CLAS 201 (Philosophy) Yet another original Greek gift to the western intellectual tradition is philosophy. All ancient populations manifest wisdom, in some form or another, and we loosely refer to such musings as philosophy. Greek philosophy is different in that it aims to be a systematic method of inquiry. As an indication of this, it is interesting to note that major commentators from all three monotheistic religions have borrowed from Aristotle s logic and philosophy Aquinas, Averroes and Maimonides. ORIGINS Scholars strongly suspect that philosophy did not spring fully formed from the head of an individual Greek. Instead, the argument has been made that philosophy is somehow imbued in the culture. Greek itself is looked upon as a language whose grammar and capacity for subtle distinctions already renders it both a vehicle for philosophy and reflects the innate capacity of Greeks for philosophical speculation. More concretely (perhaps) is the author Hesiod and his poem Theogony. As we have seen the universe (according to Hesiod) begins with Chaos (a gap). This entity is something like an arché this is a principle we will examine immediately below. At the same time Hesiod proceeds from Chaos in a highly organized fashion, again leading scholars to suppose that the roots of philosophy are already discernible in his poem. It should be noted before we proceed any further that Greek philosophy can be divided into two phases. There are the pre-socratic philosophers (who, generally speaking, attempt to determine the underlying substance of the universe) and then there is Socrates and his successors. MILESIAN SCHOOL The earliest formal philosopher is Thales from Miletus (in Asia Minor) the other philosophers from this city are part of what we call the Milesian School. He flourished in roughly 600 BCE. Thales was a geometer and developed techniques for calculating the height of buildings and the distance of ships from shore. He also predicted the date of an eclipse. His philosophical achievement, while meagre seeming, is important because it leads to more sophisticated speculation down the road. Thales was trying to find the arché the foundational element of the universe, or the material from which all things arise and which they eventually dissolve into. Thales own proposal was that this arche/element was water because it can exist as vapour, solid and liquid and (possibly) because it makes life possible. It isn t the conclusion itself that is ground-breaking or profound, but instead the supposition that the world around us can
be reduced to something basic and universal. He also refuses to attribute this first principle to a god. Our second Milesian philosopher is Anaximenes (c. 525). He proposed that the arche is air because it condenses (to produce solid objects) and experiences rarefaction to produce liquids and gases. This is the most basic element which underlies all other elements and therefore, unlike Thales water, it must be the arche. He posits that earth is a flat disk that is comprised of condensed air. It releases air (in gaseous form) which ignites and forms the stars. Again, the interesting point is that he attempts (albeit wrongly) to find a physical cause for phenomena. Our third Milesian philosopher is Anaximander (c 550). He posited that the arche would have to be limitless in scope to serve as the source of all material objects; it would also have to be something that was, ultimately, unchanging, if all objects arose from it and dissolved into it too. He therefore proposed something he called to apeiron the limitless. By this he meant an eternal, endless mass of basic material. Water and air couldn t be archai, he argued, because they cannot contain their opposite qualities (e.g. water can never be dry) whereas his apeiron can. We can see that, however unsatisfactory this speculation is from a modern-day perspective, it is impressively abstract. Based on this idea of the infinite, Anaximander believed that there were multiple worlds, which came into being and vanished. He also believed that life started in the sea, and that men gradually took form in fish. He was the first Greek to publish a map of the world. XENOPHON OF COLOPHON Let s look at another philosopher who backs away from the inquiries into the physical world and philosophizes in a different vain. I am talking of Xenophanes of Colophon. While he seemingly comments on morality and the nature of god, he is also championing an objectivist perspective (that our apprehension of certain quantities is singularly true). He starts off with the observation that Homer and Hesiod attribute everything that is evil to the gods and how this can t be so. Gods or rather god is perfect. He also comments that gods cannot vary from one population s perception to the next. The Thracians see their gods as red-haired and with pug-like noses; the Ethiopians see their gods as black and like themselves, and the same is true of everyone else. If horse and cattle had hands and could shape their gods into statues, these statues would depict horses and cattle. In answer to this contradiction that something eternal like god is thought to change a great deal Xenophanes argues that Zeus and the other gods are not truly gods. Instead there is one god, unchanging and perfect in his exaction of morality. Xenophanes moved to Elea (in southern Italy) and established a school there (the Eleatic school). Members of this school include Parmenides and Zeno (see below).
