Pre-Socratic philosophy
Pre-Socratic philosophers (pre-Socrates) are often very hard to pin down, and it is sometimes very difficult to determine the actual line of argument they used in supporting their particular views. While most of these thinkers produced significant texts, none of these texts have survived in complete form. All we have are quotations by later philosophers, historians, and the occasional textual fragment.
The pre-Socratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations for the phenomena they saw around them in favor of more rational explanations. They asked:
- Where does everything come from?
- What is it really made out of?
- How do we explain the plurality of things found in nature?
- Why are we able to describe them with a singular mathematics?
Nearly all of the various cosmologies proposed by the early Greek philosophers are demonstrably false. Later philosophers rejected the answers they provided, but continued to place importance on their questions.
List of Philosophers
This list includes several men, particularly the Seven Sages, who appear to have been practical politicians and sources of epigrammatic wisdom, rather than speculative thinkers or philosophers in the modern sense.
- Periander (625-585 BCE)
- Solon (c. 594 BCE)
- Thales (c. 585 BCE)
- Aristeas of Proconessus (7th Century BC ?)
- Anaximander (610-547)
- Anaximenes of Miletus (585-525)
- Pherecydes of Syros (c. 540 BCE)
- Chilon of Sparta (c. 560 BCE)
- Bias of Priene (c. 570 BCE)
- Cleobulus of Rhodes (c. 600 BCE)
- Anacharsis (c. 590 BCE)
- Pittacus of Mitylene (c. 600 BCE)
- Pythagoras (582-496)
- Theano (mathematician) (5th century BC, dates unknown)
- Xenophanes (570-470)
- Heraclitus (535-475)
- Parmenides (510-440)
- Leucippus (5th century BC, dates unknown)
- Anaxagoras (500-428)
- Empedocles (490-430)
- Zeno of Elea (490-430)
- Hippias (485-415)
- Gorgias (483-375)
- Protagoras (481-420)
- Philolaus (480-405)
- Antiphon (person) (480-411)
- Melissus of Samos (C.470-Unknown)
- Prodicus (465-390?)
- Diogenes of Apollonia (C.460-Unknown)
- Democritus (460-370)
- Archytas (428-347)
Notable Movements
External Links
- D. H. Th. Vollenhoven's History of the Presocratic Philosophers translated by H. Evan Runner [1]
| This article is part of The Presocratic Philosophers series |
| Thales | Anaximander | Anaximenes of Miletus | Pythagoras | Philolaus | Archytas | Empedocles | Heraclitus | Parmenides | Zeno of Elea | Melissus of Samos | Xenophanes | Anaxagoras | Leucippus | Democritus | Protagoras | Gorgias | Prodicus | Hippias | Pherecydes |