Minodin, Abel Francis C.

| 2011-11796 Philosophy 110 Ancient Philosophy

The Pre-Socratics
Thales
In every history of philosophy for students, the first thing mentioned is that philosophy began with Thales, who said that everything is made of water. This is discouraging to the beginner, who is struggling--perhaps not very hard--to feel that respect for philosophy which the curriculum seems to expect. There is, however, ample reason to feel respect for Thales, though perhaps rather as a man of science than as a philosopher in the modern sense of the word. (Russell, 1945) Thales is generally regarded as one of the earliest if not the first philosopher in Western Philosophy. Before him, the Greeks would commonly attempt to explain the origin and nature of the world through myth. Most phenomena at the time that lacks a readily available explanation are attributed to the wills and whims of the gods. In true philosophical or possibly more aptly scientific fashion, Thales attempts to explain phenomena through naturalistic reasons that is, without the invocation of the supernatural or divine. It is the cosmological thesis of Thales: all is water that would define how he is commonly known in contemporary times. This is most probably due to Aristotle attributing the notion to him in his Metaphysics: "That from which is everything that exists and from which it first becomes and into which it is rendered at last, its substance remaining under it, but transforming in qualities, that they say is the element and principle of things that are. For it is necessary that there be some nature (), either one or more than one, from which become the other things of the object being saved... Thales the founder of this type of philosophy says that it is water." (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Aristotle supposes that Thales came to this conclusion by observing water be absorbed by plants and be transformed to a solid state. The observation that water could manifest through all the states of matter known at the time may have led Thales that everything is ultimately water. It is also arguable that water was such an imposing substance, especially in Ionia back in Thales time, which was mostly bordered by water. Water seemed to both create and destroy life in forms of bountiful rain or deadly waves and typhoons.

Anaximander
This enigmatic fragment of one of the very view surviving accounts attributed to Anaximander could give us insight on his brand of philosophy: Whence things have their origin, Thence also their destruction happens, As is the order of things; For they execute the sentence upon one another - The condemnation for the crime In conformity with the ordinance of Time. (Anaximander, Fragments et Tmoignages, 1991) Anaximander shared the endeavor of Thales to come up with the arch, a Greek word that can be translated to either origin or principle. Anaximander proposes an unusually abstract answer to the problem: apeiron the boundless, the unlimited. This high level of abstraction made Anaximander distinct among his contemporaries. Aristotle tries to characterize the apeiron: Everything has an origin or is an origin. The Boundless has no origin. For then it would have a limit. Moreover, it is both unborn and immortal, being a kind of origin. For that which has become has also, necessarily, an end, and there is a termination to every process of destruction (Aristotle, Physics)

This could be one of the earliest attempts to create the distinction for the origin a concept that medieval theorists would probably associate with the distinction of the creator and the created.

Anaximenes
Anaximenes continues the quest for the primary principle. He suggests that it might be air a neutral substance that seems to be ever present and capable of seamlessly incorporating itself almost every known physical (and probably chemical) reaction at the time. Air holds a special affinity to ones soul in ancient Greek culture. This could be one factor why Anaximenes portrays air in an almost, if not truly in a divine manner. [Air] differs in essence in accordance with its rarity or density. When it is thinned it becomes fire, while when it is condensed it becomes wind, then cloud, when still more condensed it becomes water, then earth, then stones. Everything else comes from these. (Anaximander) Anaximander emphasizes an association of air to change. Fire turns to air, air to wind, wind to cloud, cloud to water, water to earth and earth to stone. Matter can travel this path by being condensed or the reverse path from stones to fire by being successively more rarefied. (Graham, 2009) The role and capability of air to change must have encouraged the pursuit of Anaximenes and led him into a more rational exploration of the concept.

