Philosophers

Everything

Thales

Everything is made of water

Anaximander

Earth is a solid, unsupported object hanging in space; shaped like a drum

First map maker

Heraclitus

Unity of opposites

Everything is FLUX

Change is the law of life

Pythagoras

Created the words "theory," "philosophy," and "cosmos"

First to use math to explain the whole earth

Xenophanes

Humans views of things are human creations

There is no certain truth

Parmenides

All is ONE

Everything has always existed

Empedocles

The FOUR Elements

        - Earth, Water, Air, Fire

"The Atomists"

       - Leucippus and Democritus

Fundamental idea that everything is made of atoms (too small to be seen)

Change is universe = change in atoms

Anaxagoras

Introduced philosophy to Athens

Protagoras

"Man is the measure of all things"

*Socrates*

The masterly interrogator

Declared wisest of men by oracle

Question everything

Pity of the perpetrator, not the victim [harm to the immortal soul]

No one really knowingly does wrong

The pursuit of knowledge = aspiration to virtue

Priority of personal integrity above all

"Socratic Method" or "Dialectic Method" = teacher understands pupil's difficulties and prompts him in the right direction

*Plato*

Wrote dialogues to: reassert the teachings of Socrates and rehabilitate Socrates's reputation

Real Socrates ends and where Plato begins??

How we should live our lives

Virtue = knowing what is right

Believes in the immortal soul

Wrote: Republic – nature of justice

            Symposium – investigation into the nature of love

            Apology – Socrates own defense – justification for his life

First to establish an "academy"

Forms or Ideas

World is a decaying copy of the ideal world

Ideal world beyond time and space

Souls are our permanent Forms

Hostility towards the arts

Humans are made of : passion, intellect, and will

Plotinus

What exists is mental

For something to be created is for it to be thought

Levels: soul [humans] – lowest

             intellect [ideal form]

             good - highest

Aristotle

Mapped out sciences and formulated logic

There is only one world we can philosophize

Dismissive of Plato's Ideal Forms and does not believe in them

Made logic, physics, pol. science, economics, psychology, metaphysics, meteorology, rhetorics, ethics... energy, hynamic, induction, topic, etc.

Systemized logic

What is being?

The four causes

-          material, efficient, form, final

Saving the appearances

The golden mean – midway point between two extremes; balanced personality

Dante

The teachers of those who know [with Aristotle]

Cynics

Dropouts of the ancient world

First – Antisthenes; lived a conventional life them embraces a simple life

Second – Diogenes; lived like a dog

Cynic  - greek for dog

Vitizen of the world = cosmopolitan

Sceptics

Active refusal to believe anything

First – Pyrrho

Stop worrying and go with the flow

No ultimate certainty

Every proof rests on unproven premises

Hume – to live at all we have perpetually to make choices , decisions, and make judgements

Epicureans

Earliest scientist and liberal humanists

Liberate people from fear

Non-existence is our own inescapable destiny; make the best life

Aim in life = be happy and live well

Equality to everyone [including women and slaves]

Stoics                        

Governing philosophy of the Roman empire

Was spread internationally by Alexander the Great and Marcus Aurelius (as their prefered philosophy)

Founded by Zeno of Citium, in Cyprus (not confused with Zeno of Elea)

Reason is the highest power

Emotions are cognitive and forms of "knowledge", whether true or false.

Remain outwardly unaffected by pain or pleasure (high portion of well-known Stoics ended their lives by suicide.)

Influenced Christian and Roman thinking