You Can't Get There from Here - Zeno and Melissus

-Zeno of Elea (c.490-430 BC)
   -Most famous student of Parmenides.
   -Renowned for his paradoxes ("para"=against, "doxa"=belief).
      -A good example is his "Dichotomy Paradox", which demonstrates that it's impossible to actually move because in order to travel any distance, we first have to complete an infinite number of distances to get there, which is impossible because human beings are finite creatures so we can't do anything an infinite number of times.  Additionally, there is no FIRST distance because any first distance can be divided in half forever.  Travel over ANY distance is impossible.  Therefore, all motion is an illusion.
         -This was labeled as a "dichotomy" because it involves repeatedly splitting a distance into two parts.
         -The story Zeno uses with Achilles and the tortoise is very similar to this.
      -Another example is the "Arrow Paradox".  For motion to occur, an object has to change its position.  However, at a certain point in time, the object is motionless.   Therefore, at every instant in time, there is no motion happening at all.  Everything is motionless at every instant.  Time is just a series of instants.  Therefore, motion is impossible.
      -Another one is that between two things, there must be an infinity of other things.  Between "A" and "B" there has to be a third object, "C".  There must be something separating "A" and "C", and also "B" and "C", etc. 
-Melissus of Samos (c. 5th century BC)
   -Same hometown as Pythagoras, except Pythagoras went to Croton in Magna Graecia, whereas it's most likely that Melissus stayed and chilled in Samos.
   -According to Plutarch, Melissus was a naval commander who fought against the Athenians (for whatever reason).
   -Developed a philosophy that was in agreement with Parmenides for the most part, except for a few things.
   -Wasn't into paradoxes, like Zeno, and argued positively.
   -Disagreed with Parmenides that being/existence is spherical, believing that instead being has no limits to share whatsoever.  This is because obviously if being had a shape, it would have limits beyond the shape.
   -Believed that non-being was impossible, like Parmenides, because "nothing" doesn't exist.  Therefore, motion is impossible because there is no empty place or void for "something" to fill!

The Road Less Traveled - Parmenides

-Parmenides (c. 515-460 BC) could be considered to be the father of metaphysics.
   -What is "metaphysics"?
      -Kind of difficult to define, but it's basically the study of existence and the exploration of the deep questions. 
         -Does God exist?  Does the soul exist?  Does ANYTHING exist??  What about free will?  etc.
      -We saw some of this stuff with other Pre-Socratics (especially Xenophanes), but it's likely that Parmenides was his student.
   -This was a crazy time in Greek history too, as it was the beginning of the great Persian invasions as well as the Peloponnesian War after that!
      -However, it was also a time of wonder too, as Greek math and science was booming in addition to philosophy.
          -Socrates had appeared on the scene, the Pythagoreans were doing crazy math shit, and medicine was really moving forward as well.
-Parmenides was from the city of Elea, Magna Graecia (modern-day Velia, Campania, Italy).
   -His followers were known as the Eleadics, named after Parmenides' hometown.
   -His philosophy:  Everything is one!  Nothing ever actually changes or moves.  Anything that appears as such is just an illusion.
      -Argues this through poetry and abstract reason rather than observation.
      -Seems to agree with Heraclitus that everyone else is completely confused about the nature of reality.
   -Wrote an epic poem called... "On Nature" (of course).
      -Tells a tale where Parmenides rides on a chariot with a bunch of hot chicks (the daughters of the god Helios) up to gates which lead to the "paths of night and day".  The hot girls persuade a goddess (unnamed, but thought to be either Sophia, Ananke, or Themis) to let the chariot through, and then she congratulates him because mortals aren't allowed to/don't travel.  He will learn two things: the opinion of mortals, and... the truth.
         -The fact that Parmenides decided to split his idea into two different categories (knowledge and belief) is a precursor to epistemology.
         -"The Way of Truth": Parmenides' arguments for the unity of being.
            -Two possible paths of inquiry: "Is and must be" OR "Isn't and can't be".
               -Obviously, we must follow the "is and must be" path because we can't logically discuss the nature of what exists with what doesn't exist (I guess that makes sense?  Maybe I need to revisit this part).
                  -Also, there's kind of a third path later on which discusses that which does and doesn't exist simultaneously, which is totally confusing and surprisingly the path most people follow, which is why they're confused!
               -Anyway, as we go down the path of "Is and must be", it takes a strange turn.  We realize that "being cannot begin to be, because that would mean that at one point it was not being.  Also, "being" can't be destroyed either because "non-being" can't be.  Therefore, change is impossible because if change existed then that would mean that it would be possible for things that "aren't" to come into being and vice-versa.
                  -So, "being" isn't one thing a one time, and then another thing at a later time, because that would count as change.  Furthermore, "being", then, MUST have unity at ANY given time.  Parmenides also points out that if being were divided up or changed, there would be "gaps" (and thus non-existence).
                  -He then goes on to talk about how existence is a sphere, although we're not sure if he means this literally or as a metaphor.
         -Regardless, he is arguing that "being" must be perfect because if it wasn't perfect, it would lack something that it COULD have, which would thus mean that it would contain "non-being" characteristics, and that's impossible!
         -"The Way of Opinion": a typical Pre-Socratic cosmology, but also he warns to not trust it completely...
            -Argues that his way of opinion, though perhaps flawed, is still the best way because it's (at least at this point) the most logical explanation for what the cosmos is exactly and shit.  However, the most important thing is that we follow philosophical argument and not our senses!
      -Parmenides then goes on to talk about how existence is a sphere, although we're not sure if he means this literally or as a metaphor.
         -Regardless, he is arguing that "being" must be perfect because if it wasn't perfect, it would lack something that it COULD have, which would thus mean that it would contain "non-being" characteristics, and that's impossible!
-All of this is, in the study of philosophy and critical thinking, called a "rational deduction": starting from a basic principle (you can have "is" but not "is not") an then exploring that idea in greater detail.
   -This is a big deal, too, in the evolution of philosophical thinking.
      -Parmenides isn't just producing rational observation based on what he can see (the Way of Opinion), but he goes on to discuss the power of argument and how he trusts that more than his own senses.
         -This doesn't mean that he was the first philosopher to argue something, but rather he tries to explain an abstract philosophical concept through rational deductions, which was new!
-Side note: Parmenides' ideas of existence may not have gained a huge following, but they were very intriguing to Plato and Aristotle, and would make a huge comeback in the Middle Ages for people trying to prove the existence of God!

