Ionian and Pythagorean schools - Case Study Example

The Pythagoreans on the other hand, with their basic conception of abstract form and permanence, stressed deductive reasoning or theory to arrive at conclusions. However, both Greek schools of thought round out the basics of what constitutes science - providing both for observation and theories as both essential to scientific knowledge. The Ionians and Pythagoreans moved away from the divine explanation of things --- that is, pointing to religion as key to understanding the world and its phenomena.

Although, like them, the Egyptians and Babylonians were excellent scientists and mathematicians, the Greek philosophers did not view religion as supreme and sacred when it came to the pursuit of knowledge. For the Greeks, mysticism and reason could be separated (although Pythagorian school was said to be a religious sect which practiced abstinence, clean living, certain dietary preferences, and Pythagoras believed in one God as the source and cause of the order of the universe). Thus the Greek philosophers had a The Ionians were primarily concerned with what goes on with the physical world.

Their school was focused on what are observable in nature, thus the followers were called "phusikoi" or natural philosophers . The word physics was derived from the Greek word for nature, "phusis". The Ionians, most of whom were born in Ionia in the 6th to the 5th centuries B.C. were interested in the origins of the universe, the causes of natural phenomena and the materials that compose the universe. On of their most important contributions to scientific knowledge was their search for the basic substance that makes up the universe, which can be said to have led to modern-day pathways to chemistry's identification of elements and substance, and the basic physical configuration of the universe in the notion of atomic particles.

The Ionian philosopher Thales and Anixamander conceived of water or air as the basic matter that explains the seemingly clash of opposites in nature. Thus, they theorized on how earth and life formed on earth - out of the action of heat on moisture or water. They somehow correctly antedated the accepted scientific theory in biology and in particular evolution that life most likely was first formed in the oceans before appearing as life forms on land. Heraclitus added a significant impetus to the Ionian school when he focused on why and what moves observable phenomena of which chaos and strife are all too evident.

He posited that fire, not air or water constitutes the basic form of the universe. Balance or equilibrium is always achieved by the upward and the downward paths of "fire". Fire here was defined Ionian and Pythagorean viewsby movement, not just as basic matter -- thus it can be understood as energy or movement. According to Heraclitus, fire or energy moves and unites the working of the natural world - antedating modern scientific findings on the laws of thermodynamics, that energy can be changed from one form to another but cannot be destroyed.

In Einstein's theory of relativity, early Ionians position on matter and Heraclitus' energy or fire would again be unified - with matter and energy being the same. Pythagoras and