Philosophy

Philosophy Study Guide

©2018 of 126 explanations that were within the natural world and used reason as the methodological tool to make sense of things. Heraclitus was the most influential of the pre-Socratic philosophers and stated, “Those who are lovers of wisdommust be inquirers into many things,” and it was in this spirit that he proposed views of the natural world that encompassed the present day disciplines of physics, astronomy, geology, chemistry, meteorology, and embryology. Heraclitus viewed the world as the cosmos---an ordered natural arrangement that could be understood with the power of human reason and references to gods and or mystical forces which were not relevant and not welcomed. Heraclitus maintained that all things were in a constant state of flux and that the governing principle of the universe (what he called logos) which is an objective law like principles that govern the universe and which it is possible (but difficult) for humans to come to understand. There is a single order that directs all events in the cosmos; all things are one and this order is divine in the sense that it is immortal. All is change and change alone is unchanging, as nothing in the world remains static. Fire is another metaphor he used to describe logos—the inner eternal form of the ever-changing cosmos, meaning this world is the same for all, no god made or any man but it ever was and ever shall be an ever-living fire that kindles in regular measures and goes out by regular measures. Heraclitus believed that the world is produced by the ongoing conflict of opposing forces, a unity of opposites that are continually at odds with one another. For Heraclitus, truth and knowledge are hidden and elusive and cannot be captured though systemic study. 6.2 Pre-Socratic Philosophers Pre-Socratic philosophy is Greek philosophy before Socrates and includes schools contemporary to Socrates that were not influenced by him. Western philosophy began in ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE. The pre-Socratics were mostly from the eastern or western fringes of the Greek world. Their efforts were directed to the investigation of the ultimate basis and essential nature of the external world. They sought the material principle (archê) of things, and the method of their origin and disappearance. As the first philosophers, they emphasized the rational unity of things and rejected mythological explanations of the world. The pre-Socratic thinkers present a discourse concerned with key areas of philosophical inquiry, such as being and the cosmos, the primary stuff of the universe, the structure and function of the human soul, and the underlying principles governing perceptible phenomena, human knowledge, and morality. The pre-Socratics formed an indispensable bridge from early cultural consciousness dominated by gods, mystical spirits and powers, magic and myth to a cultural consciousness founded on reason and scientific investigation of the natural world. The philosophical study of metaphysics examines issues beyond the physical world such as the meaning of life, the existence of free will, and the fundamental principles of the universe. Metaphysics attempts to explain the nature of reality itself, with Aristotle laying the foundation for this branch of philosophy. Philosophical inquiry into the nature or truth is called epistemology. The study of epistemology attempts to describe and explain the nature of knowledge and truth, and whether it is possible to achieve genuine knowledge or perceive an ultimate truth. Some important pre-Socratic Achieve Page 65