Pre-Socratic and Socratic philosophy

Philosophy · Introduction and ancient philosophy. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

The first Greek philosophers looked for the arche, the first principle of all things, and explained nature by reason and not by myth. Thales named water. Heraclitus saw constant change ruled by the logos. Parmenides argued by pure reason that what is must be one and unchanging, so change is only appearance. Democritus answered with atoms moving in a void.

The Sophists were paid travelling teachers of rhetoric in fifth-century Athens, and several of them held that truth and justice are relative.

Socrates (died 399 BC) turned philosophy towards ethics. He wrote nothing, questioned people about virtues such as courage, and sought definitions that hold in every case.

Rules to remember

Thales of Miletus: water is the arche; usually counted the first Western philosopher
Heraclitus: everything flows; one cannot step into the same river twice; fire as the symbol of change
Parmenides: being is one, eternal and unchanging; trust reason, not the senses
Democritus (following Leucippus): indivisible atoms and the void
Protagoras the Sophist: 'Man is the measure of all things' (relativism)
Socratic method (elenchus): question, answer, counter-example, improved answer; he likened it to a midwife's work
Socrates: 'virtue is knowledge', so no one does wrong willingly; tried for impiety and corrupting the young; our sources are Plato and Xenophon

Common mistake

Swapping Heraclitus and Parmenides. Heraclitus is the philosopher of change; Parmenides denies that change is real.

Worked example

A thinker says that things really do come to be and pass away, yet the ultimate constituents of the world are themselves eternal and unchanging. Which pre-Socratic view is this?

Heraclitus stresses change but names no unchanging particles, so he does not fit.
Parmenides denies that real change happens at all, so he does not fit either.
Democritus keeps unchanging being in the atoms, and explains change as atoms joining and separating in the void.

Answer: The atomism of Democritus, which keeps a Parmenidean unchanging reality (the atoms) while allowing the change seen by the senses.

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