ANAXIMANDER
Anaximander (610 BCE - 546 BCE) was a Milesian School Pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher. Like most of the Pre-Socratics, very little is known of Anaximander’s life. He was born, presumably in 610 BCE, in Ionia, the present day Turkish west coast, and lived in Miletus where he died in 546 BCE. He was of the Milesian school of thought and, while it is still debated among Pre-Socratic scholars, most assert that he was a student of Thales and agree that, at the very least, he was influenced by his theories. He is infamously known for writing a philosophical prose poem known as On Nature, of which only a fragment has been passed down. In that fragment Anaximander innovatively attributes the formation of a regulating system that governs our world, the cosmos. Furthermore, he put forth the radical idea that it is the indefinite (apeiron), in both the principle (archē) and element (stoicheion), from which are the things that are. In addition to such ingenuity, Anaximander also developed innovative ideas and theories in astronomy, biology, geography, and geometry. For Anaximander, the origination of the world could not be reduced to a single element or a collection of elements alone. Rather, one needed to understand that the origin was in both principle and element not definable in a definite sense or attribution. While this was a radical perspective in relation to the more determinate theories of others from the Milesian school, it does seem to have some derivation from older Greek mythology that posited the origin of all things from an originary Chaos—a formless state, void, gap. And thus precisely Anaximander’ theory does remain radical in part in its “formlessness” or “unknowability” given the overall Greek tradition of harmony, symmetry and form in all things, in all things in their positive existence.

THALES
Thales of Miletus was born in around the mid c. 624 BC in the city of Miletus. The place was an ancient Greek Ionian city, located on the western coast of Asia Minor. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. The time of his lifespan is guessed by some events given in the sources. Believing Herodotus, Thales once forecasted a solar eclipse which according to modern methods most probably have had happened on May 28, 585 BC. Diogenes Laertius suggests that his parents were Examyes and Cleobuline. His family belonged to the royal Phoenicia family. Diogenes also said that the Thales’ family had links with the Phoenician prince Cadmus. Diogenes also came out with two contrasting stories. First that Thales got married and had a son named Cybisthus or Cybisthon or else adopted his nephew holding the same name. Second story says that Thales never married; telling his mother that it was too early to marry in his young age and later that it was too late when he grew old. Another early source, Plutarch, recites another story that when Solon met Thales he asked him the reason behind not marrying anyone. On this, Thales said that he disliked the idea of having to worry about children but after many years, he was quite eager to have a family and thus, adopted his nephew. Thales engaged himself in several activities, enrolling an innovator’s role. Some suggests that no writings of his have survived. Also, some say that he composed “On the Solstice” and “On the Equinox”, but both of them have vanished. Diogenes further quoted Thales’ letters to Pherecydes and Solon, proposing to review the book of the former based on religion and also proposing to stay with the latter on his travel from Athens. Thales was a prominent and popular Greek philosopher of pre- Socratic times. He belonged to Miletus in Asia Minor and was among the Seven Sages of Greece. Furthermore, Aristotle considered him as the very first philosopher in the tradition of Greek. With his works, Thales tried to describe and explain the natural phenomena, without taking help of mythology and was extremely influential in this regard. Most of the other pre-Socratic philosophers also followed the foot-steps of Thales and got engaged in explaining an ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world without referring to mythology. Subsequently, the denial of mythological explanation by Thales brought a necessary idea for the revolution of science. Thales also became the first person to describe general principles and put forward hypotheses. For the same he had been considered as the "Father of Science". In order to solve mathematics problems, Thales took the help of geometry like calculating the pyramid's height and distance between shore and ship. Thales is also recognized with the first usage of deductive reasoning application to geometry. For the same, he derived four corollaries to Thales' Theorem. He is greatly addressed as the first true mathematician. Thales was also the first person to study electricity.

