Greek Philosophy and Origins of Science

• The Greeks adopted astronomical knowledge from the Babylonians and Egyptians around 1000 BC.
• Like their neighbors, Greeks thought the world was divinely created, and natural events were acts of gods.
• Ancient Greek religion was less "sacred" than its neighbors, allowing scientific thought to develop independently.
• By 700 BC, Greeks began to explain phenomena naturally, without gods, marking science's beginning.
• Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes were the first three Ionian philosophers, active in Miletus during the 6th century BC.

Philosophy's Origins

• Greek philosophy started with independent thought, distinguishing natural explanations from magical or religious ones.
• Greek thinkers explored the fundamental material element of the world.
• Thales (624–547 BC) is considered the father of Greek philosophy and the first Greek scientist/mathematician.
• Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes were the first Milesian materialists.
• Ionians thought the universe comprised material substances.

Thales' Beliefs

• Thales believed water was the origin and composition of the world.
• Thales noted fossils in rocks, suggesting hills were once underwater.
• He speculated that mist from hills became clouds and rain, returning land to water.
• Thales is said to have observed how land became water again north of Miletus.
• Anaximander (610-546 BCE) was the first to develop a cosmology/systematic philosophical world view.

Anaximander's Cosmogony

• Anaximander believed everything came from the apeiron ("infinite," "unlimited").
• Eternal motion and the apeiron caused the world's creation, separating opposites like hot and cold.
• Despite its supersedence, Anaximander's astronomical perspective was an early lasting rational explanation of the world.
• Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 545 BC) was a natural philosopher and one of Miletus's first three philosophers.
• Anaximenes replaced previous choices with aer ("mist," "vapor," "air").
• Anaximenes’ texts only survive within later works and no longer exist in the Hellenistic Age.
• Anaximenes believed aer was eternally alive, becoming divine and the source of gods and matter.
• He drew parallels between the divine air sustaining the universe and the human soul.

Heraclitus and Permenides

• Heraclitus and Parmenides (both active in the 5th century BCE) seem opposites at first glance.
• Heraclitus thought true being is circular, transforming life into death perpetually.
• Parmenides believed true being is motionless, unchanging.
• Both asserted the One.
• Parmenides refuted opposites, stating being is whole, unwavering, complete, and continuous.
• Heraclitus is known for the "flux and fire" philosophy and the theory of coinciding opposites.
• Heraclitus trusted sight, hearing, and experience.
• Both Parmenides and Heraclitus had more in common than many realized.
• Heraclitus inspired Parmenides to develop a contrasting theory to represent constant flux and universal stasis viewpoints.
• Sophists originally meant "wise men" in ancient Greece.
• By the fifth century B.C.E., sophists became teachers of rhetoric.
• Rhetoricians need not hold particular philosophical views; rhetoric itself doesn't entail any positions.
• Socrates and Plato opposed Sophists' substitution of rhetoric for knowledge and relativism.
• The term Sophist has changed meanings over time.
• Originally, sophists gave wisdom made from knowledge and was complimentary for early philosophers in Greece.
• Plato critically analyzed the sophist perspectives.
• Protagoras of Abdera (c. 485-415 BCE) is known for "Man is the Measure of All Things".
• Gorgias (483—375 B.C.E.) stated that if Protagoras is right, then there is no existence, knowledge, or communication.
• Sophists witnessed diverse views while traveling, developing relativistic views on religion, morality, and cultures.
• Lacking objective truth, Sophists viewed arguments as a game where rhetoric is the ultimate tool.
• Sophist philosophy saw "might is right" in the absence of objective truth.
• Thrasymachus thought power decides good from evil.
• Plato stated that Sophists emphasized "appearance" over "reality".
• Sophists often linked happiness to pleasure and promoted materialistic success.
• Sophists thought happiness and joy could exist without moral goodness.
• Kant said moral goodness was needed for happiness.
• Sophists generally defined joy generally as pleasure, but Plato distinguished authentic/inauthentic pleasure, which they missed in human analysis.

Explore the dawn of scientific thought with the ancient Greeks. Around 700 BC, they transitioned from divine explanations to natural ones, marking the birth of science. Key figures like Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes sought to understand the fundamental material element of the world, laying the foundation for Western philosophy.