY?
WHAT CAN BE SAID AGAINST
such and such a line of
conduct
ON THE MERITS OF THE CASE?
*********************************************************************************************************************************
3. It is never right (= nagdeo?)
There is no objective right and
to do wrong (= donagdeo?),
wrong. Right and wrong are
yet it is always an open
merely matters of convention.
question whether X is in
What people SAY is right/wrong
fact shown to be wrong.
is right/wrong; their SAYING
(in a sense rooted in the
OR BELIEVING it is right/wrong
nature of things)
MAKES IT SO.
If X turns out to be wrong
(presumably for everyone or
Because of this radical
anyone in one's situation),
ethical relativism,
then it is never right to do it
the radical sophists
not because
others do it;
adopted a MIGHT MAKES RIGHT
not because the
culture allows
philosophy and taught:
or even commands
it;
do whatever is
not because of
reward promised
necessary to gain your
or punishment
threatened,
objectives.
Because nothing compensates for
Help your friends;
losing the way, losing your soul.
Harm your enemies.
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4. Knowledge as serving virtue.
Knowledge for political use.
It is essential to seek the
It is essential to succeed.
higher way.
*********************************************************************
The Dawning of the Greek Experience: 600 to 500 B.C.E.
The Time of the Presocratics
Southern
Italy/Sicily --
The coast of modern Turkey --
then called Greater
Greece
then called Asia Minor
Mathematical Thinkers The Early Physicists
Explanation in terms of Pattern Explanation in terms of Material "Stuff"
PYTHAGORAS -- ratio is all.
THALES -- picks water / the moist
mathematical/ geometrical mysticism
as that of which all is made
* *
*
ANAXAMANDER (Think of word
*
"commander") -- 4 elements +
*
the Boundless or Love and Strife
* *
*
ANAXEMENES -- picks air -- the cold
*
process of condensation & rarefaction
* *
* *
"Permanent" PARMENIDES
"Hurry Up" HERACLEITUS -- all is "fire"
Only
the ONE is real;
Only change is real;
change is an illusion. <---- IMPASSE
----->
permanence is an illusion.
********************************************************************************************
Time of Socrates and the Sophists
As a result of the IMPASSE above, emphasis
shifted
from cosmological concerns to human (ethical, political) concerns.
SOCRATES
vs.
THE SOPHISTS
[ For this debate in detail, see above ]
In the Apology, Socrates
denies that he is a cosmologist (he says he is NOT one of those
"who inquire into the things in the
heavens and beneath the earth.") and he also denies that he is a Sophist
(he says he is NOT one of those who "make the weaker argument defeat
the stronger and teach others to do likewise."). ********************************************************************************************
The Reflections of Plato and Aristotle
Each returns to cosmological theory; each finds
PLATO ARISTOTLE
gives us the
also see the formal cause
"World" or Dimension of the
Forms
as what is permanent and
(or Kinds, or
True Nature of Things)
knowable though "in" the
as timeless and unchanging
concrete subject
a bow to Parmenides
a bow to Parmenides
plus the plus the
"World" or Dimension
of the Sensibles
four kinds of change:
(those beings that can change and
quantitative, qualitative,
have degrees of properties)
local motion and
substantial change
a bow to Heracleitus
a bow to Heracleitus
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