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Pre-Socratics

Pre-Socratics. GREEK PHILOSOPHY . They were interested in finding the unity in life-in both the material world and the spiritual world. WHO AM I WHAT IS THE WORLD COMPOSED OF WHERE DID I COME FROM WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE. Humanism in Philosophy.

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Pre-Socratics

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  1. Pre-Socratics

  2. GREEK PHILOSOPHY • They were interested in finding the unity in life-in both the material world and the spiritual world. • WHO AM I • WHAT IS THE WORLD COMPOSED OF • WHERE DID I COME FROM • WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG • WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE

  3. Humanism in Philosophy • The social, religious, and political atmosphere made Greek philosophy possible. • The world is orderly (by observation) and Greeks search to figure out why • Unity within diversity-what holds reality together • The search for the unifying factor would lead the Greeks to search outside the divine realm and focus on what people can do. • Hesiod (both divine will and human will)Heraclitus (divine logos/thought allows us to understand reality)Plato (the forms are a perfect reflection of reality; humans know the imperfect world via the knowledge of these forms; therefore reality is a reflection of human thoughts/reason)Aristotle (Plato’s student; reject forms; only know reality by material world; like Heraclitus, the world is changing; human workmanship can mimic the changing world therefore human work is an extension of the divine)

  4. Causes of Philosophy • Freedom of Thought promoted by: • Religion: • Not state-centric but dealt with in families • Homer wasn’t dogma (not quite like a Bible) • Politics • Written laws promoted rational debate • Written language not class specific • Miletus: Ionian city-state • Contact with Greece and the Near East • Astronomy, Orientalizing pottery, alphabet, religion • Continuous Greek culture passed down through the Mycenaean period • “Homeric” social structure, language, epics, and culture • Wealthy polis (shipping, trade, industry) • Aristocratic and secular

  5. Hesiod vs Thales the dark age and archaic connection • Hesiod: • Wrote Works and Days and Theogony • these works give us the daily life and religion of the Dark Ages • More concerned about divine causes rather than natural causes (very oriental-copied Enuma Elish) • But order is seen as an outgrowth of human motivation rather than divine will

  6. Pre-Socratics

  7. Pre-Socratics: Humanism • Natural origins of life. • The divine wasn’t abandoned, however. • The search for the unifying factor would ultimately come down to the Logos and the Forms.

  8. To be or not to be; whatever is, is the Beginnings of Greek thought • Quest for order (Cosmos), unity within diversity, and monarchy • Searched within the material world and abandoned the divine • Early beginnings of science • What is the monarchy? • Physical one or many • Immaterial one or many

  9. Thales • Founder of Greek philosophy and science • Water was either the main material or the main source of all things • Has no beginning and thus is divine • Three states of being and all things need it (therefore all share in the divine) • A “soul” connects all things and is the cause of motion

  10. Heraclitus • “All things are in flux” • The only constant is change represented by fire • He is still looking at the material world for a unifying composition • Logos: what connects all people • Logos=Word/Reason/Thought • Thoughts were seen as part of the divine; perfect representations of reality given by “god” and therefore humans can understand reality

  11. Parmenides • What is not-is not. What is-is. • What is not –is not and can never be. Something can’t come from nothing. Coming into existence and ceasing to exist are impossible. • The appearance of the world is deceptive • Reality is “the one” unchanging, ungenerated, and indestructible • Movement and change is deceptive • Only truth is reason (logos) not senses

  12. Pythagoras • Soul is divine • Math was perfection; Geometry was the beginning of all things • Music was mathematical • Soul and world consisted of geometric shapes • Soul was perfect but if body was out of alignment soul would be tainted • Transmigration of souls (reincarnation until you recognize Truth) • Soul was the perfect reflection of “god”; body imperfect • Later Gnostics merged his philosophy: • Spiritual and Physical dualism (spiritual is perfect while physical imperfect) • Augustine would use Pythagoras and Plato’s idea of the soul and body to understand Christianity

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