My Journal

Western Philosophy was birthed on May 28th 585 B.C. by Thales' solar eclipse.

Outline:

Pre-socratic

- Thales - The question of "One and the Many - the quest for mono-arche = monarchy" / relationship btw "unity & diversity" (results in "Universe") -> ultimate reality -> metaphysics. Telos (teleology) -> why. The search for essence/substance/stuff. Ultimate essence is water for its 3 forms (being) and necessity in life and Hylozoistic (motions of sea, river, etc.) which is supposed to solve for infinite regress (self moving like automobile) (by Thales) contrasting with Paul's Act 17:28a  'For in him we live and move and have our being.'

From the book: The Consequences of Ideas by R.C. Sproul:

It is interesting to note that a janitor/cleaning guy gave up working in the intellectual world because it cost him his wife and children back in the days of the Nazis, when he was a professor in philosophy, which is what the 3rd Reich hated (any ideas different than Hitler's). His knowledge stunned the young Sproul who freshly graduated with a philosophy degree and working by his side doing the same work (it was hard to find job for a philosophy graduate). - From the book's introduction.

Chapter 1:

The combination of any 2 terms from Corporeal, Incorporeal, Monism, Pluralism sums up 4 chief categories of the pre-Socratic philosophers. For example: Thales => C.M.; Empedocles, Anaxagoras => C.P.

3 Milesian Philosophers:

Thales used the quest of unmoved mover (thus not originated from Aristotle) to find water as the answer by seeing the moving oceans and rivers.

Thales' student Anaximander -> Apeiron (indeterminate boundless) -> Pluralism.

Anaximenes, student of Anaximander -> combine Thales and Anaximander (both specific and spread everywhere) -> air (rarefaction vs condensation, essential to life, wind, etc.).

Pythagoras:

Migrated from Samos to southern Italy. Religious interest in mathematics. 10 is perfect number. Formal over material, spiritual/intellectual over physical. Math is a matter of the soul. Music (consists of mathematical proportions, numerical ratios) soothes the savage beast.

Heraclitus & Parmenides (giants of the pre-Socratic):
Heraclitus:

Ephesian. Father of modern existentialism (I wonder why this fact is only presented by Christians from my brief online research). Panta rhei = All things are flowing. Becoming instead of Being. Not possible to step into the same river twice. Fire as basic element because it is constantly in flux. Always in process, always being transformed. Process is not chaotic, but orchestrated by "God", an impersonal force. Flux is product of universal reason Heraclitus calls the logos. The root of John's logos. But John's logos is filled with Hebrew thoughts. Heraclitus thus is pantheistic. All conflicts are resolved in the overarching Fire or the logos of things.
Work(s): On Nature.

Parmenides:

Eleatic (Elea = Italy) school of philosophy.
"Whatever is, is."
Change violates the law of non-contradiction. It cannot be and not be at the same time. Change is an illusion, not an "it".
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Ex nihilo, nihil fit = Out of nothing, nothing comes.
Attacks notion of self-creation, including Christian view.
The "how" of creation and creator-creature difference remains a mystery. Sproul: We take comfort, however, that mystery is not a synonym of contradiction.
This impasse of change promoted the skepticism era.
Work(s): The Way of Truth and the Way of Seeming.

Zeno of Elea:

Parmenides' student. The critics against Parmenides were done using the 5 senses to confirm change. Zeno established proofs/paradoxes that senses deal not with reality but appearances only:

1. Using circle tracks traveling in halves of the previous halves to show the pluralists that the world is not divisible because of infinite points.
2. Achilles and a tortoise.
3. Flying arrow is not really moving if it has to occupy the same space with the same length. Thus must always be at rest.
4. relativity.

Empedocles:

Sicilian. Challenged Zeno's skepticism. Change is too obvious to deny. Particles posses being and do not change, but the composition of particles do change. He changed Parmenides' monism to pluralism: 4 basic elements: earth, air, fire & water. Later a 5th element was considered to the other 4. Hence the word quintessence. Two opposite forces: love vs. strife, harmony vs. discord.
Work(s): On Nature, Purifications.

Anaxagoras:

Athenian. Tweaked Corporeal Pluralism by introducing eternal units: spermata (seeds). Reality is composed of matter and mind.

Democritus:

Primitive Atomism.