PYTHAGORAS Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos sometime around 570 BCE. His influence was huge but I will confine myself to just one observation. We know Pythagoras to this day from his famous theorem involving right-angled triangles. From this and other mathematical discoveries, he seems to have concluded that numbers permeate reality. By this he seems to mean that everything harmonious in the physical world is due to exact, mathematical ratios. The best example of this theory is the musical notes: they are produced by dividing a taut string into precise intervals. Pythagoras had a huge influence on Plato, mainly because of the importance he attributed to numbers and mathematics. PARMENIDES Parmenides was born in the Greek city of Elea (in south Italy) around 535 BCE. He was influenced by Xenophanes. His position is very peculiar but very influential. He speaks of two realms, one governed by logos (reason) and one governed by opinion (doxa) and the senses. The latter is illusory and leads to many false conclusions and beliefs. It is logos that reveals to us the nature of reality. What does this reality consist of? Something is or it is not, Parmenides tells us. This being the case, if something is, if it exists, it must have always have done so and will continue to do so, as existence, true existence, does not come about in stages but lasts for all time, extending into the past, present and future. An object that exists, moreover, can t change in size, colour, shape or appearance. If it is, it is that way always. It must be singular and not plural the latter would be subject to interaction and change. Therefore (he grandly concludes) reality consists of one sphere that extends equally and infinitely in all directions. It always was, and will always be. There is no change. There is no void or emptiness and therefore there is no motion (because for things to move they must have an empty path before them). If one s senses tell us this is so, this is because they are prone to leading us astray (unlike logos). ZENO Zeno was a student of Parmenides and proved the assertions above using his famous mathematical paradoxes. In one of them, he asks you to imagine that you re trying to cross an open market-place. To cross it you have to reach the halfway point, of course. To reach the halfway point, you have to reach the quarter point, and before that the eighth point, and before that the sixteenth point etc. Each time you wish to reach a point on the field, you will always have to reach half that distance. This can go on ad infinitum. Zeno s grand conclusion? There is no such thing as motion. And if there is no such as motion, Parmenides is right and there is no change. Reality is that sphere extending infinitely in all directions. (Another famous paradox of his is Achilles and the Tortoise).
The big points to keep in mind with the Eleatics is their contention that 1) there is a reality that lies beyond the mere physical world, 2) the senses do not help us perceive this reality and 3) it is logos or reason alone that will help us understand the nature of this true realm. HERACLITUS Heraclitus was born in Ephesus (in Asia Minor and flourished around 500 BCE. He is known as the riddling philosopher, or the dark philosopher, or the obscure philosopher. These titles imply that his theories were difficult to understand. One essential principle Heraclitus makes is that everything is in a state of change or flux panta rei or everything flows as he famously (and obscurely) writes. He argues that one cannot step in the same river twice nor touch the same object twice. The passage of time is constantly altering objects. This constant state of change is due to the war of opposing qualities hot and cold, moist and dry, hard and soft etc. But these opposites are themselves related to each other somehow the way up and down are one and the same he writes. Ultimately, if the universe is stable, that is because there is balance at large. The world is best exemplified by a strung bow it is being pulled in opposite directions yet balance comes about through these two opposing forces. This state of harmony is brought about by logos he argues reason. We ourselves reach these truths through the exercise of reason to be sure but also through our senses. If these points are still a little unclear it is because the philosophy itself is obscure (hence Heraclitus nickname). Heraclitus becomes important, however, because he is completely at odds with the Eleatic school of thought (more). ATOMISM The atomists consist of Leucippus and his disciple Democritus the latter flourished around 44o BCE. To some degree, they agree with Parmenides that reality consists of unchanging elements. But how to account for the appearance of change? The atomists believe that matter can be broken down into smallest components (atomoi, or uncuttable, indivisible ) which are reminiscent of Parmenides sphere only on a microscopic scale. There is void and these atoms can join together to form objects, but there is no real heat or cold or change these are illusions that combinations of atoms give rise to. The senses are therefore illusory and logos reigns supreme once again. The Greek philosopher Epicurus will speculate in the atomist tradition. He will argue that there are no gods, only the blind physical interactions of these unchanging atomic particles. He will posit pleasure as the guiding principle of life only by pleasure he
means intellectual ones primarily. We know of Epicurus (and atomism) principally through the Roman poet Lucretius poem De Rerum Natura. Next week we will continue our discussion of philosophy with the Sophists, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. We will see that they will argue over the world vision as presented by Heraclitus, as opposed to that championed by the Eleatic school. TERMS: Origins: Theogony, Hesiod, Chaos=arché, systematic, Pre-Socratics: Miletus, Milesian school, arché, Thales (550), water, eclipse, Anaximander (520), to apeiron (infinite), infinite worlds, evolution, Anaximenes (500), air, air divine, Xenophanes of Colophon, Elea (Sicily), anti-anthropomorphism, one god, unchanging/eternal, Leucippus, Democritus (460), atomoi, Epicurus, Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, Heraclitus, all is flux, senses, logos, bow, Parmenides, Elea, exists or doesn t, eternal/unchanging/one, senses denied, Zeno, paradoxes (Achilles and tortoise) Plato: Socrates, dialogues, Sophists, areté, Protagoras, Plato, dialectic (conversation), definition, Socratic paradoxes, Academy, Apology, Symposium, Republic, Theory of Forms, Real vs Physical, Allegory of the Cave, Philosopher King, Syracuse, Dionysus II Aristotle: Macedonia, Plato s student, Alexander the Great, Lyceum, Physics, Metaphysics, Poetics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Third Man argument, hylomorphism, hylé, morphé, potentiality, actuality, Golden Mean Textbook A Brief History: 95-96 Ancient Greece: 138-141