Non-Fiction – Ionian Philosophy: The Foundation of Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek Philosophy

The Ancient Greeks had an inherit genius when it came to thinking, inventing, and philosophy, it was just in the nature of their culture. They did not inherit any of their ideas or discoveries from anyone or anywhere else. The impact of their discoveries and ideas on Western civilization cannot be ignored and must be researched.

Pre-Socratic Philosophy

Ionia

In the Kingdom of Ionia [On the coast of Greek controlled Anatolia] philosophy found its origins in the writings of poets Homer and Hesiod, both of Greek origin. In his epic poems “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” the blind Homer wrote and warned about the flaws of men which can lead to both their dooms and those of others, mythology also was a huge theme within them. Hesiod’s many poems were criticisms of corruption within Greek society. For example, in his most famous poem “Works and Days” he criticized the corruption of the legal and economic systems of Greece and proposed a system where people must work for and invest their money into the economy in order to grow it as it cannot just be handed out to irresponsible recipients. They had told these poems to the citizens of their towns around fires at night as a manner of inspiring reflection within them. This idea of using writings to influence human behavior is what gave birth to the concept of philosophy, which was used as a method of explaining the Universe and its contents.

 

Thales is considered to be the the world’s first philosopher as he theorized that water is the universal element as it exists in all living things on Earth.

Thales’s successor Anaximander had challenged the former’s hypothesis by stating that the Earth is made up of multiple different elements, this supported his philosophy of “Unity in Difference”.

Anaximander’s successor Anaximenes was able to combine elements of science and mythology together in his philosophy.

Ex. He explained how rainbows are created. They occur when white sunlight refracts off of dark rain clouds and is filtered through a prism. Though to emphasize the limited nature of his discovery and overall knowledge in the Universe he brought in elements of mythology by stating that the rain was brought upon by the Gods to avoid asking further questions, as most of these early Greek-Ionian Philosophers did. The power of the Gods could not be questioned or explained same as the depth of knowledge in the world and Universe.

 

The Pythagoreans

The philosopher Pythagoras was born on Samos [A Greek island off the coast of Ionia] and eventually opened a school in Kronos [a town in Southern Italy] where his students and eventual followers were named appropriately after their teacher. The Pythagoreans were praised for separating philosophy from religion.

The Pythagorean philosophy was based in mathematics and centred around the belief that numbers could be used to explain everything in the Universe.

Step 1] Everything in the Universe begins at 1.

Step 2] One builds their knowledge one step at a time, just like counting one at a time.

Step 3] Over time they accumulate new facts, which can lead them to new subjects.

4] Eventually this new-found knowledge can change the way one sees the world.

Ex. Examine the triangle below

        .

      .   .

    .   .   .

.    .    .    .

If one counts using these dots by adding one more each time they will eventually add up to 10 and form a perfect triangle as seen above. This triangle can be applied to the world in numerous ways from architecture, to art, to astronomy, etc. Knowledge in the Universe is infinite just like numbers and doesn’t need supernatural elements to explain it, rather just practical approaches to research and learning. The Pythagorean methods of math had influenced many later mathematicians of Ancient Greece such as the father of traditional geometry Euclid of Alexandria [A Greek Port City in Egypt], Eratosthenes, and Ptolemy. Their philosophy of research and learning had also influenced the later Athenian philosophers most notably Aristotle.

Since their philosophy could be applied to so many different topics such as art, music, astronomy, etc. they helped create the concept of schools, which allowed students to study broad ranges of topics.

 

 

Heraclitus

Philosopher Heraclitus was born in Ephesus [A Greek city on the coast of Ionia] and was best known for criticizing the deductive method of his predecessors. He claimed that existing discoveries are only hypothesis and can only be deemed as fact through experimentation. If the hypothesis cannot be applied to reality, then it is merely theory or false. He was one of the first critical thinkers with his blatant debunking of previous ideas as “fact” even though they can not be applied to reality.

 

Ex. He had criticized Anaximander’s philosophy of “Unity in Difference” by arguing for “Difference in Unity”. He used fire as an elemental analogy for his philosophy seeing as that no matter how many different elements are added to a fire, while the appearance may change, most notably size, the basic material structure of it does not change. This indicated to Heraclitus that unity over difference is what creates strong and prosperous societies. In his mind societies must adhere to their origins in order to preserve their values and strength, just as individual people should.  Change is a natural state of Human development but should only be attempted when it is sustainable to society, and the only way to differentiate good change from bad change is through conflict, which once again can never be predicted.

-He also believed that there is still a possibly of a God or Creator of the Universe but had advocated that a belief in God should be a psychological rather than demanding practice, as in questioning the nature of existence of all without being consumed by theory as that leads to dogma in people.

 

Parmenides and Melissus

He was born in Elia, a town on the northwestern coast of Crete, and opened a school within the town as well. He was responsible for giving method to the critical philosophy of Heraclitus.

He suggested that nothing comes from nothing and that no piece of matter can become, it simply just is, in the context of being. Beings have the ability to be anything they want, there is no pre-determined destiny or fate, as that would mean the becoming would have to come from nothing, which is impossible. If reality is real then it must be material, as material elements can be explained due to their identifiable properties.

