Pre-Socratic Philosophers: Xenophanes, Pythagoreans, and Heraclitus

Xenophanes

Xenophanes: After the Persians destroyed his hometown, he fled to Greece and traveled extensively, including visits to Elea. He was a singer who used satire in his work. He argued that anthropomorphism does not support religion and advocated a form of pantheism, stating that God and the cosmos are the same. According to him, God is unique, eternal, and immobile despite all the changes. His concept of Arche is the foundation and cause of all things. He attributed the cause of fossils to the fluctuations of sea levels.

The Pythagoreans

The Pythagoreans: Born in Samos, they moved to Crotona. The driving force behind their philosophy was the desire to save their immortal soul and escape the divine cycle of reincarnations. To free the soul from the body, they adopted asceticism, similar to the beliefs of Orphic communities. They believed that salvation could be achieved by studying music, math, and philosophy. Pythagoras established aristocratic regimes but was eventually expelled. For them, the structure of matter was important, not just the matter itself. They viewed the entire universe as a cosmos – beautiful, good, and divine – rather than a chaos. They are considered formalists, and their Arche is the limit shape. Pythagoras was a disciple of Anaximenes. Apeiron, the substance that is being, is important and agitated endlessly into infinity.

Heraclitus

Heraclitus: He lived during a time of revolution and social instability, as the city was becoming politically charged. He was the heir to the crown of Ephesus. His two main principles are:

1. Everything flows.
2. Everything originates from identity and the struggle of opposites.

He believed that our senses deceive us, giving us an illusion of stability and permanence. Reality is the sum of all facts. One cannot speak definitively about things when everything is in constant flux. Everything changes because tension and the struggle of opposites are omnipresent, even if not always apparent. The feeling of peace and rest is produced by a momentary and precarious balance of power between opposing forces. His Arche was fire because:

1. Fire is the most unstable and ever-changing element.
2. Fire both kills and gives life.

He conceived of fire as a universal law, unifying and ordering all changes. Fire is the reason that maintains unity. Heraclitus's thought is characterized by dynamic, materialist monism. Fire is also the soul of the world and the individual soul. We can use the term hylozoism to refer to his image of the world. He wrote a book.