Eric Sir – Conceptual History

Pre-Socratic Philosophy
I. Early Ionians
(i) Thales
(ii) Anaximander
(iii) Anaximenes

You must not forget that they were pioneers, venturing into a new territory. They did not possess the
centuries of experience that we have today. You might also be struck by the very freshness and simplicity of
their vision

Introduction

The thinkers who are called ‘pre-Socrates’ is not just for reasons of convenient chronology. On the whole,
their views ran in another direction than that of Socrates. They were mainly concerned with outer,
external world and the problems and issues raised from such an interest except the sophists who focused
their attention to the internal world.

Aristotle called the pre- socratics the “physicists” because they reflected so very much on nature. The
major issues that drew their attention was:

(a) the search for the archē –the primordial substance out of which the universe was fashioned;

(b) The ever fascinating controversy: being versus becoming or, to use a more precise philosophical
vocabulary, the question of the One and the Many.

Ø Since they viewed the universe as an organic whole, and as a living whole, they are also called
hylozoists.
Ø We begin our study with the Ionian School who offered ‘sensual’ response to the universe.
Ø The Eleatic School attempted to give a rational response to the existence of the universe.
Ø The Atomic School is an effort to synthesize both the Ionians and Eleatics, though it might not be
a perfect synthesis.

Ionian School

Ionia is a district on the west coast of present-day Turkey. It was colonized by Greek in the 11 th century
BCE and it was one of the important commercial and literal centres of Ephesus and Miletus. All the eminent
Ionian thinkers came from Miletus, except of course Heraclitus who is more celebrated among them. The
School is called ‘sensualist’ because in its attempt to response the being versus becoming question as well
as in its effort to discover the primary substance of the universe, they relied rather on the sense knowledge
and sense observation and not the reason. Generally speaking, the Ionians tend to hold that becoming
alone is real and that being is an illusion.

Thales of Miletus

Thales was born in Miletus. The exact date of his birth is unknown. Probably, he must have flourished in the
early part of sixth century BCE. He is said of have predicted the eclipse of the sun mentioned by Herodotus.
Since, that eclipse occurred on May 28 th, 585 BCE, it is one of the reasons to believe that he must have
begun his philosophical career in the early part of 6th Century BCE.

He is traditionally regarded as the first philosopher. He is said to have played an important role in public
and academic life and excelled in politics, mathematics and astronomy. Some other scientific activities are
ascribed to Thales such as, the construction of an almanac and the introduction of the Phoenician
practice of steering a ship’s course by the Little Bear. However, there is little information about his
philosophical doctrine since he did not commit his thoughts to writing. Thanks to Aristotle, whatever little
we know comes mainly from him. According to Aristotle, Thales taught two fundamental philosophical
ideas.

Ø One, the water is the first absolute principle and,

Ø second, the soul is the principal motor.

Besides the mere fact that he lived in a place virtually surrounded by water, Aristotle supplies the following
reason: “Thales got this notion perhaps from seeing that the nutriment of all things is moist, and that heat
itself is generated from the moist and kept alive by it (and that from which they come to be is a principle of
all things). He got his notion from this fact, and from the fact that the seeds of all things have a moist nature,
and that water is the origin of the nature moist things.” Though the explanation might look simple to our
intellectual minds, his attempt was to give a rational account of the principle of things. Thus, be broke away
from myths and poet-theologians.

The second philosophical idea of Thales according to Aristotle is the soul as the principle of movement.
According to Aristotle, “Thales, too, to judge from what is recorded about him, seems to have held the soul
to be a motive force, since he said that the magnet has a soul in it because it moves the iron.... Certain
thinkers say that the soul is intermingled in the whole universe, and it is perhaps for this reason that Thales
came to the opinion that all things are full of gods.” Perhaps, the best way to understand “all things are full
of gods” is to say that everything is fundamentally alive. Not only magnetic stones are endowed with souls
but everything else, the whole universe is impregnated with life.

Anaximander

Anaximander was born in Miletus around the year 611 BCE and was a disciple of Thales. He was
concerned about the scientific pursuits and he is credited with having constructed a map – most probably for
the Milesian sailors on the Black Sea. He wrote a book entitled On Nature. Like Thales, he showed keen
interest in cosmology. However, he differed with his master in his choice of the first principle.

For Anaximander, the archē is ápeiron –‘the infinite’ or ‘the unlimited.’ Ápeiron means that which is
devoid of limit. In other words, it refers to infinite. Probably it would be herculean task to figure out what
exactly Anaximander meant by infinite, Aristotle understood it to mean unlimited extension in space and
qualitative indetermination. For Anaximander, ápeiron is not only a material cause of infinite extension but
also it is a principle characterized by the absence of any formal determination. It has no positive identity. It
is neither water, nor air, nor any one of the known elements. Ápeiron can function in two ways:

Ø as a material cause and

Ø as a divine principle.
Ápeiron as a material cause is an important discovery of Anaximander, which Aristotle would fully develop
later. Unlike the principle of Thales, the ápeiron is not one of the elements (in Aristotelian terms, it is not a
substance). It is of an indeterminate nature, and therefore, is different from and prior to all other existing
substances. Ápeiron as divine causes encompasses and governs all things. It is an immortal and
indestructible principle. These qualities must be inherent in it as it is unlimited and unaffected by the
limiting factors of earthly realities such as birth and death, growth and decay.