ANAXIMENES Anaximenes of Miletus was a Pre-Socratic Philosopher, (585 BCE - 528 BCE). Like all Pre-Socratics, little remains of the work by Anaximenes and little is known in regards to the details of his life. It has been postulated that the philosopher was born around 585 BCE and died around 528 BCE. He is considered, after Thales and Anaximander, the third philosopher from what has come to be known as the Milesian school of philosophy, operating in the ancient Greek land of Ionia, or present day Turkey. Like his predecessors, Anaximenes was preoccupied with cosmology, searching for the world’s origin in which he is most known for his assertion that air is the most basic and originary material and the source of all things. In addition to this main concentration, Anaximenes also made studies in meteorology. In the Milesian tradition, in which the members of the school are often referred to as being “material monists," Anaximenes sought to articulate one particular substance as responsible for all things. This of course diverts from Anaximander, presumably the young philosopher’s teacher, who postulated the notion of aperion—that which is indefinite and boundless—as the origin of the cosmos. Anaximenes disagreed with this notion of “an indefinite stuff" and believed that there must be a particular substance and that substance was air. Interestingly enough, his observation and understanding of air and it’s transformative properties actually positions his interpretation of the origin of the world in between that of Anaximander and Thales, the latter of whom considered water to be the essential element, rather then in direct opposition to either. For Anaximenes, air was the essential element because it was, like Anaximander’s aperion, neutral and because it was infinite and always in motion. Air was everywhere, and everywhere it was transformable. It could transform into every other basic element, and hence everything else in the world. And this notion was an empirical one for Anaximander; he based his election of “air" on the observable fact that it transforms and his belief that it was the originary substance to transform into the other elements from which everything else could then be generated. EMPEDOCLES Empedocles (490–430 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Acragas, Sicily and is more than a philosopher. His many roles include that of a poet, physician and politician, Empedocles also held claim to magical powers that could revive the dead. Empedocles stands out as a colorful character among the array of pre-Socratic philsophers in his oft described purple robe and bronze sandals, a Delphinic wreath crowning his head. The important part that Empedocles played not only in pre-Socratic times but also in the development of the basic groundwork for the earliest particle physics was that he built upon the Eleactics and the problem of change in the natural world. Empedocles was the son of a wealthy merchant and was active in political and social life in Acragas. Although he is said to have been rather eccentric, not only with his dress, but also that he kept a train of boy attendants, Empedocles was generous with his wealth providing dowries for many of the girls in Acragas. He was also active in the political life of Acragas, crusading for democracy in the public sphere through his rhetorical skills (Aristotle credits Empedocles with the invention fo rhetoric) giving speeches on equality and even aiding in the prosecution of two officials for arrogant behavior which may lead to tyrannical tendencies. Most of the information that has been passed down about Empedocles shows him in a favorable light as a popular politician and speaker on democracy and equality. He was also well known in Acragas as a healer and physician. Whether or not stories that were passed through interlocutor's or coming from some of his enthusiastic writing of himself in Purifications, it is certainly the case that a tradition of remembering Empedocles being a great healer, physician and sometime magician. The tales are large as to recount Empedocles curing whole plagues and even reviving the dead. While it is doubtful that he was as talented as all that, it is known that Empedocles was well-versed in biology and human physiognomy and that medicine was a part of his philosophy and vice versa. He was so intent on this cohesion that he was attacked by the writer of the Hippocratic treatise On Ancient Medicine. By studying the recently recovered Strasbourg fragments it is becoming more and clearer how close even Empedocles wove his ideas on the philosophy of nature and more mystical, theological aspects.

PYTHAGORAS Pythagoras of Samos was a well-known mathematician, scientist and a religious teacher. He was born in Samos and is often hailed as the first great mathematician. Pythagoras is remembered today for his famous theorem in geometry, the 'Pythagoras Theorem'. His mentors were Thales, Pherekydes and Anaximander, who inspired him to pursue mathematics and astronomy. Pythagoras also made important discoveries in music, astronomy and medicine. He accepted priesthood and performed the rites that were required in order to enter one of the temples in Egypt, known as Diospolis. He set up a brotherhood with some of his followers, who practiced his way of life and pursued his religious ideologies. He became one of the most distinguished teachers of religion in ancient Greece. Read on to know more about the childhood and career of this ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician. Pythagoras was born in the island of Samos in around 569 BC. His father, Mnesarchus, was a merchant and his mother Pythais, was a native of Samos. Young Pythagoras spent most of his early years in Samos but travelled to many places with his father. He was intelligent, well-educated. Pythagoras was also fond of poetry and recited the poems of Homer. There are very few records regarding Pythagoras’s personal life. According to some historical accounts, Pythagoras married Theano, who was a native of Croton. He had one son named Telauges and three daughters Myia, Damo and Arignote. PYTHAGORAS TIMELINE
570 BC: Pythagoras was born in Samos, Greece.
535 BC: He left Samos and travelled to Egypt when Polycrates took control over Samos.
525 BC: He was made prisoner by the King of Persia and was taken to Babylon.
520 BC: Obtained freedom and returned to Samos.
518 BC: Travelled to Italy.
495 BC: Pythagoras died in Metapontum, Italy.

