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What is philosophy? philos = loving sophia = wisdom Pythagoras of Samos (d. c. 500 BC). Philosophy… …seeks to organise reality into one unified worldview …seeks to step away from religion, basing worldview on reason rather than divine influence
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What is philosophy? philos = loving sophia = wisdom Pythagoras of Samos (d. c. 500 BC)
Philosophy… …seeks to organise reality into one unified worldview …seeks to step away from religion, basing worldview on reason rather than divine influence …seeks to have application to daily life
Why study philosophy? Enjoyment and edification Distinguishing self from animals, maturing as human being Because we do it anyway! “The unexamined life is not worth living.” (Socrates)
Milesian school (Cosmogonists, from Miletus in Asia Minor) Thales (d. c. 547 BC) (all is water) Anaximander (d. 546 BC) (the Boundless) Anaximenes (d. 528 BC) (all is air)
Pythagoras of Samos (d. c. 500 BC) Founded scholarly community in S. Italy Philosophy as guide to life
Pythagorean discoveries and philosophy Work with number sequences Irrational numbers e.g. √2 Pythagoras’ theorem Reality is numbers
Pythagorean discoveries and philosophy Transmigration of the soul Need for self-discipline and purification Use of music and medicine Pythagoreans mostly wiped out by rebellion
Heraclitus of Ephesus (d. 475 BC) “Most men are bad.” Everything changes Everything made from fire Role of changing elements
Parmenides of Elea Visible changes are illusions Everything that exists is a being. Otherwise it is a non-being Impossibility of change Each being is what everything else is Reality is one single, solitary, unchanging being Differences are only appearances
Zeno of Elea (d. c. 425 BC) Zeno’s Paradoxes: Achilles and the Tortoise The Flying Arrow
Sophists “Man is the measure of all things.” (Protagoras of Abdera, d. c. 410 BC) No objective truth or other values. Roles of convention and personal preference
Atomism Developed by Leucippus of Miletus (5th c. BC) Existence of non-being Reducing matter to atoms Democritus of Abdera (d. c. 370 BC) Protagoras Archelaus (5th c. BC)