Humanities 1A Lindahl The Origins of Western Philosophy - the Pre-Socratics and Socrates On the very notion of the “beginning” of Western Philosophy - Myth and "wisdom" Philosophy: philein (love) + sophia (wisdom) Cosmology, Metaphysics Naturalistic philosophy - demythologizing cosmology Mythos & Logos – Wisdom sought through Reason Trend to reduce mythological and anthropomorphic explanations - Aletheia - "the naked truth" Factors: Leisure, Wealth, Trade, Democratic debate / Rhetoric, Writing Dialectic vs. Dogma The Pre-Socratics The "Ionian Revolution" – the idea of a basic stuff or “substance” (Metaphysics) Ionia, The Milesians - the beginning of philosophy (585 BCE) Thales (of Miletus) (640-546 BCE), metis, physis (in this case, water) Anaximander (of Miletus)(610-545 BCE), "On the Nature of Things," physis = Apeiron, Anaximines (of Miletus) (d.528 BCE), physis = air, naturalistic explanations Issues concerning Knowledge (Epistemology) and the problem of cultural relativism Xenophanes (of Colophon) (570-480 BCE), epistemology, relativism Heraclitus (of Ephesus) (535-470 BCE), fire, flux and logos, Rational cosmic order Pythagoras (of Croton) (571-497 BCE), Music of the spheres, “theorein,” a 2 +b 2 =c 2 (of right triangles) The separation of “what Is” from “what Appears to be” The Eleatics Parmenides (of Elea) (515-450 BCE), truth and “Being” Zeno (of Elea) (490-430 BCE), Reductio ad absurdum, Zeno's paradoxes, Achilles and the Tortoise The Pluralists and Atomists Empedocles (of Acragas) (490-445 BCE), love and strife – earth, air, fire, water Anaxagoras (of Clazomenae) (500-428 BCE), Nous Democritus (of Abdera) (460-370 BCE), “Atoms,” Materialism Main issues so far – Substance, B eing, Knowledge (Metaphysics and Epistemology) The emerging question – “How should I live?” (Ethics) The Sophists (“teachers of wisdom” [sort of] or Aretê) “Rhetoric” and what it might mean to “live well” Protagoras (490-420 BCE) - “Man is the measure of all things” A curious court case involving one of Protagoras’ students Gorgias (485-380 BCE) – Epideixeis (model orations) A defense of Helen and the argument that “nothing exists” Antiphon (late 5 th c. BCE) Nomos (custom) vs. Physis (nature) Civil law is by convention and Natural law is according to necessity