| 3.7 |
Philosophy 700 to 400 BCE: The ancient Greek naturalist mind
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Between 700 to 400 BCE signified the
early development period of Greek city-states along the Mediterranean. These
cities themselves became magnets for all things valuable to exchange, including
philosophies. |
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A general consensus in Western philosophy
is that the first Greek philosopher was Thales of Miletus, who lived around the
first half of the 6th Century BCE. Interestingly, these great thinkers
considered nature and the natural world above the concept of physical and
troublesome Gods. |
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| 3.7.1 |
The rebellion against the tyranny of the
gods |
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What makes Thales and his successors
during this period very interesting, is that they represent a clear movement of
thought amongst people living along the Mediterranean. at that time away from
the historical beliefs of physical flesh and blood gods towards a more
universal approach to the life and what it is to be human. |
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| Key concept: The elementary nature of the Universe |
Architect |
Thales of Miletus (548–545 BCE) |
Main influence |
Unknown |
Idea |
That everything in nature is made up of more complex forms of water. Water being the essential unit of matter. Everything is created naturally, unaided by gods. |
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Thales' disciple and successor, Anaximander of Miletus (mid-6th century), tried to maintain the argument of water being the source of life by providing a creation theory of the cosmos being around an ethereal concept call apeiron from which all things physical were born, including opposites. |
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| 3.7.1 |
The collective of things |
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| Key concept: The smaller “unseen” elementary nature of the universe |
Architect |
Anaximenes of Miletus (575—400? BCE) |
Main influence |
Anaximander of Miletus (610– 545 BCE) |
Idea |
That everything in nature is made up of more complex forms of air. Air being the essential unseen unit of matter. Everything is created naturally unaided. All matter is part of a universal collective of elementary particles |
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In spite of the belief that air is the origin of things, the work of Anaximenes represents one of the greatest milestones in human thought because of its parallel to the essential laws of conservation, matter, force and energy all being made of the same "thing" that we essentially can't see "like air". |
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It also represents the first time the philosophy of all things being part of the same “collective” of things appears in the Western mind. |
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| 3.7.2 |
The universal god |
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The notion of life being independent of the influence and hand of the gods gave the base for an even more astounding and historic level of human awareness. |
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| Key concept: The absolute all-powerful god of the universe |
Architect |
Xenophanes of Colophon (born c. 560 BCE) |
Main influence |
Anaximenes of Miletus (575—400? BCE) |
Idea |
There is only one God, the ruler of the universe, who must be eternal. For, being the strongest of all beings, he could not have come out of something less strong, nor could he be overcome or be superseded by something else because nothing could arise that is stronger than the strongest. |
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| 3.7.3 |
The universal singular awareness
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| Key concept: The eternal singular “being” |
Architect |
Parmenides of Elea (515-480? BCE) |
Main influence |
Xenophanes of Colophon (born c. 560 BCE) |
Idea |
the multiplicity of existing things, their changing forms and motion, are but an appearance of a single eternal reality (“Being or Dream”), “all is one.” Claims of non-Being to Being are illogical. Likewise claims of Being to non-Being are illogical. Nothing can come from Nothing. Therefore being must always have existed and thus is eternal. Parmenidian Boundary– Nothing can come from nothing.
