Ancient Greek Philosophers: Logos, Mythos, and the Pre-Socratics
Logos and Mythos: Understanding Early Thought
Understanding the meanings of Logos and Mythos and their inherent forms of human reflection: Logos designates a way of thinking about the world, a logical analysis emphasizing reason, explaining the world through the power of thought. Mythos is a way of thinking that places the world within the context of its supernatural origins.
The Role of Myth in Cosmology and Human Life
Understanding the role of myth in relation to cosmology and human life:
- Creation myths and cosmological myths are attempts to understand the existence of the Universe.
- Both evoke awe and wonder at the physical world.
- Mysticism: embodies our attraction to the unknown.
- Rational mysticism.
Thales: The First Philosopher
Thales: The first true philosopher (scientist). He considered change: there must be one constant. A Monistic view. What is that one thing? Air, Fire, Water, or Earth? (He used only what he knew). He proposed WATER.
Thales’ Contributions
- All things are composed of something (a small leap from water to atoms).
- An ultimate substance explains change, but itself does not change.
Anaximander: Questioning Opposites
Anaximander: He questioned “opposites.” How can water give rise to its opposite, fire? The ultimate ‘thing’ behind the four elements is: “the BOUNDLESS.” Unlimited because specific things oppose specific things. The BOUNDLESS is opposed to nothing, thus everything is IT. How to explain stability? The battle of opposites develops relative stability.
Anaximenes: Air and the Fixed Sphere of Stars
Anaximenes (especially his view of a fixed sphere of stars): He continued the “school” of Milesians, seeking one basic substance responsible for all change, while remaining unchanged itself. Air is the ‘stuff’ from which everything is made. Air can be rarefied and condensed, forming fire, wind, water, earth, and stones. Stars are attached to a crystalline sphere turning around the earth.
Contributions of the Milesian School
Contributions of the Milesian school:
- First ‘school’ of philosophy.
- Desire for simple explanations apart from mythos.
- Empiricists: support theory by observation of how the world works.
- Naturalists: explain natural phenomena by other, natural phenomena.
- Monistic: ultimately in all the diversity of the world, there is only ONE stuff.
Heraclitus: The Philosophy of Fire and Change
Heraclitus: Basic stuff is FIRE, with a metaphorical meaning: fire remains the same, yet changes, therefore there is a substance like fire. He was able to explain ‘change’ and ‘stability.’ Reality is a process of continual destruction and creation. Nothing is ever the same again: “Cannot step into the same river twice.” He began a ‘mood’: nostalgia and loss. Logos governs change: reality is rational, not chaotic.
Eleatics: Parmenides and Zeno – The Argument Against Motion
Eleatics: Parmenides and Zeno (and the argument against motion):
Parmenides (c. 515-c. 440 BCE) –“Can’t step into the same river once!” He outdid Heraclitus, using a “self-evident” truth: IT IS. A Rationalist: uses truths devised by reason. The Concept of Being: Being IS! It has no “holes.” It is uncreated, indestructible, eternal. Being is rational: only what can be thought is real. Being is everywhere, thus motion is impossible. Motion is being going where being is not.
Zeno’s Paradoxes
Zeno – Disciple of Parmenides – Rationalist – Proved the impossibility of motion by reductio absurdum, which means you use the opponent’s premises and show that they lead to an absurdity or contradiction:
- Premise: motion is possible.
- But, before you get to the door you must go half way, then half way again, and again…thus you never get to the door.
- Hence, motion is impossible.
Conclusion: The Eleatic Impact
The Eleatics caused a crisis (all rationalists do) in Greek Philosophy. They distinguished between information based on the five senses and that based on pure reason, leading to Empiricism and Rationalism. They made people rethink monism (if reality is one thing, then how can there be nothing, or motion, or how can anything be destroyed or created?).
If the real world is as Parmenides says, then this world is not real? What is real?