Permanent Flux
It is said that every great journey begins with one step. This is not true. A more accurate saying would be, “every great journey begins with the idea of the journey”, thus leading to the idea of the step, and so on. The steps will surly follow an idea, but nevertheless the ideas will always precede any action. Once one gets an idea in one’s head, one must either forget it, or act on it. Such as the case with the first Philosophers, known now as the Pre-Socratics. The Pre-Socratics, which started around 600 B.C.E., formed ideas of a journey to enlightenment of their society. Instead of dismissing this idea, they thrived off it and took the first steps toward teaching an entirely new way of thinking. These first thinkers of philosophy, which has an appropriate meaning of the love of wisdom, wanted to know more about life, earth, the stars and most importantly, the “being” of it all. Though not the first of the original thinkers, Heraclitus of Ephesus, was among this group of lovers of wisdom and revolutionized the world with his idea of “being” and allowed mankind to follow in his steps.
The Pre-Socratics are known for creating philosophy by searching for a rational order to their world and their being. Prior to the philosophers, man simply accepted the mythological stories and supernatural concepts. The philosophers, however, approached questions to by observing their surroundings. This was the world they could touch and feel, therefore making it an ideal foundation to their quires. The first of the Pre-Socratics examined the natural world and assumed the “stuff” that made all things “be” came from the natural surroundings around them. For example, by an early scientific and rational approach, the Pre-Socratics took the four elements of the world, as they knew them to be (water, air, earth, and fire), and studied them. Some deduced water to be the “stuff”, while others looked to air, or the earth to answers their zealous questions of being. Heraclitus, on the other hand, found a unity in all the elements, and related “being” to “fire”. His reference to fire, however, is purely metaphorical. While his predecessors focused on the actual elements they felt were the “stuff” that made the existence of being, Heraclitus’ only focused on fire to demonstrate his metaphysical concept of constant flux.
Heraclitus is noted for saying, “there is nothing permanent except change.
The following book of Peter Kreeft’s work, The Journey, will include a summary along with mine and the authors’ critique. As you read the book it is a very pleasant, symbolic story of always-existing wisdom as you go along the pathway of what knowledge really is. It talks about Socrates, someone who thinks a lot about how people think, from Athens, is a huge part in this book. This book is like a roadmap for modern travelers walking the very old pathway in search of reality. It will not only show us the pathway they took, but the pathway that we should take as well.
In the Stoic account of physics, all things identified, debated, discussed and pondered fall strictly into certain categories in the Stoic ontological structure. Of the three branches of the very broad category of ‘somethings,’ the two most relevant to this paper are bodies and incorporeals. The rigid conception of Physics as articulated by the Stoics seems to use the incorporeal somethings as a means to categorize, locate, and evaluate those things which are bodily. In their incorporeals, the Stoics include lekta (which I will discuss later, as it is an integral part of their causality), void, place and time. Stoic causality, a largely deterministic discussion of events in a fated world, discusses the alteration of bodies without defining any bodies as effects. In characterizing the effects of causation as only lekta, I believe the Stoics have left themselves with an incomplete discussion of causality. By showing that an effect of a particular cause may incorporate both incorporeal and bodily aspects, I hope to provide a more acceptable account of causation while demonstrating various holes in the Stoic account.
Zeno of Citium founded the philosophy of Stoicism around 300 BCE. His school met informally at the Painted Stoa, a covered colonnade on the northern edge of the Athenian Agora (Sellars, 1). Zeno was the son of a merchant from Citium in Cyprus, but his environment was heavily influenced by the Greeks. Although there is no way of knowing exactly what sparked his interest in philosophy, it is believed that his father brought home many Socratic books from his travels to Athens (Sandbach, 20). Zeno finally journeyed to Athens, most likely inspired by his readings, when he was 22 years old. While in Athens, Zeno was exposed to many different ways of thinking, but he was most affected by the Cynic outlook (Sandbach, 20). Second-hand accounts and late stoic writings tell the story of how Zeno came across the Cynics. He was said to have been reading a Socratic book in a bookstall that prompted him to ask the bookse...
For those Pre-Socratics who picked not to join the Eleatic camp, the new test was to accommodate Parmenides' thoroughly contended dismissal of progress and assortment with the clearly changing and fluctuated universe of sense experience. Dissimilar to the Eleatics, these philosophers, the pluralists, were not arranged to surrender
The Archaic Greek philosophers created the concept of natural philosophy, which means practicing philosophy and science before the understanding of modern sc. In Classical Greece, philosophy focused on man’s position in society, instead of the natural world. Also Classical Grecians were devoted to epistemology (philosophy of knowledge and cognition), right conduct, and ethics. Although in the Archaic age, their philosophers questioned the power and presence of the gods. As well as a world, where natural processes operated and man’s mind was able to understand. While the Classical Greek age continued, Thales created the philosophy of materialism, and Pythagoras cultivated idealism.
