Well after what seems like years and years of reading I’ve managed to get through the whole of book one in Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy, just in time too! Basically the whole of book one is split up into three parts; ranging from "The Pre-Socratics", "Socrates, Plato and Aristotle" and finally "Ancient Philosophy after Aristotle". Anyway! I'm going to note now that I’ve found it better to talk about them all in relation to each other! So, let’s get down to business and start off with...
Part I: The Pre-Socratics: The people known as the pre-Socratics are from the city of Miletus in the region of Ionia. They are called so because they are the philosophical thinkers before Socrates, which formulated the basis of knowledge for future thinkers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. These people who are part of the pre-Socratics basically 'invented' philosophy which has come to be known as a 'love of wisdom'. Around about 600 BC the Milesian thinkers essentially discovered the process of speculation and dove right in and asked "what exists?"
Here is where we come to our first key name, Thales. Thales seems to be the first known Greek philosopher, scientist and mathematician. He decided that all things in the universe were made up of water; this is particularly shocking to the people of the time as he didn’t account the "Gods" into any speculation as to how the universe was created. Importantly, he is known for never actually put any of his ideas down into writing or simply that any writings of him have long been forgotten or destroyed. Thales' main claim to fame, as it were, is down to the fact that he managed to predict when a solar eclipse would occur in 585 BC. It is widely speculated that he was actually the teacher of Anaximander.
This brings us to the next key name, Anaximander. He was another Milesian thinker but he actually rejected Thales, and argued instead about something called "the Boundless" as the source of all things. Anaximander's main theory was that the universe was not solely born from water and so on but it was a culmination of all the elements. He stated that the cold and wet condensed to form the earth. Then the heat and dryness formed the moon, sun and stars. The heat from the fire (the sun) dried the earth and then in turn shrank the seas. A very fascinating theory and he is noted for expressing a more plausible explanation for the origin of the natural world. Anaximander was discredited by Aristotle; according to Aristotle, Anaximander did not explain what he meant by “the Boundless".
Thales and Anaximander were more concerned with the "matter" of things. Pythagoras was said to be a disciple of Anaximander. He decided to try and find the nature of things through the workings of mathematics and geometry. The Pythagoreans (people who followed Pythagoras), discovered that musical scales could be explained through mathematics and that from this you can link it directly to the universe. Pythagoras decided to focus on "form" and not "matter" - leading from sense perception towards maths. Pythagoras even dabbled in creating his own religion and had his own followers
Parmenides, as his named suggests, 'pared' everyone off and questioned the views of the Ionian thinkers - believing that all things came from one substance. Parmenides thought to apply 'logic' to the arguments of the Pythagoreans. He is the seen as the chief thinker of the Eleatic philosophy. He is mostly seen as a follower of Xenophanes and Parmenides historically wrote after Heraclitus and directly opposed his ideas. Top effort.
This leads us to Heraclitus! This guy, whose name is totally Hercules... is actually the most important of all the Pre-Socratic thinkers; he is usually referred to as "the weeping philosopher" as he has a pessimistic view of human nature. Heraclitus wrote "On Nature". While Pythagoreans had emphasized harmony, Heraclitus suggested life was maintained by a tension of opposites, fighting a continuous battle in which neither side could dominate. Heraclitus came up with the idea of universal "Flux" and the unity opposites
'You cannot step twice in the same river'
Part II: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle: Socrates, quite possibly the most intellectual Athenian ever, like seriously this guy knows his stuff. He was the teacher of Aristotle (when he was about 60 years old). Socrates served in Peloponnesian Wars and many stories of him were told. Due to his love for thinking and philosophy he forgot about all other things and eventually began to live in poverty. He was unfortunately accused of impiety (not being religious) and put on trial because of it. He was later deemed guilty and sentenced to death, which is a massive shame! Good job guys, way to kill off like the smartest guy ever.
Plato is known as the best student of Socrates. Pretty much the majority of information we know about Socrates comes from Plato, as he was his most famous and prestigious student. Plato's greatest work is in "The Republic" This piece of work has often been seen as Plato's plans for a future utopian society. The Republic covers topics such as the nature of justice, statesmanship, ethics and the nature of politics. Plato discusses in The Republic topics such as what is knowledge? As in what is actually known, how do we know that things are actually true and finally what makes a thing, the actual thing?
Aristotle, yet again with more linkage, was the student of Plato. Again, he was Plato’s most valued and intellectual students. Unfortunately, Aristotle was also charged with impiety, however unlike Socrates, Aristotle decided to absolutely do one and bail on the whole court case thing. Aristotle pretty much knew a great deal about nearly everything. He talks about Metaphysics, Ethics, Politics, Physics and Logic. However, the one subject Aristotle didn’t get was mathematics. Plato, on the other hand, was a master of geometry. Plato and Aristotle constantly argued and Plato suggested that man was born with knowledge, Aristotle claims knowledge comes from experience. Aristotle argued that that there were Forms and Absolutes, but that they resided in the thing itself. When it comes to, for example, our experience with cats, we can deduce the essence of "catness".
Part III: Ancient Philosophy after Aristotle: Stoicism states that only Zeus, enjoys actually full on immortality, while the rest of the other Gods, who are totally lesser, (burn), are created at the starting cosmic cycle, but then joined with Zeus. In terms of the afterlife, it was commonly believed that if people were to I’ve virtuous and just lives they would die and be rewarded with the same immortality as the Gods.
The Epicureans incorporated the soul and death into their ethical beliefs and how it affected their afterlife. However contrasting to Platonic ideas of death with rewards, mortality was instead the reward. They state that the fear of death is the main thing that plagues the human race, not death itself. The fear of death drives people to deal with their lives in a very fatalistic way.
‘The correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes our mortality enjoyable, not by adding infinite time, but by taking away the yearning for immortality’ - Epicurus
After the Hellenistic period, philosophy once again fell under the sway of Plato and Aristotle, and old issues were revived. People began to believe again in Aristotle’s psychology - which states that no part or aspect of the individual human soul is immortal; this then went onto influence Christianity.
So there you have it, I realise that I have missed things out - such as the Spartans and their amazing military forces, their egalitarian states and democracy. I hope (pray) this is sufficient; it’s in as note form as I can possibly go!
Bye and stuff x
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