PRE-SOCRATIC-PERIOD (Group 2)

PRE-SOCRATIC PERIOD
The Pre-Socratic period of the Ancient era of

philosophy refers to Greek philosophers active
before Socrates, or contemporaries of Socrates
who expounded on earlier knowledge.
Socrates was an ancient Greek
philosopher, one of the three greatest Who is
figures of the ancient period of Western
philosophy, who lived in Athens in the Socrates?
5th century BCE. A legendary figure even
in his own time, he was admired by his
followers for his integrity, his self-
mastery, his profound philosophical
insight, and his great argumentative skill.
He was the first Greek philosopher to
seriously explore questions of ethics. His
influence on the subsequent course of
ancient philosophy was so great that the
cosmologically oriented philosophers
who generally preceded him are
conventionally referred to as the “pre-
Socratics.”
The
Milesians
Their interests in measuring and explaining
celestial and terrestrial phenomena were as
strong as their concern with the more abstract
inquiries into the causes and principles of
substance and change attributed to them by
Aristotle.
Thales
of
Miletus
(c. 624 – 546
B.C.E.)
He was an early Pre-
Socratic philosopher,
mathematician and
astronomer from the
Greek city of Miletus
in Ionia.
He was the first to Thales concluded that the world is

reject ultimately made of water. He came
supernatural to this conclusion after observing
explanations and that the world rests at the top of
seek reasons water and that all life
behind events. depends on it.
Anaximander
( c. 610 –
546 B.C.)
He was an early Pre-Socratic philosopher from
the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia (modern-day
Turkey). He was a key figure in the Milesian School, as
a student of Thales and teacher of Anaximenes and
Pythagoras.
He tried to observe and

explain different aspects
of the universe and its
origins, and to describe
the mechanics of celestial
bodies in relation to the
Earth.
Anaximenes
(c. 585 – 525
B.C.)
He was an early Pre-Socratic philosopher
from the Greek city
of Miletus in Ionia(modern-day Turkey).
He was a key figure in the Milesian
School, a friend and pupil
of Anaximander and he continued
the Milesians' philosophical inquiries
into the "archк" or first principle of the
universe, and sought to give a quasi-
scientific explanation of the world.
In the physical sciences, Anaximenes

was the first Greek to distinguish clearly
between planets and stars, and he used
his principles to account for
various natural phenomena, such as
thunder and lightning, rainbows,
earthquakes, etc.
Heraclitus
(c. 535- 475
B.C.)
God is “day night,
winter summer,
war peace, satiety
hunger…”.
Fire plays a
significant role in
He was a Pre-Socratic his picture of the
Greek philosopher from Ephesus, on
cosmos. No God
the Ionian coast of modern-day
Turkey. He is sometimes mentioned in
or man created
connection with the Ephesian the cosmos, but it
School of philosophy, although he was always was, is,
really the only prominent member of and will be fire.
that school
Xenophanes
(c. 570 – 478
B.C.)
He was from Colophon,
north of Miletus in Ionia.
He did not remain in
Colophon, but travelled
around Greece reciting his
poetry, finally settling in
modern day Sicily.
Xenophanes famously proclaims that if other animals

were able to draw the gods, they would depict the gods
with bodies like their own. Beyond this, all things come
to be from earth , not the gods, although it is unclear
whence the earth came.
Parmenides
of
Elea
Parmenides argues that human thought can
reach genuine knowledge or understanding,
and that there are certain marks or signs that
act as guarantees that the goal of knowledge
has been reached.
The Eleatics
Zeno of Elea Melissus of Samos
He paid particular He explicitly claimed

attention to the that only one thing can
contrast between the be. If what-is is
requirements of logical unlimited, it must be
argument and the one and all alike.
He specifically argues
evidence of the senses.
against the empty, and
rejects the possibility of
rearrangement.
The Pluralists
Empedocles
(c. 495 - 435 B.C)
He was a Greek pre-
Socratic philosopher
and a citizen of
Akragas, a Greek city
in Sicily.
Empedocles is the source of the Classical idea that the
universe is composed of four elements: Earth, Water, Air,
and Fire. Believing that is was impossible for anything to
come into existence out of nothing, or for existing things
to go into nothing, he believed that all change was brought
about by the mixing of those four elements. Part of this
belief in the continuation of existence was his firm belief
in reincarnation.
Anaxagoras
“The Greeks do not think correctly about coming-to-be and
passing-away: for no thing comes to be or passes away, but is
mixed together and dissociated from the things that are.
And thus they would be correct to call coming-to-be mixing-
together and passing-away dissociating”
Everything is constructed atoms and void:

the shapes of all the atoms and their
arrangement with respect to each other (and
the intervening void) give physical objects
their apparent characteristics.
Pre-Socratic Atomism
The Pre Socratic atomists, enthusiastically endorsed
the reality of the empty. The void is what separates
atoms and allows for the differences noted above.
Like Anaxagoras, the atomists consider all phenomenal

objects and characteristics as emerging from the
background mixture; in the case of atomism, the mix of
atoms and void. Everything is constructed of atoms and
void: the shapes of the atoms and their arrangement
with respect to each other, give physical objects their
apparent characteristics.
The Sophists
Diogenes of Apollonia revived and revised the
Milesian system of cosmology, claiming that “all
things that are alterations from the same thing and
are the same thing”. He identified this single
substance with air , like Anaximenes more than a
century before. Diogenes takes care to give
arguments for the reality and properties of his basic
principle. He says that only things that are alike can
affect one another.
The Pre-Socratic Legacy
Their interests extended to religious and ethical
thought, the nature of perception and
understanding, mathematics, meteorology, the
nature of exlanation, and the roles of matter, form,
causal mechanisms, and structure in the world.
Thank You!
Group 2
Shiena Mae Pabilonia
Georgelie Franco
Joan Antiquera
John Paul Lava

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PRE-SOCRATIC PERIOD

The Pre-Socratic period of the Ancient era of

He was the first to Thales concluded that the world is

He tried to observe and

In the physical sciences, Anaximenes

Xenophanes famously proclaims that if other animals

He paid particular He explicitly claimed

Everything is constructed atoms and void:

Like Anaxagoras, the atomists consider all phenomenal

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