Old Man River - Heraclitus

-Heraclitus (c. 535-475 BC) can be thought of as the ultimate representation of what the Pre-Socratics were all about. 
   -Wrote a book, "On Nature" (popular title at the time).
      -Full of one-liner observations:
         -"The path up and down are one and the same."
         -"Sea water: healthy for fish, unhealthy for man."
         -"Everything changes and nothing remains still ... and ... you cannot step twice into the same stream."
   -Was nicknamed "the Riddler" and "Heraclitus the Obscure".
   -From Ephesus, Ionia (modern-day Selçuk, Turkey).  However, unlike many of the other Pre-Socratics, it seems as if he never really traveled much; he just mainly chilled in his hometown.
-In the opening passage of his book, Heraclitus talks about logos.
   -Technically it just means "word" in Greek, but is way more complicated than that, and doesn't translate well into English.
   -Can also mean "account", "reason", "proportion", "measure", etc.
   -It's where "-ology" comes from in English.
   -Heraclitus in this opening passage says that the logos that he speaks of is something that nobody understands, even when they are told of it.
      -People go through their life unaware of this logos, even though it is staring at them right in the face the whole time.  This is a shame because this logos is the logos that will explain everything in "nature" (the natural world), or everything.
   -Later in the book he says something along the lines of- "Hearing not me, but the logos, it is wise to agree that all things are one."
   -Surprisingly mysterious passage when analyzed. 
      -Does this mean that we shouldn't believe him just because he's saying it, but instead we should believe him because he's it's obviously so true. 
         -Several other theories have been proposed too, and this is more confusing because Heraclitus liked to play around with double meanings of words and shit.
   -The idea that "all things are one" is called "monism", and it looks like Heraclitus was the first to come up with this concept in Western philosophy.
      -However, it seems like Heraclitus believes in both the unity AND multiplicity of everything, not going so far as to say that "everything is one", but that "all things are one". 
         -Nature is a whole, but is made up of many different things.
-Heraclitus' core idea: the unity of opposites.
   -Our perspective assigns only one value to something, rather than grasping the multiple values of something all at once.  However, not everything is so clear as to what is obviously opposite.
      -This is where his most famous idea is introduced, which addresses the nature of chance.
         -He uses the example of this weird barley wind and cheese drink mixture that the Greeks liked to drink at the time, and pointed out that if it wasn't stirred it would fall apart.
            -Like this, the unity of nature was achieved through opposition; everything was involved in this war. 
               -Stability resides in change, and unity in opposition.
-The idea that Heraclitus' theories being opposite of Parmenides, who believed that change is an illusion, may have been Plato's fault, which he might have presented in order to make them contrast with each other more as opposites.
   -This may not have actually been Plato's fault, as it seems like there were followers of Heraclitus who believed in the impermanence of everything and that change is the only constant.
   -It's most likely that Heraclitus believed in constant change, but also that in this change things remain stable and unchanging as well. 
      -For example, gold's value depends on the context in which it is possessed (like by a human compared with a donkey), but it still retains these changing qualities despite the change in possession.  Or, a river might be a different river each time you step into it, but it's still a river.
   -Thus, it kind of expands on Anaximander's principle that it is the constant struggle within the apeiron which creates a balance, and that this struggle is best exemplified or symbolized with fire.
      -Believed that the sun, moon, and stars were "bowls of fire" which are turned towards us, so that we can see into the bowls.
         -The moon waxes and wanes because the bowl is slowly turning.
      -Heraclitus' beliefs about the cosmos were perhaps influenced by the teachings of Thales.
-Also believed that the human soul was literally fire, and that we die because our soul has turned into water.  Also, when we get drunk we act pathetic because the alcohol somehow dampens the fire of our soul (haha).
   -Souls being fire kind of makes sense due to body temperature when were' alive and stuff.  Also, a fire needs oxygen to live, as does anything living.  However, fire isn't necessarily a flame, but maybe more like a warm, dry cosmic energy.
-Last, it's worth noting that Heraclitus also wrote about politics, saying that we should obey laws, protect them, etc., for they are divinely inspired!
       

