Pre-Socratic philosophy
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The Pre-Socratic philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously, but expounding knowledge developed earlier. The popularity of the term originates with Hermann Diels' work Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (The Fragments of the Pre-Socratics, 1903).
It is sometimes difficult to determine the actual line of argument some pre-Socratics used in supporting their particular views. While most of them produced significant texts, none of the texts have survived in complete form. All we have are quotations by later philosophers, historians, and the occasional textual fragment.
The pre-Socratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations for the phenomena they saw around them in favor of more rational explanations. Many of them asked:
- From where does everything come?
- From what is everything created?
- How do we explain the plurality of things found in nature?
- How might we describe nature mathematically?
Others concentrated on defining problems and paradoxes that became the basis for later mathematical, scientific and philosophic study. Of course, the cosmologies proposed by the early Greek philosophers have been updated by views based on modern science. Later philosophers rejected many of the answers they provided, but continued to place importance on their questions.
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[edit] List of philosophers and schools
The traditional cursus of pre-socratic philosophers and movements (there are minor variations) is shown below:
- Thales (624-546 BCE)
- Anaximander (610-546 BCE)
- Anaximenes of Miletus (585-525 BCE)
- Pythagoras (582-496 BCE)
- Philolaus (470-380 BCE)
- Alcmaeon of Croton
- Archytas (428-347 BCE)
- Heraclitus (535-475 BCE)
- Eleatic School
- Xenophanes (570-470 BCE)
- Parmenides (510-440 BCE)
- Zeno of Elea (490-430 BCE)
- Melissus of Samos (C.470 BCE-Unknown)
- Empedocles (490-430 BCE)
- Anaxagoras (500-428 BCE)
- Leucippus (5th century BCE, dates unknown)
- Democritus (460-370 BCE)
- Protagoras (481-420 BCE)
- Gorgias (483-375 BCE)
- Thrasymachus
- Callicles
- Critias
- Prodicus (465-390 BCE)
- Hippias (485-415 BCE)
- Antiphon (person) (480-411 BCE)
- Lycophron
- Anonymous Iamblichi
- Diogenes of Apollonia (C.460 BCE-Unknown)
[edit] Other groupings
This list includes several men, particularly the Seven Sages, who appear to have been practical politicians and sources of epigrammatic wisdom, rather than speculative thinkers or philosophers in the modern sense.
- Solon (c. 594 BC)
- Chilon of Sparta (c. 560 BC)
- Thales (c. 585 BC)
- Bias of Priene (c. 570 BC)
- Cleobulus of Rhodes (c. 600 BC)
- Pittacus of Mitylene (c. 600 BC)
- Periander (625-585 BC)
- Aristeas of Proconessus (7th Century BC ?)
- Pherecydes of Syros (c. 540 BC)
- Anacharsis (c. 590 BC)
- Theano (mathematician) (5th century BC, dates unknown)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Burnet, John, Early Greek Philosophy, Meridian Books, New York, 1957
- Colli, Giorgio, The Greek Wisdom (La Sapienza greca, 3 vol. Milan 1977-1980)
- Kirk, G.S., Raven, J.E. & Schofield, M., The Presocratic Philosophers (Second Edition), Cambridge University Press, 1983
- Nahm, Milton C., Selections from Early Greek Philosophy, Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1962
- De Vogel, C.J., Greek Philosophy, Volume I, Thales to Plato, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1963
- Diels, Hermann, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 6th ed., rev. by Walther Kranz (Berlin, 1952).
[edit] External links
- D. H. Th. Vollenhoven's History of the Presocratic Philosophers translated by H. Evan Runner [1]
- Early Greek Philosophy and the Primary Substance
| Pre-Socratic philosophers |
|---|
| Milesian School: Thales • Anaximander • Anaximenes of Miletus Pythagoreans: Pythagoras • Philolaus • Alcmaeon • Archytas • Timaeus Ephesian School: Heraclitus — Eleatic School: Xenophanes • Parmenides • Zeno of Elea • Melissus of Samos Pluralist School: Anaxagoras • Empedocles — Atomist School: Leucippus • Democritus Sophism: Protagoras • Gorgias • Prodicus • Hippias Diogenes of Apollonia • Pherecydes |