Besides this, Anaximander also explains the genesis of all things. Anaximander would reply saying that all
things proceed necessarily from the ápeiron by means of separation of contraries, and return to it in a
necessary manner as well. All the same, Anaximander does not explain the process of separation of
contraries but one might say that it is caused by the eternal movement of the ápeiron. All things are subject
to this law of generation and corruption as a punishment. It is the retribution they pay for the commission of
an injustice. The injustice is the contraries committed by the ápeiron which separate from and oppose one
another, each one trying to prevail over the rest. This punishment restores the equality of the different parts
with the passing of time. This is achieved by virtue of the imposition of a limit to each contrary that brings
to an end the dominion of one over the other. This is the way Anaximander explains the continuity and
stability of material changes, the formation of the world and the governing role of the ápeiron.

To conclude, Anaximander’s archē is not confined to one thing but to indeterminate infinite out of
which all things come. He also attempts in some way to answer the question how the world developed out
of this ultimate element.

Anaximenes

Anaximenes was born at the beginning of the 6 th century and was an “associate” of Anaximander. He
authored a book, of which a small fragment has survived. At first sight, the doctrine of Anaximenes appears
one step back from the stage reached by Anaximander.

He summarily abandons the theory of ápeiron and assigns a determinate element as the ultimate
principle. And that principle, according to Anaximenes, is air. Anaximenes was probably led this
conclusion because all living being need air for breathing. And since he thought that the entire universe was
composed of living beings, it appears logical to choose air as the ultimate principle. Besides this, he
observes, “Air undergoes substantial changes through rarefaction and condensation.

By rarefaction, it is transformed into fire and wind. On the other hand, if it thickens, if forms the clouds;
and through further condensation, it becomes water, then earth, then the stones. All other things come these
substances.” In other words, “All things originate through a certain condensation and rarefaction of air.”
When analyzed closely, Anaximenes actually takes a step forward in clarifying the problem of the first
principle of all things. The importance of Anaximenes’ contribution is confirmed by Aristotle himself, who
says that all later thinkers who thought of some material cause as the archē, are indebted somehow to
Anaximenes.

Heraclitus

Heraclitus was born in the middle of 6th Century BCE and died around 480 BCE. He came from Ephesus and
belonged to an aristocratic family. He was known as a conceited, proud person who looked down upon the
rest of humanity because of its blindness to the truth of his teachings. His philosophy is found in a book
entitled On Nature, quite a few fragments of which have been preserved. Since it was not easy to determine
the exact nature of his thought on account of the cryptic and occult nature of his writings, he was also known
as “the obscure one” even during his lifetime.

This may be reason perhaps why Plato and Aristotle made no special efforts to penetrate his thought but just
described it as an exaggerated relativism. Following are a few important philosophical ideas of Heraclitus.

First, Heraclitus affirmed that everything is in constant flux, or, “everything changes.” He explains this
with an analogy of the river saying, “It is certainly not possible to enter twice into the same river.” This has
been also attested by Plato: “Heraclitus says somewhere that all things change and that nothing is at rest.”
This is the original contribution of Heraclitus to the history of pre-Socratic thought.

Second, Heraclitus explains the universal process of becoming as a never- ending alternation of
contraries. The opposites not only account for the transformation of one substance to another but they
constitute the very essence of all things. The permanent opposition of contraries lies at the root of reality and
its stability. In other words, for Heraclitus, the only real world is the world of opposites, opposites which are
in mutual need of one another.

Third, Heraclitus considered fire as the archē: “This world, as well as all other worlds, was not made by the
gods or by men. It always was, is, and will be, an ever living fire, which is enkindled according to a certain
measure and extinguished according to a certain measure.”

Fire as Arche

According to Heraclitus, fire, more than any other archē, reflects the constant change and harmony that lies
at the root of reality. “The transformations undergone by fire are as follows:

Ø first it becomes the sea;

Ø then half of the sea becomes land,
Ø while the other half becomes burning wind.”

Most interpreters of Heraclitus understand fire in the metaphorical sense rather as a material cause. Taking
fire metaphorically might cause many difficulties as Heraclitus himself uses the term logos to refer to the
first principle. Understood as such, it means the principle that governs every transformation; it is the law
that is inherent in everything. And for Heraclitus, to know the logos means to know the truth.

Ø Fourth, Heraclitus identifies the nature of the soul with that of the first principle and the soul is
infinite part of human being. He also believed in the immortality of the soul. “After death, there
are things which await man which he neither hopes for, nor imagines.