The Presocratics

Section 12--Makeup Essay

The Presocratics are now recognized as a group of thinkers that both preceded and coexisted with the famous Socrates himself. Interestingly, many of the Presocratics likely didn’t know one another, nor did they necessarily identify as “philosophers.” However, the Presocratic thinkers formulated ideas that would greatly influence western philosophy as we know it. While some theories may seem ridiculous today, traces of certain Presocratic ideas are evident in modern science, such as Atomism. While there were many different presocratic thinkers, this blog will be focusing primarily on the Milesians, such as Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, as well as Democratus, who is associated with Atomism.

The Milesians were essentially materialists, interested in matter, or more simply put, “stuff.” They were mainly concerned with answering questions about the natural world, particularly the principles of nature. The first of these thinkers, recognized by Aristotle, is Thales of Miletus. Thales was fascinated by the idea of a fundamental principle, or arche. In fact, he theorized that water was the “first cause,” or fundamental principle of all things. Essentially, he believed that everything came from water. Why did Thales choose water? He likely did this, according to Aristotle, because of the role of water in nature, such as nutrition and growth. 

Anaximander, another Milesian thinker, is rumored to have been a student of Thales. In many ways, Anaximander built off of Thales’ idea of an arche. However, he did not think that the first cause of all things was water. Anaximander emphasized that both the heavens and the world came from some sort of original indefinite nature (apeiron). Anaximander seemed to think that hot and cold were separated from the eternal realm in the beginning of the world. He concluded that the powers of hot and cold, both direct opposites, brought about the “stuff” in our world.

Anaximenes, a Milesian thinker as well, thought that the apeiron was air instead. Anaximenes’ ideas reject not only Anaximander’s theory of hot and cold, but also his theory surrounding earth’s genesis. Anaximenes’ theory was much more similar to that of Thales, except he believed that the first cause of all things was air, rather than water. While Anaximenes thought that the basic principle couldn’t be nothing, he did believe that it must be neutral. He chose air because it’s properties have the ability to change, such as smell, color, temperature, etc. In short, Anaximenes believed that everything came from air. 

Lastly, Democratus developed a very different theory, called Atomism. Democratus believed that one is able to obtain knowledge in two ways, including the senses and the understanding. The way of knowing through “the senses” is limited to sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. The way of knowing through “the understanding” is supposedly separated from the physical senses. Democratus was an Atomist, meaning he believed everything was made up of tiny bits of “stuff,” or atoms, that can’t be seen. It was the combination of these atoms that would determine what things would become. Although Democratus was not able to perform tests or research to confirm his theories, he was not far off from what scientists today have been able to observe on a micro-scale.