The Man with the Golden Thigh - Pythagoras

-Unfortunately, there's no actual hard evidence that Pythagoras (c. 570-495 BC) came up with the Pythagorean Theorem :/

   -Also, while we know a lot about the Pythagoreans and Pythagoreanism, we don't know much about Pythagoras himself.

-Pythagoras has a ton of mythology surrounding him, morseo than the other Pre-Socratics, but who knows what's true and what isn't.

   -Credited with the first philosopher to fuse philosophy with math.

   -A worker of miracles; considered to be a god/demi-god!

   -Allegedly introduced lots of arcane and metaphysical ideas, such as reincarnation.

   -Also put forth ideas about clean-living, like not eating beans or meat.

-We're pretty sure Pythagoras was from Samos, a powerful island state off the coast of Ionia (west coast of Turkey).

   -Traveled across the Aegean Sea to Croton, a Magna Graecian city in southern Italy, where he founded an academy.

-Never wrote anything down (like Socrates).  However, Pythagoras was a lot more private with his teachings, and his students were allegedly sworn to secrecy, almost like a cult!

-It appears (maybe) that his followers kind of split into two schools. 

   -The "Akousmatikoi" ("listeners") were more interested in his wacky religious and ethnic teachings, 

   -The "Mathematikoi" ("teachers") were more interested in his mathematical teachings.

      -The Mathematikoi believed that somehow everything in the physical universe is "made of numbers".

         -However, they also assigned meaning to numbers as well, and thus meanings to equations, etc. (number symbolism).

-Pythagoreanism would kind of go out of style eventually, but would make a comeback in the 1st century BC by combining Pythagoreanism with Plato's teachings, which would eventually come to be known as Neoplatonism.  

   -These later thinkers' writings are how we know that Pythagoras was perceived to be like a wizard or demi-god, besides being just a philosopher.

      -However, around the time that Neoplatonism became really popular, Christianity was strongly competing with Greek paganism, so perhaps the pagans looked to Pythagoras as their own "Jesus" figure.

   -Pythagoreans believed that math and music are also closely related, as notes and music are just mathematical ratios combined together, and that Pythagoras actually invented a bunch of musical instruments as well (highly unlikely).

   -Music had a strong relationship with the human soul as well, and a human body is like a musical instrument itself in terms of how it functions.  However, he also believed in reincarnation...

      -This is where the roots of dualism begin. 

Created in Our Image - Xenophanes

-Xenophanes (c. 570-475 BC) was a poet who would philosophize through his poetry.
   -6th century BC- from Colophon, Ionia (a bit north of Miletus).
   -Traveler, went as far as Sicily and maybe even mainland Italy.
   -Critic of the major poets of the time- especially Homer and Hesiod.
      -Believed that it was obvious that the gods in these stories acted like humans- because they are a projection of human nature!
         -It's not just the Greeks too- the Ethiopians worshiped human-like gods as well, as did the Thracians, etc.
            -"But if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do, horses like horses and cattle like cattle also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have."
         -However, Xenophanes was not an atheist; he just didn't believe in the gods as having faulty human characteristics like jealousy, anger, lust, or even the desire to wear clothing.
            -Believed that the gods weren't human-like, as they were supreme beings.  They didn't require sacrifice, and perhaps didn't require any sort of sustenance or even have physical bodies.  They also didn't have senses, as all of their senses were probably combined into one super-sense.
               -"One god, greatest among gods and humans, like mortals neither in form nor in thought. But mortals think that the gods are born and have the mortals' own clothes and voice and form."
                  -Either all the gods are just manifestations of one god, or perhaps there is an even greater god above the Greek gods...it's unknown and unknowable!
   -Also became a strong critic of the idea of there being a god for various scientific phenomena, such as a god of rainbows or a god of the sun.  A rainbow isn't a god, it's a colored cloud!  The sun isn't a god, it's a cloud of fire!
      -The "real" god is nothing like us, except for the ability to think.
         -However, just because we may believe in this "true nature" of the god doesn't mean that we can know it.  That's impossible!  It's beyond human comprehension.
            -This brings us into an interesting philosophical dilemma about the nature of "believing" vs. "knowing" something.
   -This rivalry between the Pre-Socratic thinkers and the epic poets would continue to grow as time passes.