One of the first philosophers was Socrates who once said, “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” He encouraged his students to examine their beliefs, causing people to realize they held many contradictory opinions and his teaching method became known as the “Socratic method.” The textbook stated that at about age 70, Socrates was brought to court for “corrupting the youth of Athens,” and “neglecting the city’s gods.” Those who understood Socrates admired him deeply, but the majority of people at that time didn’t, causing him to be put to death. However, one of his students, Plato, continued his teacher’s legacy and wrote his most famous work, The Republic, which depicted his version of a perfected governed city. This vision was not a democracy, but of a society in which the citizens naturally fell into the 4 categories of farmers, artisans, warriors, and the ruling class, which include the most intellectual. Plato also founded a school in 387 B.C. called the Academy where Aristotle was taught. Aristotle was another great philosopher and is said to have once argued, “He who studies how things originated… will achieve the clearest view of them.” The Greeks were the beginning of philosophy and made many long-lasting contributions that still affect the Western Civilization
Recognized as one of the classical Greek Athenian philosophers who founded Western philosophy, Socrates was a mysterious figure known essentially through the accounts of later classical writers, especially from writings of his students Xenophon and the most popular Plato. Through Plato’s dialogues, Socrates has been portrayed and renowned for his involvement in the field of moral principles, and by this the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic Method had come about. With Socrates’ pedagogy, a series of questions can be asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to persuade deep-seated insights into the real issues at hand. His result remains a frequently used tool in a broad series of discussions.
Upon the arisal of an adversity, most individuals initially go through the means of seeking an answer in order to provide an end to whichever difficulty is at play. Throughout the centuries, the course of such an action has been demonstrated by thousands of philosophers. One of which includes Peter Singer and his solution to end world poverty. However, there was one Greek philosopher, Socrates, who took a different route when it came to finding solutions. This was displayed when Socrates asked whether or not there was a general definition for the world ‘chair’. A vast array of Greek citizens who tried to answer this question were left in a state of perplexity. To ease the minds of those he had bewildered, Socrates announced that there was not
...y thinks, but is greatly influenced by the society’s conflicts and the mindsets of its people. In the case of Plato and Epictetus, the philosophies that they came up with were formed by the loss of faith in the system of government, life as a slave, and personal experiences in exile. These experiences helped these philosophers to create a set of guidelines that got them through their ordeals and live out the rest of their lives. In understanding these works, we are able to understand how historical events and ideas of the time helped to lead history down the path that it did. Following the change in thought and how different philosophies develop in different environments also allows use to gauge how conditions improve or decline over time. Being able to see the patterns in the past may very well help us predict whether life in the future will flourish or decline.
Moreover, the apparatus that philosophy seeks is the independent knowledge about the essential factors of life from god, love, and justice. Knowledge must also be autonomous or self-directed and must consist of ideas that do not endanger a community (Dungey, 2016). In addition, the process that occurs in order for one to maintain philosophy is the continuous questioning about the essential theories of life. However, from the view of Aristophanes’ Clouds the viewpoints and the ideas about life can be dangerous.
The Pre-Socratics worked on a new method of thinking regarding being able to explain how things work in human’s life or nature without resorting abstract thoughts such as mythology. They were concerned preeminently with identifying the ultimate substance of the universe, and the wrestled with apparent contradictions between the internal and the finite, the immutable and the changing, appearance and reality. Instead of using god as an answer the used reason as their tool to figure out how things work. In a large sense they were considered the first scientist and philosophers of the western world. They viewed the world as a kosmos. Their style of thinking was known as natural philosophy. A theme common among Pre-Socratics is that the experienced
The Enlightenment can also see a lot of its roots in Ancient Greek and Roman le...
Heraclitus’ explanation of the universe was constant flux and opposition that explained everything that happened in nature. He uses a river as an example to explain that the water running is in opposition against the earth but this opposition creates the river, and even though the water in the river is never the same, it’s still a river. He also uses this observation in nature to justify the existence of strife and war because the need for justice and structure is created in accordance to that chaos. Under Heraclitus’ explanation, everything is unified by a rational order called logos that structures the whole universe. He also that through our observations and with the proper senses, someone can gain great understanding about the universe.
Reality as a whole, and the nature of it, continues to be a puzzling point in most areas of study. This quest began after men sought to find the “One” (underlying principle) amidst the “Many” variations of life as a way to explain the world around them. Once can simply categorize “One” and “Many” as “Being” continuity, and “Becoming” change, respectively. There is a natural divide among men on this subject due to their subjective understanding of the world. In this paper, I will propose my theory of “Being”, which is in response to Heraclitus’ opinions of the unity of opposites, and the universe, grounded on the concept of innate potential. The goal of this essay is to present the idea that “Being” and “Becoming” can, and does, occur simultaneously,
in the ideal order, not necessarily in the things themselves, but rather above them, in a world by itself” (Chaput, C. p.2). For the concept,therefore, Plato substitutes the Idea. He completes the work of Socrates by teaching that the objectively real Ideas are the foundation and justification of scientific knowledge. At the same time he has in mind a problem which claimed much attention from pre-Socratic thinkers, the problem of change. The Platonic theory of Ideas is an attempt to solve this crucial question by a metaphysical compromise. The Eleatics, Plato said, are right in maintaining that reality does not change; for the ideas are immutable. Still, there is, as contended, change in the world of our experience, or, as Plato terms it, the world of phenomena. Plato, then, supposes a world of Ideas apart from the world of our experience, and immeasurably superior to it. He imagines that all human souls dwelt at one time in that higher world. When, therefore, we behold in the shadow-world around us a phenomenon or appearance of anything, the mind is moved to a remembrance of the Idea (of that same phenomenal thing) which it formerly contemplated. In its deligh...