His student Melissus born on Samos also theorized that the Universe must be infinite, even if there is nothing beyond our’s. That nothing is something, for it is the beyond. The scale of the Universe cannot be explained nor comprehended fully ever. We can only build upon our research of the never ending as the mathematical philosophy of Pythagoras demands.

 

Zeno

He was also born in Elia and became a student of the former Parmenides and Melissus and had spent his life attempting to prove their philosophies true. He did this by creating complex riddles and puzzles to challenge thinkers, the latter being heavily based in math.

Ex.  Set 1 [The Length of the Race] 123456789

Set 2 [The tortoise’s speed]     123456789

Set 3 [Achilles’s speed]                       123456789

As one can see there are three sets of numbers above, each from 1 to 9. The second and third sets are used to represent the motion of two objects. Zeno explores this example in his story of “Achilles and the Tortoise”, part of his book of paradoxes. Achilles will clearly run faster than the tortoise and his speed compared to the former gives him an advantage, as by the time the race has begun he has already reached the halfway point of the first set of 9, being 5. He then runs his 9 paces and ends up 4 paces beyond the end of the first set of 9. Whilst the tortoise may take longer to reach Achilles’ true starting point, by the time it gets there it will have moved four paces. The tortoise’s four paces are equivalent to the five to nine, 4, paces Achilles ran beyond the first set of 9 in the diagram, both object’s paces are separated by a set of four in between them below the first set’s 5 to 9. Therefore, both objects have moved the same distance according to Zeno’s riddle.

From this riddle Zeno claimed that motion is impossible and that no man is faster than another, they are just at different starting points in the Universe which ultimately lead to the same destination. This echoed Parmenides’s philosophy that there is no pre-determined destiny for a man as the Universe and its opportunities are infinite, anyone can achieve anything as long as they are intellectually motivated to do so. Zeno reinforced the latter through his clever and sly writings, which forced his followers to think outside of the norm to solve his great puzzles.

Empedocles

He was born in Arkagas, Sicily and was, like the former Zeno, a student of Parmenides’s school. He became a philosopher and poet and based his writings on the concept of love. He wrote that an individual can only grow as an individual through love, meaning acceptance of every situation which comes to challenge their way of life. He built on Heraclitus’s example of fire, a fire will always remain the same in its material identity but will grow in external facts such as size and temperature as long as other materials are continuously added to it. He helped revive the idea of art being mixed with philosophy, like Homer and Hesiod, as his style did not rely on mythology or religion to enhance the already philosophical writing.

Anaxagoras

He was of Greek-Persian decent and born in Clazomenae, Anatolia and had built on Parmenides and Melissus’s theory of the Universe and its contents being infinite going even further to claim that the contents within the contents is as well. He once famously quotes “In everything there is a portion of everything.”

Ex. When a biotic organism is decomposed within an environment, in this case grass, then the flesh of the carcass would become part of the grass, which helps it grow in the long term. The subsequent oxygen produced by the grass, which we as Human Beings breath in then must be part grass, just as the carbon we exhale which the grass takes in is part Human. It is an endless cycle of matter and illustrates that every element within the Universe is related in some way, just as Heraclitus’s concept of “Difference in Identity” states.

Leucippus, Democritus, and the Atomist School

Leucippus was born in Miletus, a Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, and whose name was fictitious. It was given to him by the later Athenian Philosophers Theophrastus and Aristotle, as his true identity was never known. Leucippus also receives more credit for the creation of the Atomist School of thought, as Democritus followed his methods later on during the Socratic Period.

Leucippus was not a philosopher but a scientist, though he is significant for his knowledge of all the pre-Socratic philosophy, which he applied to scientific research of matter within the Universe. He had pioneered what is today known as mechanical research, step by step, and spent much time studying the nature of atoms, the particles which make up all matter.

He hypothesized that existing bodies of matter form from different atoms coming together, and those existing atoms come from the formation of others, and so on. This concept is known as “Vortex Theory”, as in a vortex there are endless circles which continue to spiral upon each other forever. This is similar to how matter is formed from all types of elements coming together, the total contents and quantity of which can never be truly known. This is just like how planets are formed when large quantities of different atoms form molecules that create the giant infinite bodies that take up space in the Universe.

He and eventually Democritus in the Socratic Period were important for their methods of scientific research, which combined and perfected the ideas of all previous philosophers of the pre-Socratic period. This led to creation of the Atomist School which inspired numerous more Greek thinkers who were able to expand and advance the knowledge and contents of Greek civilization.

Summary

Pre-Socratic Philosophy was heavily centered not on the study of Man but rather of the world around him. These Philosophers studied the cosmos and beyond and their methods always attempted to remain calculated and rational, in the scientific sense, as were their debating styles whenever they stumbled upon disagreement. They asked many questions but were never able to truly answer them, as they believed there are no true answers in the Universe. The later Philosophers of Ancient Greece, namely Athens, would apply the Ionian methods of research and teaching to their philosophies, which however concerned the nature of man over objects.

Sources

Frederick Copleston, S.J., “A History of Philosophy – Volume 1: Greece and Rome – From Pre-Socrates to Plotinus”, 1962