Infinity and Beyond - Anaximander and Anaximines

-Both Anaximander (c. 610-546 BC) and Anaximines (c. 585-528 BC) were from Miletus (like Thales).
   -Not too much info is known about what we can confirm they actually said.
   -Anaximander was younger than Thales, and Anaximines was younger than Anaximander.
-Anaximander- wrote an epic poem, "On Nature" (a lot of these dudes wrote similarly-titled works or poems).
   -Created a sundial in Sparta.
   -Created a map which displayed both the earth AND the sea.
   -Credited with saying "The principle of all things is the Infinite ("apeiron").
      -Believed that everything comes from this infinity, and that things destroy each other to create a natural balance or cycle (or even maybe cosmic justice).
      -Believed that everything in space and on earth was formed through some mysterious process, and a ball of fire surrounded the atmosphere of the earth and then burst or something... idk, it's complicated... but basically there's still a ball of fire surrounding us and the holes in our atmosphere allow us to see the fire.  The moon waxes and wanes because the holes in the mist open and close.
         -So, how can there be different things when everything is a part of the apeiron?  What creates divisions and opposites like fire and water?
            -This is one of the defining features of the pre-Socratic philosophers.
      -May have also believed in an infinite number of worlds and cycles in the universe, but this is unclear.
   -Believed that the first animals were incubated in moisture and then broke out of it.
   -Also believed that humans could not always have lived like this because children are way too weak to survive on their own as the first humans.
      -Humans came from fish, and humans burst out of them when first born.
   -More of a philosopher, perhaps, than Thales, because his theory of the apeiron seems to be based off of philosophical dialogue and logic.
   -He also believed that the earth is the center of the cosmos and that's why it doesn't move.
-Anaximines- agreed with Anaximander about the apeiron, but believed that everything came from air, not water.
   -His logic: if you make air heavier, it eventually becomes solid; if you make it hot, it becomes fire; etc.
   -Believed that the earth is a disc, formed by the air thickening and then riding on the original air from which it formed.
   -Believed that the stars, planets, suns, and moons were made of fire and then they rotate around the earth.
   -Believed that the soul is made of air/breath ("pneuma").
   -The gods come from air as well!

Everything is Full of Gods - Thales of Miletus

-Greek philosophy actually didn't start in Greece itself, but in Ionia (central western coast of modern-day Turkey) with Greek immigrants (Ionians).
   -One Ionian city, Miletus (Mīlētos) (modern-day Didim, Turkey), is considered to be the birthplace of Western philosophy, founded by immigrants in Athens.
      -Miletus was a rich and powerful city, main export was wool; similar to other Ionian cities.
         -Ionians also started their own colonies in places like Italy or around the Black Sea.
   -Did Greek philosophy have Egyptian or even Eastern influences?  Maybe!
-Arguably the first major Greek philosopher was a dude named Thales (c. 624-546 BC), who at the time was just considered to be a wise man or sage and wasn't some big thinker or philosopher just sitting around all the time (which would be the stereotype later with the Greek philosophers).
   -Considered to be one of the "Seven Sages of Early Greece" (along with Cleobulus of Lindos, Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Bias of Prene, Pittacus of Mytilene, and Periander of Corinth).
   -Good at weather prediction and farming; made a fortune in the olive business.
   -Thales was also an astronomer and mathematician and overall expert (for the time) in the physical sciences; however, he wasn't necessarily a deep thinker, but a brilliant logician.  Back then, science and philosophy were kind of the same thing.
      -Plato also tells a story about Thales falling down a well as he was gazing up at the stars (ha).
   -Thales was part of a group of early thinkers today known as the "pre-Socratics".
      -We only know fragments of what they may have said...we don't really know that much about them.
      -Pre-Socratic views were grounded in arguments, presumably based on reason and logic.
-Thales' philosophical claims (possibly) include:
   -Water is really important; the earth is even floating on water like a piece of wood.
      -Water is also a cosmic principle.  Perhaps EVERYTHING comes from water!
   -Magnets have souls, as does amber (since amber can attract things when you rub it due to static electricity).  Thales may have also believed that movement is associated with living things, and that actually "all things are full of gods" (and perhaps are therefore moving).
      -A magnet looks inert, but in fact isn't because it can attract or repel shit, so therefore couldn't that apply to everything having a god or soul or some sort of divine entity within itself?