Ancient Greek Philosophers: From Cosmology to Humanism

Cosmological Doctrines

Cosmological Monism

Thales, Heraclitus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Parmenides

Cosmological Dualism

Pythagoras

Cosmological Pluralism

Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus

Anthropological Doctrines

Anthropological Monism

Protagoras, Gorgias

Anthropological Dualism

Hippias, Antiphon

Key Figures and Their Ideas

Thales

"The principle of all things is water." Geometry: early (green) → development, conclusion (green). Water, earth, air, fire.

Anaximander

"First of all there is apeiron (indeterminate)" from where the bodies come and where they should return, because things are given mutual satisfaction and reparation for their injustice, according to the order of time. Apeiron (unlimited) ↔ cosmos (loop). APEIRON: Something finite but unbounded. COSMOS: All from a single principle. It is no longer a natural element, but rather abstract.

Anaximenes

The same way air shows soul (psyche) and governs us, so a breath and air surround and bind the cosmos. Individual psyche - cosmos air.

Heraclitus

"The cosmos, the same for all, neither men nor gods did make, but it always was and will be fire." Fire was always living, it is turned on and off according to measure (logos). The same is living and dead, awake and asleep, young and old... All things change reciprocally with fire and fire to things, as goods for gold and gold for goods; everything flows. Nothing remains; no one goes two times in the same river." Creator of the dialectical method: perpetual motion.

Parmenides

Via 1 - (being) (green) and not being is not; Via 2 - (non-being) (appearance) not to be is: "to be" meaning [set of all possible reference-points to everything there is or exists], reference and representation. We cannot speak of being guided by the senses; they only give appearance. Double negation: s ∧ ∨( ∨s) = s ∧ s = s. If we have a theory for the 1st via, we have real attributes of being.

Zeno

Achilles and the tortoise paradox supports the theory of Parmenides. Achilles goes double speed; when Achilles reaches the point where the turtle was, it will have traveled half as much, and so on... The tortoise is always ahead. Gotta love monism!

Pythagoras of Samos

Sect; transmigration of souls; two principles of the cosmos: undetermined unit - numbers. Duality: indeterminate-limited, unlimited-odd-even, unity-plurality... All orders of reality are analyzed in terms of number and geometric figures, determined according to some duality.

Empedocles

"Nothing is of one nature, but a separation of the mixture and mixed..." The four roots of all things are: Zeus (fire), Hera (Earth), Nestis (water), and Edoneo (air). Similar to a modern chemistry perspective, everything is a mixture of elements and their separation. Divinization of material and natural view of the gods. Influences medicine (Hippocrates [4 fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile; sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic]).

Anaxagoras

The conception of nature is pluralism associated with the notion of infinite seeds and the concept of intelligence. "All things were together in the original mixture (MIGM); first the ether and air begin to separate, then sets of similar parts = HOMEOMERIAS" begin to form. How can milk teeth, hair, etc., come from a child? Part = All: It provides a causal and deductive conception of physis that develops from an original state of confusion.

Democritus

"In opinion, there is heat and cold, sweet and bitter, colors... but in truth, there are only the indivisible atoms and the void." More distinctions between the way of truth and opinion from Parmenides. Democritus is pluralistic since there are infinitely many atoms (Parmenides' being multiplied by infinity). Atoms: I cannot see them, but you can imagine shapes and sizes; they can join to give something greater: the base of everything in the cosmos. Simploké (union of atoms) - the cosmos is the result of chance in the transport connections of atoms; there is also necessity, although collisions with other corpuscles give rise to specific objects. Mechanistic perspective: cosmos - a large machine of atoms. Atom-void relationship: a theory of necessity when we consider the atom-atom ratio. Social philosophy.

The Sophists

Sophistication

5th Century cultural revolution. Sophist: expert in wise things. Quadrivium: geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, music, and Trivium: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric > 7 liberal arts. Experts in rhetoric; sophistry is negative (or defensive/accusatory speeches depending on money). Sophistry: logically false schemas.

Protagoras

"Man is the measure of all things, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not." Anthropos: can be understood in an individual sense, but also in a collective sense or even the entire human species. "Stuff" does not refer simply to cosmological things, but also to qualities or values.

Gorgias: Takes Protagoras' anthropological monism to its limit. "Behind the words, there is nothing, and besides, the words are air and are carried by the wind" (nihilism).

Anthropological Dualism (Hippias and Antiphon)

Other Sophists developed a concept we call anthropological dualism because, according to them, all reality is resolved in the duality between physis and nomos (laws). On the one hand, we have natural realities, and on the other, conventional realities reflecting an agreement among humans, forming a different reality (this physis/nomos distinction in the Middle Ages will be the distinction between nature and God's grace).