HERACLITUS Heraclitus (540 BCE - 480 BCE) is certainly the most important and influential pre-Socratic philosopher. His significance is undisputable even though all we have of his work is a few more than a hundred sentences. This relative scarcity and fragmentation of material in no way consigns his thoughts to a mere collection of unconnected and tangent ideas. Heraclitus’ philosophy has a clear essence and focus. That ‘everything is flux’, that ‘all things are one’, and the ‘unification of opposites’, are the fundamental and lasting ideas of Heraclitus, as well as the very heart of his philosophy of dynamic equilibrium. Heraclitus argued that there was an objective truth about everything, an underlying current flowing across a time, and on to the next one. This constancy he called Logos, which was not a personal subjective thought of his, rather, he thought of himself as merely conduit of it. Logos, for Heraclitus, was the world’s rationale, its determining formula, the truth, and thus the key to everything’s nature. Logos, as such, was accessible because it was within everything even that derogatorily called ‘common’ or ‘public’. The gap between realizing Logos and ravelling in the banality of opinions was not a matter of something other, but of a different perspective on the same ‘common’ reality. Heraclitus, therefore, was understandably opposed to the naïve empiricism of his time, and pleaded that men come to discover the ‘depth of the soul’s own logos’. The obscurity and ambiguity of Heraclitus’ style is widely acknowledged as intentional, that is, it is believed that Heraclitus’ style was intended to provoke his audience to discover the logos in and by themselves. What the exact topic of Heraclitus’ philosophy is, is a question debated since his contemporaries, and a question which has seemingly found no decision to this day. Claims range from saying that he was a moralist, a psychologist, an ontologist, a critic of society, cosmologist, or that his philosophy concerned itself with everything from the universe to theology to politics. PARMINEDES
Parmenides of Elea was born approximately in 515 BCE in Elea, Italy. He died sometime around the year 450 BCE, though the place of his death is unknown. He was a Greek philosopher.

Not much is known about the life of Parmenides. He is often considered the founder of the Eleatic School, and it is assumed that both Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos were among his students, and that he himself was the pupil of Xenophanes. Parmenides was also a, albeit, younger, contemporary of Heraclitus, whose philosophy was radically opposed to that of Parmenides. Briefly, the main distinction is that Heraclitus affirms becoming, while Parmenides argues that such becoming (or change as such) is nothing but an appearance. Due to his conviction that there is only one essence (namely Being, a single and unchangeable whole) Parmenides is sometimes referred to as a “monist.”

Parmenides is believed to have composed only one work, a poem entitled Peri physeōs (On Nature), which, examining the question of Being, had an enormous impact on earlier Greek philosophy. Only nineteen fragments (or about one hundred and sixty lines) have survived, which is mostly due to Sextus Empiricus, who copied almost all the fragments, and Simplicius, who in his commentaries on Aristotle cited great parts of the poem. The poem was originally divided into three parts: a Prelude; The Way of Truth (“aletheia”); and The Way of Opinion (“doxa”).