Heraclitus
The metaphysics of Heraclitus utilizes the concept of change even more than Anaximander. To understand Heraclitus Doctrine of Flux, on would need an appreciation of his concept on the Unity of the Opposites. Heraclitus asserts that (1) everything is constantly
changing and (2) opposite things is identical, so that (3) everything is and is not at the same time. This however would lead one into violating the principle of non-contradiction. Plato explains that: Heraclitus, I believe, says that all things go and nothing stays, and comparing existents to the flow of a river, he says you could not step twice into the same river (Plato, Cratylus)

However, when taking into consideration the concept of Unity of the Opposites, the statement could be seen in another light. If one would examine the direct statement of Heraclitus: On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow. Graham eloquently puts it as different waters flow in rivers staying the same. It is true perhaps; that it was change that gave the river identity, for it is the changing water that defines what it is. Concerning his concept of a primary principle, Heraclitus considers fire as the primordial element. However, he does not use it in the same fashion as Thales or Anaximenes. Though he considers fire to be the initial configuration, he recognizes the primacy of the flux as the primary principle.
The turnings of fire: first sea, and of sea, half is earth, half firewind Sea is liquefied and measured into the same proportion as it had before it became earth (Heraclitus) In a seemingly contradictory line of reasoning, it is due to the fact that the flux is both one and the other, that the flux is what it is; and that it is what ultimately make up the universe. Such conception might suggest that every substance appear different and is different and through that change they remain the same.

Pythagoras
Pythagoras in philosophy appears to be an obscure figure. Aristotle says of him that he "first worked at mathematics and arithmetic, and afterwards, at one time, condescended to the wonder-working practiced by Pherecydes." (Russel, 1945) Though almost unquestionably he had an affinity with arithmetic, it is unclear whether he truly preached to his own religion that all is number. The statement does deserve merit however that every substance can be and is expressed in particular mathematical value. Some scholars of Modern Philosophy might

sympathize with the notion due to their rejection of the name and notion of relations as the real substance of metaphysics.

Path and Evolution of the Primary Principle

Thales began an era of philosophical questing towards uncovering the worlds primary principle. He and his direct contemporaries attempted to come up with the most basic stuff that comprises the world. Rather than being imprisoned by what is or the physics, the conceptions of the Ionian philosophers had heavy implications on metaphysics since arch would both refer to the primary principle and the origin. Thales suggested that the arch is water, since water seemed to incorporate within itself all the states of which substance can assume. Water also seemed to dominate the world in both volume and influence since water had the ability to both nurture and cease life. Anaximander rejects if not completely opposes the stance that Thales took. Rather than to observe and conceptualize towards a concrete entity like water, he chooses the concept of the apeiron the boundless. It magnifies upon waters ability to change and adapt. He asserts that the primary principle must be boundless. The lack of form of this conception of the arch appears to be the reason why it is the primary principle. Anaximenes takes a metaphorical step-back from the views of Anaximander. He reverts back to a (relatively, in pre-Socratic standards) tangible substance Air. Rather than the ability to morph, transform, and move; in which water claims superiority, air favors a concept of incorporation as air seem to effortlessly connect and assume being a part of almost any form of substance not unlike the way a soul inhabits a body. Following the theme, Heraclitus chooses fire as his primordial substance. However, rather than fire assuming the same role as water and air as the previous proposals, Fire remains part of the flux. Continuing the trend of seeing change as a major consideration, the flux in a sense, gives substance to Anaximanders abstractions. In the signature contradictory fashion, both the apparent and actual lack of form of the flux defines and structures Heraclitus metaphysics. Pythagoras might be considered a transitional figure. Numbers or arithmetic being the primary principle does not mean exactly the same as in previous conceptions. Pythagoras seems to forgo the substance and use relations to characterize and define the arch.

Significance of the Pre-Socratic Conceptions

The pre-Socratics provided a conception of Philosophy that would not be fully rediscovered until the age of modern science an examination of the substantial world in order to generate a stable construction of metaphysics. The deviation from myth to logic and reason opened the western world to a closer examination of the world. It was an ambitious project and admittedly, they are not exactly close to the mark. However, without this first step, I would not be likely that there is to be the emancipation from myth. If left to my own biases, I would consider the attitude of the then pre-Socratics to be one of the greatest expressions of human endeavor pushing towards the unknown, resisting the comfort of the current tradition, and discovering and re-discovering the world.

References: Aristotle. Metaphysics Alpha tr. Ross 1994 Aristotle. Physics Alpha tr. Hardie & Gaye 1994 Graham, Daniel. Anaximenes, IEP, 2009 Graham, Daniel. Heraclitus, 2005 Fowler, H. N, Plato: Cratylus, Parmenides, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias. 1926 Russell, Bertrand. "A History of Western Philosophy", 1945 Vuletic, Mark, The Milesians and the Origin of Philosophy, 2008