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Parmenides insisted that "what is" cannot have come into being and cannot pass away because it would have to have come out of nothing or to become nothing, whereas nothing by its very nature does not exist. |
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The familiar world, in which things move around, come into being, and pass away, is a world of mere belief (doxa). |
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| 3.7.4 |
Unique point of spiritual fire |
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| Key concept: LOGOS the “individual spiritual fire”- The smallest “unseen” elementary nature of the universe |
Architect |
Heracleitus of Ephesus (540 –480 BCE) |
Main influence |
Anaximenes of Miletus (575—400? BCE) |
Idea |
Logos– a universal belief that which all things are interrelated and all natural events occur for a reason. A manifestation of the Logos is the attraction and inter-relation of opposites– good/bad, light/dark, life/death. The world is made from ever-living fire kindling in measures and being extinguished in measures. |
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Thus the minds of Parmenides and Heracleitus opened up the Western mind to the idea of a singular consciousness, an idea, a dream, a point of awareness. |
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| 3.7.4 |
The structure and nature of the universe |
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| Key concept: The standard model of elements of nature |
Architect |
Empedocles of Acragas (490-430 BCE) |
Main influence |
Parmenides of Elea (515-480? BCE) |
Idea |
all matter is composed of four essential ingredients, fire, air, water, and earth, and that nothing either comes into being or is destroyed but that things are merely transformed, depending on the ratio of basic substances, to one another. Two forces, Love and Strife, interact to bring together and to separate the four substances. Strife makes each of these elements withdraw itself from the others; Love makes them mingle together. Both forces are blind. Life and more complex matter is formed by chance with the fittest surviving.
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| 3.7.5 |
The universe as unique collective mind (awareness)
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| Key concept: NOUS– The universal mind and reason |
Architect |
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500– 428 BCE) |
Main influence |
Parmenides of Elea (515-480? BCE) |
Idea |
everything is contained in everything in the form of infinitely small parts. In the beginning all of these particles were mixed in an even mixture, in which nothing could be distinguished. But then nous,
or universal mind, began at one point to set these particles into a whirling motion, creating the principles of the physical world, empty space and filled space--consisting of absolutely indivisible (cannot be divided further) atomic units.
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The universal entity called nous (mind) that thinks (dreams) and intends the production of the cosmos, including living and intelligent beings; but it does not interfere with the process after having started the motion of creation. This description by Anaxagoras more than 2,500 years ago is almost the same theory of Unique Collective Awareness (UCA) and the non-local theory of the universe derived from Quantum Mechanics observations.
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| 3.7.5 |
The birth of the "atomic" theory
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| Key concept: First Atomic theory of the Universe |
Architect |
Leucippus (450 BCE?) |
Main influence |
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500– 428 BCE) |
Idea |
theory of atomism. Two works (The Great World System and On the Mind). There are only two fundamental principles of the physical world, empty space and filled space--that matter is homogeneous but consists of an infinity of small indivisible particles called ATOMS. These atoms are constantly in motion, and through their collisions and regroupings form various compounds. Answered the Parmenides Boundary that nothing does exist, but as empty space.
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On the basis of this idea, Democritus added the idea that all objects in the physical world can be explained by analysis of their atomic structure. |
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While Leucippus, Democritus argued the structure of all things being atoms, a different theory had emerged from the end of the 6th Century BCE via Pythagoras of Samos. |
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| 3.7.5 |
Pythagorus and the mystery of numbers
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Pythagoras traveled extensively throughout the ancient world, in particular Egypt and parts of Asia. At Croton and Metapontum he founded a philosophical society where he gained considerable political influence. |
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| Key concept: KOSMOS-The universe of numbers |
Architect |
Pythagorus of Samos (560– 500? BCE) |
Main influence |
Unknown |
Idea |
ALL things “are” number, or “resemble” number. Therefore all things can be described in number (hence mathematics). Number and proportion of number underpin the harmonia (“fitting together”) of the kosmos (“the beautiful order of things”); and the application of the tetraktys (theory of the pattern of 4) to the theory of music revealed a hidden order in the range of sound.
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| Key concept: Soul and its transmigration |
Architect |
Pythagorus of Samos (560– 500? BCE) |
Main influence |
Egyptian mystery schools |
Idea |
Humans have a soul, which after death migrates to another place. Where it goes is dependent upon the proper practices and devotions of life. Number, music and rules in ritual can help purify the soul to seek a mystical union with the divine.
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Pythagorean ideas influenced the discovery of several major mathematical insights such as Hippasus of Metapontum (450BCE) who discovered that the quantitative relation between the side and diagonal of such simple figures as the square and the regular pentagon cannot be expressed as a ratio of integers. |
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