Democritus Democritus (460 BCE 370 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher. He is known for his influence on modern science more than any other pre-Socratic philosopher. He was also known as the “Laughing Philosopher", for his tendency to mock fellow citizens for their follies. What Democritus left has not survived in all of its physicality, but he has been written about by Aristotle(Aristotle found him to be his biggest competitor in the natural sciences), Theophrastus, Diogenes, along with a few others. The exact details of his birth are not known but estimated to be sometime around 460 BCE in Abdera, Thrace. His father was wealthy and received Xerxes as he traveled through Abdera. Xerxes in turn, left behind some of his magi and it is said that Democritus had the good graces to have learned from them. After his father's death Democritus took off traveling in search of experience and wisdom. He traveled to Babylon, Egypt, Ethiopia and perhaps India as well using up his inheritance. Democritus is said to not have any care for wealth and preferred to put everything into his studies, investigations and explorations. He is said to have remarked that he would rather discover a new cause of nature than be King of Persia. In his travels he may have met Anaxagoras, been friends with Hippocrates, possibly visited Athens where Socrates and Plato would have been present if he had been there. Democritus was a disciple of little-known Leucippus and carried his atomist thought further developing it rather extensively. Atomist philosophy borders heavily on what today is considered scientific although Leucippus and Democritus were not privy to empirical reasoning behind their theory of atoms. Powerful microscopes aside, however, Democritus drew from watching decay and mixing of the elements laid out by the Eleatics, for instance the mixture of water and earth in mud that is not easily separated once combined. Also building upon such Eleatics as Parmenides, Democritus held that nothing could come from nothing, that everything is already in the world and it is merely a matter of combination and re-combination of eternal bits of immutable stuff called atoms that remain indivisible in and of themselves, but are capable by hooks and barbs or balls and joints to combine to other atoms to make up the materials of life. He also supposed that the solidness of any given material was dependent upon the shapes of these atomic bits. Different from today's understanding of atomic structure, Democritus and other 'atomists' thought that atoms were indivisible (the Greek for 'atom' was atomon or atomos) and infinite in size and shape as well as firm and completely solid. These atoms, then, existed in a void moving about combining and recombining. This necessitated the existence of nothing, or a void with Democritus saying when naming 'nothing' as a no-thing, that the one (nothing) no more exists than the other (thing). The void was considered a condition for the possibility of motion with its essence as being one of yielding so that atoms may pass through and instead of being a concept of absolute space, it was probably more thought of as temporarily unoccupied spaces by atoms.

Protagoras Protagoras is the earliest known sophist of ancient Greece. He was born at Abdera, in Thrace, probably about 480 BCE. It is said that Protagoras was once a poor porter carrying large bundles of wood on his shoulders. He attracted the attention of Democritus who took a liking toward him and instructed him in philosophy (Diog. Laert. ix. 53; x. 8; Gell. v. 3). This well-known story, however, appears to have arisen from the statement of Aristotle that Protagoras invented a sort of porter's knot for the more convenient carrying of burdens. In addition to this, Protagoras was about twenty years older than Democritus. Protagoras was the first who called himself a Sophist, and taught for pay; and he practiced his profession for forty years. Pericles debated moral problems with him, and he was employed to draw up a code of laws for the Athenian colony of Thurii in 445 BCE. Thus he arrived in Athens at least by that year. We are not informed about whether he accompanied the colonists to Thurii, but at the time of the plague (430) we find him again in Athens. Between his first and second visit to Athens he had spent some time in Sicily, where he had acquired fame. He brought with him to Athens many admirers from other Greek cities through which he had passed. His instructions were so highly valued that he sometimes received 100 minae from a pupil; Plato says that Protagoras made more money than Phidias and ten other sculptors. Protagoras wrote a large number of works, of which the most important were entitled Truth (Alethia) and On the Gods (Peritheon). The first contained the theory refuted by Plato in the Theaetetus. In 411 he was accused of impiety by Pythodorus, one of the Four Hundred. The charges were based on his book On the Gods, which began with the statement, "Respecting the gods, I am unable to know whether they exist or do not exist" (Diog. Laert. ix. 52). The impeachment was followed by his banishment, or, as others affirms, only by the burning of his book. His doctrine was, in fact, a sort of agnosticism based upon the impossibility of attaining any absolute criterion of truth. Plato gives a vivid picture of the teaching of Protagoras in the dialogue that bears his name. Protagoras was especially celebrated for his skill in the rhetorical art. By way of practice in the art he was accustomed to make his pupils discuss theses (communes loci), an exercise which is also recommended by Cicero. He also directed his attention to language, and tried to explain difficult passages in the poets. He is said to have been the first to make the grammatical distinctions of moods in verse and of genders in nouns. Protagoras died about 411 at the age of nearly seventy years, when he was lost at sea on his way to Sicily. The Pre-Socratic Philosophers Submitted by: Angelo jade m. Dayag Bsa ii- 01

Submitted to: Prof. leandro aÑonuevo