Pre-Socratic philosophy? |
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The Pre-Socratic philosophers were active before Socrates, who exerted tremendous influence on later thought.
Pre-Socratic philosophers are often very hard to pin down, and it is sometimes very difficult to determine the actual line of argument they used in supporting their particular views. While most of these thinkers produced significant texts, none of these 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. They asked:
- Where does everything come from?
- What is it really made out of?
- How do we explain the plurality of things found in nature?
- Why are we able to describe them with a singular mathematics?
Nearly all of the various cosmologies proposed by the early Greek philosophers are demonstrably false. Later philosophers rejected the answers they provided, but continued to place importance on their questions.
List of Philosophers
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.
- Periander (625-585 BC)
- Solon (c. 594 BC)
- Thales (c. 585 BC)
- Aristeas of Proconessus (7th Century BC ?)
- Anaximander (610-547)
- Anaximenes of Miletus (585-525 BC)
- Pherecydes of Syros (c. 540 BC)
- Chilon of Sparta (c. 560 BC)
- Bias of Priene (c. 570 BC)
- Cleobulus of Rhodes (c. 600 BC)
- Anacharsis (c. 590 BC)
- Pittacus of Mitylene (c. 600 BC)
- Pythagoras (582-496 BC)
- Theano (mathematician) (5th century BC, dates unknown)
- Xenophanes (570-470 BC)
- Heraclitus (535-475 BC)
- Parmenides (510-440 BC)
- Leucippus (5th century BC, dates unknown)
- Anaxagoras (500-428 BC)
- Empedocles (490-430 BC)
- Zeno of Elea (490-430 BC)
- Hippias (485-415 BC)
- Gorgias (483-375 BC)
- Protagoras (481-420 BC)
- Philolaus (480-405 BC)
- Antiphon (person) (480-411 BC)
- Melissus of Samos (C.470 BC-Unknown)
- Prodicus (465-390 BC?)
- Diogenes of Apollonia (C.460 BC-Unknown)
- Democritus (460-370 BC)
- Archytas (428-347 BC)
Notable Movements
External Links
- D. H. Th. Vollenhoven's History of the Presocratic Philosophers translated by H. Evan Runner 1
| This article is part of The Presocratic Philosophers series |
| Thales | Anaximander | Anaximenes of Miletus | Pythagoras | Philolaus | Archytas | Empedocles | Heraclitus | Parmenides | Zeno of Elea | Melissus of Samos | Xenophanes | Anaxagoras | Leucippus | Democritus | Protagoras | Gorgias | Prodicus | Hippias | Pherecydes |