Posted on May 16, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics
Factors of Philosophy
Greek philosophy emerged in Miletus in the 6th century BC. Several factors contributed to its birth:
Economic Factor
The Greek economy relied heavily on trade, leading to a high standard of living. People had leisure time, as they were not obligated to work the land, allowing them time for intellectual pursuits. Maritime trade brought diverse cultures into contact, challenging existing ideas and fostering new ones, including philosophical thought.
Religious Factor
The Greeks had a tolerant religion in terms of ethics, which provided freedom of thought, essential for philosophical inquiry. While adherence to the worship of Greek gods was expected, there was flexibility in ethical conduct.
Political Factor
Athens had a democratic system, albeit a partial one, as slaves, foreigners, and women were excluded from voting. However, the emphasis on civic participation encouraged citizens to develop and defend well-reasoned arguments. Logic became dominant, and professional philosophers, known as Sophists, emerged, though their teachings were not accessible to everyone.
From Myth to Logos
Myth
In the 6th century BC, Greeks explained natural phenomena through supernatural causes derived from their culture.
Logos
As Greek mentality and spirit evolved, philosophical explanations began to replace supernatural ones. This shift marked the emergence of the first group of thinkers known as the Pre-Socratic philosophers. While still employing imagination, they increasingly relied on reason to understand natural phenomena.
Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Heracl*tus (540-480 BC)
Heracl*tus, also known as “The Obscure,” wrote in aphorisms, short phrases open to interpretation. For example, “You cannot step into the same river twice” reflects his belief in constant change. He was a misanthrope, critical of human nature and its individualism.
Cosmology
Heracl*tus believed that change, though constant, was not chaotic but orderly. He attributed this order to logos, a principle of reason and justice. He saw the arche, the fundamental principle, as fire, symbolizing change and movement. He also proposed the doctrine of eternal return, suggesting a cyclical nature of life and events.
Heracl*tus embraced change and believed in rational knowledge, while also acknowledging the validity of sensory experience.
Pythagoras (572-497 BC)
Pythagoras was a prominent politician and orator who eventually emigrated to Croton, where he founded a school that resembled a cult. This school blended politics, mathematics, and religion.
Arche and Theory of the Soul
Pythagoras identified the arche as number, an abstract concept. He saw the mathematical relationships between numbers as the basis for harmony in the universe. He also believed in the theory of the soul, proposing that the soul is immortal and undergoes reincarnation, transmigrating into different bodies.
Parmenides (540-470 BC)
Parmenides was an idealist and abstract thinker who opposed Heracl*tus’s philosophy of change. He argued that change, involving the transition from being to non-being, was impossible.
Theory of Knowledge
tells us that there are three ways to know the truth
– Via the falsehood total: A = not A, is absurd.
– Via the truth: I affirm that there BE A = A is a logically perfect truth.
– Via lopinió: (principle of all philosophers) The SER and the SER-NO can exist simultaneously.
CONCLUSION: BE is, and NOT-BE is not.
His Arche is the SER. It is a very abstract concept that we we can not imagine. Its properties are:
– Is continuous, because if you had a limit should dadmetre NO-BE
– Is complete: to be, you can not miss be, because it is lesser.
– Is still: no vacuum, so there is no movement.
– Is eternal: you can not find origin and purpose.
For him, there is no change because the change over to the BE-BE NO. If the change exists, the knowledge of absolute truth was impossible, because that would be true today, tomorrow it would not. Lúnic valid knowledge is the reason.
Pluralistic
The pluralist does not believe that there is only one Arche, but there is dun. For them, it will not be lelement originating larkhé the world, but will be lelement own the structure of matter. the question that tries to answer the question is no longer larkhé Loriga of lunivers know, but know that it is made.
Empedocles (483-430 BC)
Affirms that the material consists of four arkhés: earth, water, air, fire, materials of which all beings are formed. According to him, being is generated from the mixture daquests four elements. This statement lexplica from two forces: Lamor, which blend together and the elements, and Lodi, which separates them. From daquestes phases, there is an eternal cyclic process: there is neither birth nor disappearances, but mixed.
Anaxagoras (500-428 BC)
Explains laparició and the disappearance of things by two principles, the seeds are seeds of all beings, and these are all of them, but in each there own predominate. No really new, but everything always exist. The second principle is the nuts, seeds prevents remoguin into chaos, taking a role orderly and dynamic. The new sencarrega Lord, movement and change.
Democritus (460-370 BC)
It liniciador atomist philosophical movement, says that matter can not be divided until linfinit, and therefore, this matter now indivisible basic principles. Therefore, he called atoms (indivisible). Affirms that there is only matter to be what is matter composed of atoms and non-being is lespai vacuum that allows the movement of atoms to form several coconuts. There Latz, but lunivers has a series of physical laws, which may be known to us.
