IMPORTANT PRE-

SOCRATIC
SCHOOLS
Prepared by:
Apolinar Reysan and Ma. Rolyn Jane Aremala
The Pre-Socratic Schools
◦ Those were philosophical schools founded approximately in
century VII a.C. in Greece. They are known by the name of pre-
Socratics since they are the schools of the classic philosophy that
existed before Socrates. Therefore, his views were not influenced
by Socratic thinking.
◦ Pre-Socratic: The Origins of Western Philosophy
Five Important Pre- Socratic Schools

 Milesian School

Pythagorean School

Ephesian School

Eleatic School

Atomist School
 School of Miletus or Ionian
The Milesian school was a school of Pre- Socratic Philosophy of
the 6th century BC, based in the Ionian town of Miletus. It is
generally considered to be the first school of thought of Ancient
Greek and thus Western Philosophy.
 It was consist of three philosophers
Thales
Thales of Miletus was a Greek mathematician,
astronomer, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus
in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of
Greece.
 Anaximander
Anaximander was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived Anaximenes
in Miletus, a city of Ionia. He belonged to the Milesian school Anaximenes of Miletus was an Ancient Greek,
and learned the teachings of his master Thales. He succeeded Ionian Pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in
Thales and became the second master of that school where he Asia Minor, active in the latter half of the 6th
counted Anaximenes  century BC. The details of his life are obscure
because none of his work has been preserved.
 Pythagorean School
◦ The Pythagorean school was founded
by one of the most representative
philosophers of classical Greece:
Pythagoras of Samos.

Pythagoras lived in the 6th century BC. And was responsible for the founding of
the Pythagorean current in the Greek city of Crotona. This city was recognized
for being widely religious, however, Pythagoras found there his first disciples.
a. For the Pythagoreans the universe had to be understood and studied as a
whole or cosmos.
b. Over time, the Pythagoreans began to take a largely idealistic cut. In
this way, they pointed out that the body is the physical matter that
is in charge of imprisoning the psyche.
c. For Pythagoras, the idea that there was life after death was
indisputable. He thought that the soul could be eternal.
 Eleatic School 
◦ The Elea school or Eleatic school was founded by
the Greek philosophers Parmenides And Zeno in
the city of Elea, Italy. This school influenced
classical thinking in a forceful way during the sixth
and fifth centuries BC, having its greatest apogee
during this time.
◦ Those who belonged to Elea's school were not in
favor of the materialistic philosophical approaches
of the Miletus school and were openly opposed to
the "universal flow“ approach proposed by the
Greek philosopher Heraclitus.
◦ According to the Eleatics, the universe is itself an
immutable, infinite whole through time and space,
which can not be understood through human
senses or knowledge.
Ephesian School

◦ Ephesian school sometimes refers to

the philosophical thought of the ancient
Greek philosopher Heraclitus of
Ephesus, who considered that the being
of all the universe is fire. According to
him, the being is material and one, but
at the same time he acknowledges that
the world witnesses constant change.
 Atomist School
◦ The Atomist school, started by Leucippus in the fifth-
century e.c. and passed down by his student,
Democritus (460-370 B.c), believed that every physical
object is made up of atoms and void (empty space that
atoms move in) that are arranged in different ways.
This idea is not too far from the concepts of atoms that
we know today This school believed that atoms were
incredibly small particles (so small that they could not
be cut in half) that differed in size, shape. motion,
arrangement, and position, and that when put together,
these atoms created what is seen in the visible world. 
 Philosophers in the Pre-Socratic Schools

Pythagoras Heraclitus

Thales of Miletus Parmenides

THALES OF MILETUS
Thalēs; c. 624/623  – c. 548/545 BC) was a Greek mathematician, 
astronomer, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, 
Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. And he is
otherwise historically recognized as the first individual known to have
entertained and engaged in scientific philosophy. He is often referred to
as the Father of Science.

Thales is recognized for breaking from the use of mythology to explain

the world and the universe, and instead of explaining natural objects
and phenomena by naturalistic theories and hypotheses, in a precursor
to modern science.

 Aristotle regarded him as the founder of the Ionian School and reported

Thales' hypothesis that the originating principle of nature and the nature
of matter was a single material substance: water.
 PYTHAGORAS
Philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras (570-497 B.c.),
perhaps most famous for the Pythagorean theorem named after
him, believed that the basis of all reality was mathematical
relations and that mathematics governed everything
.
To Pythagoras, numbers were sacred, and with the use of
mathematics, everything could be measured and predicted. The
impact and image of Pythagoras were astounding.

His school was cult-like, with followers listening to his every word
and even his strange rules, which covered anything from what
and what not to eat, how to dress, and even how to urinate.
Pythagoras philosophized in many areas, and his students
believed that his teachings were the prophecies of the gods.
 Parmenides
Parmenides of Elea late sixth or early fifth century BC)
was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in 
Magna Graecia (meaning "Great Greece," the term which
Romans gave to Greek-populated coastal areas in
Southern Italy). He is thought to have been in his prime (or
"floruit") around 475 BC.[a]
Parmenides has been considered the founder of ontology
 or metaphysics and has influenced the whole history of 
Western philosophy.[5][b] He was the founder of the 
Eleatic school of philosophy, which also included 
Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos. Zeno's paradoxes
 of motion were to defend Parmenides' view.
 HERACLITUS OF
EPHESUS
The Ephesian school was based on the work of one man, Heraclitus of Ephesus (535-475 B.c.).
Heraclitus believed that everything in nature is constantly changing, or in a state of flux. He is
perhaps most famous for his notion that one cannot step in the same river twice. Heraclitus
believed that the single element was fire and that everything was a manifestation of fire.

The Ephesian School is a Greek Pre-Socratic school of philosophy of the 5th Century B.C.,

although essentially it refers to the ideas of just one man, Heraclitus (who did not have any direct
disciples or successors that we are aware of), a native of Ephesus in the Greek colony of Ionia.
Along with his fellow Ionians of the Milesian School, he looked for a solution to the problem of
change, but his view was that the world witnesses constant change, rather than no change at all. The
aphorism "everything is in a state of flux", often attributed to Heraclitus, was probably not actually
his, but it does give a reasonable summary of his views. 
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