Early Philosophers “Pre-Socratic” or “Mythopoeic” thinkers?
13 March 2014
Early Philosophers “Pre-Socratic” or “Mythopoeic” thinkers?
The Ancient Greek philosophers played a pivotal role in the shaping of the western philosophical tradition. The Ancient Greek philosophical tradition broke away from a mythological approach to explaining the world, and it initiated an approach based on reason and evidence. Initially concerned with explaining the entire cosmos (the universe seen as a well-ordered whole), the Pre-Socratic philosophers strived to identify its single underlying principle. Their theories were diverse and none achieved a consensus, yet their legacy was the initiation of the quest to identify underlying principles. This sparked a series of investigations into the limit and role of reason and of our sensory faculties, how knowledge is acquired and what knowledge consists of.
The Pre-Socratic philosophers focused on three problems over a 200 year period. Firstly, they tried to explain how one basic thing could be the source of many things such as water. They tried to find the arché (origin of existence). The world was made up of a large variety of objects whether it be biotic or abiotic, in liquid or in solid form. It seemed reasonable to suppose that all things shared a common source. Secondly, they tried to explain how things remained constant whilst changing over time. They believed that all things in the world were subjected to change eventually. Regardless of all the changes the objects still held certain characteristics which suggested that they could be changed back to their original form. Thirdly, they tried to see if principles of the universe were created by people or if this principles were absolute, in other words they tried to find out if there is a universal standard. These Pre-Socratic theories were regarded to be strange and daring. The first philosophers can thus be regarded to be the first scientist as they were looking for evidence and conducted numerous experiments to test the theories. Some
Early Philosophers “Pre-Socratic” or “Mythopoeic” thinkers?
The Ancient Greek philosophers played a pivotal role in the shaping of the western philosophical tradition. The Ancient Greek philosophical tradition broke away from a mythological approach to explaining the world, and it initiated an approach based on reason and evidence. Initially concerned with explaining the entire cosmos (the universe seen as a well-ordered whole), the Pre-Socratic philosophers strived to identify its single underlying principle. Their theories were diverse and none achieved a consensus, yet their legacy was the initiation of the quest to identify underlying principles. This sparked a series of investigations into the limit and role of reason and of our sensory faculties, how knowledge is acquired and what knowledge consists of.
The Pre-Socratic philosophers focused on three problems over a 200 year period. Firstly, they tried to explain how one basic thing could be the source of many things such as water. They tried to find the arché (origin of existence). The world was made up of a large variety of objects whether it be biotic or abiotic, in liquid or in solid form. It seemed reasonable to suppose that all things shared a common source. Secondly, they tried to explain how things remained constant whilst changing over time. They believed that all things in the world were subjected to change eventually. Regardless of all the changes the objects still held certain characteristics which suggested that they could be changed back to their original form. Thirdly, they tried to see if principles of the universe were created by people or if this principles were absolute, in other words they tried to find out if there is a universal standard. These Pre-Socratic theories were regarded to be strange and daring. The first philosophers can thus be regarded to be the first scientist as they were looking for evidence and conducted numerous experiments to test the theories. Some
Bibliography: • (James Fieser, 3/19/2012: The History of Philosophy: A Short Survey, [Online]: Available http://www.utm.edu./staff/jfieser/110 [10 March 2014]). • (Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians, 7.94-95). • (http://eteaching.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=filemanager&action=fileinfo&id=gen14Srv59Nme26_24809_1330498354) • (Paul F. Ballantyne, Ph.D. 2008. History and Theory of Psychology: An early 21st century student 's perspective. [Online]. Available: http://www.igs.net/~pballan/section1(210).htm [11 March 2014])