Pre-Socratics

The Pre- Socratics were a group of Greek thinkers who arose before Socrates . They based their different theories on speculation about the principle and natural origin of the matter that surrounded us. Thinkers such as Thales of Miletus, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Democritus and Anaximander pretended to this philosophy of thought and carried out their work long before Socrates, with the exception of some of them who were men who belonged to the contemporary period .and they even lived long after Socrates. They were the first thinkers who broke all the mythical forms that surrounded the thoughts and began to create a rational reflection . They were in charge of taking the step that went from mythology towards logos , a process of the critical spirit and social conditions that allowed free speculation, without ties to sacred texts . They were scholars, philosophers, and cosmologists more than wise. The thought of the pre-Socratics was in charge of raising the problems that are in the continuity with respect to the previous thought of the time and with respect to the influences of Eastern thought.

✅ Who were the pre-Socratics

The so-called presocratics were a group of thinkers and philosophers who exercised their philosophical work before Socrates , began in 624 BC. C. and they managed to reach the V century BC. C. They were men considered magicians, doctors and wise men and were in charge of elaborating philosophy as an autonomous and original rational paradigm , eliminating religion , ritual and myth. Some of them were:

• Thales of Miletus . He considered water to be the beginning of all things because everything around us is made of water.
• Anaximander . He called the original principle of abstract matter as apeiron , which means the indeterminate, the infinite, the unlimited, and he thought that the elements contrary to all things emanated from it.
• Anaximenes . I thought that the air was the arche of all things because when the air condensed it originated the cold, when the truth originated the hot.
• Empedocles . For him, there were 4 different types of elements that moved through love and hate: Water , Earth , Fire and Air . Love forms a unity while hate separates them.
• Anaxagoras . He thought that each object had a characteristic proportion of matters and that these were in his whole being even in the smallest parts.
• Leucippus . Everything that surrounded us was made up of indivisible particles with different shape as well as their position and arrangement called atoms , which were tiny and mobile particles that were in constant motion.

features

• They tried to solve the question of what was the basic principle that governed all the changes of things.
• The first philosophers were called philosophers of nature or physicists since nature was their center of reflection.
• The pre-Socratic philosophers have as their central theme of reflection the problem of nature.
• Virtually all the pre-Socratic philosophers lived in the Hellenic colonies of Asia Minor or those that were in Italy.
• In some of the pre-Socratics we can observe an influence from the eastern wisdoms , mainly from Egypt and Mesopotamia .
• They were very interested in nature and its processes.
• They were cosmological philosophers

Philosophy of the Presocratics

They saw nature from the physis , a term that was based on a group of beings that inhabited the universe except for the things that man produced. For them, nature explained change and the principle of unity of things capable of generating a plurality . One of the most common questions in pre-Socratic philosophy was What is the nature of things ? And what was the internal law that governs things ?

The Presocratic Philosophy was a type of cosmology , since it was interested in the origin, structure and laws of the universe ; they were looking for an ultimate principle that could explain the physical changes in nature.

Cosmology of the Presocratics

One of the main pre-Socratic exhibitors who spoke of cosmology was Thales . For him, everything in the world was formed and based on water, since water was the arche or essence of all matter that existed. He is considered the first Greek scientist and related mathematics to logic . For the pre-Socratics, the divine gave rise to everything and for them this was known by the name of ápeiron . For some of them, all things were in constant flux and nothing remained at rest. The essence of all things was fire and wars were the mother of all things.

Contributions of the Presocratics

These philosophers left many teachings about the elements and the way of thinking about the creation of the being and the earth . They also took into account love and hate as superior forces and in the atoms, influencing life in different amounts. They left us mathematics as a legacy , such is the case of Pythagoras , they taught us about love and intelligence .