Ancient Greek Philosophy: Concepts Associated with the Presocratics - Assignment Example

1. There are various concepts associated with the Presocratics—for example, arche, physis, logos, and kosmos—that appear to have been decisive in thedevelopment of philosophy and science. What are the specific meanings attached to these terms? Explain their importance in the history of philosophy and science. Do you agree with the Presocratic thinkers who take the world to be a kosmos, a perfectly arranged and balanced reality? Why or why not? The arche was the primary material element that Thales hypothesized as the source of all beings and cosmic phenomena specifically identifying the arche as water or hydor. This concept influenced other Pre-Socratics to speculate on natural substances as the origin of the world such were Anaximander who stated that apeiron was the substance which started the world; Anaximenes who said that air was the substance and Hereclitus who believed that fire was the source substance of all that exists. The physis which pertains to the stable and unchanging component of the universe was the focus of Pre-Socratic philosophers. Logos is the internal hidden rhythm of nature which moves and regulates things as stated by Heraclitus. He stated that fire is the only one material source of natural substances (Stamatellos 2006). The kosmos or the orderliness found in the arrangement of the universe that is ultimately numerical or mathematical and comprehensible to reason was conceptualized by Pythagoras, while Heraclitus, viewed the kosmos as a continuous conflict between species. He states that the composition of opposites sustains everything in nature (Stamatellos 2006). This view of a perfectly arranged and balanced reality is may be partly true in the sense that everything in the universe was created in balance and harmony with each other but on being numerical, this is still theoretical and therefore not yet proven. 2. Explain how the Presocratics challenged the prevailing ideas of their time. That is, how did they call into question certain mythological, religious, and anthropomorphic explanations of the world? In your own words, explain how a philosophical explanation differs from these. The Pre-Socratic philosophers deviated from the prevailing ideas of their time because of their materialistic perspective on the origin of the earth. This materialistic concept was termed as Hylozoism which means that matter or hyle. This includes a self-developed living force or zoe that can produce and re-produce the living organism without the intervention of an outside power or force (Stamatellos 2006). Moreover, they believed that the origin of all things in existence was from a primary substance which is in contrast to the belief of philosophers before the Pre-Socratics that all things in existence were created by a Supreme Being or fashioned by a supernatural force. They studied and expounded on a tangible source of all things in existence reckoning the traditional explanation of mythology and religion to be indefinite and insufficient. This belief further contradicted the conventional belief of the mythological, religious and anthropomorphic views on the origin of all things. In the mythological and anthropomorphic aspect the concept contradicted the belief that gods, who have human attributes, govern all things that are in existence while mythological stories explicate the origin and how all things that are in existence were created. Moreover, in the religious aspect, the materialistic concept of the origin of existence by the Pre-Socratics opposed the belief that God, a supernatural being with supernatural powers, created the earth and the universe. 3. Philosophy is often said to have begun with the early Greeks. While there is some justification for affirming this, there are also objections to this idea. With reference to Thales of Miletus, discuss whether it is correct to associate the Greeks as the originators of philosophy. In your answer, discuss in detail Thales’s contributions to philosophy. What was so important about his chief philosophical claim? Ancient philosophers were dominantly from Greece and early philosophical ideas came from Greek philosophers such as Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and Pythagoras among others. These philosophers whose studies were centered on nature as the origin of all things in existence or that a tangible and materialistic substance as the origin of all things that are in existence, started rationalizing and disputing of the mythological, anthropomorphic and religious traditional belief of the origin of all the things that are in existence. One of these Ancient Greek philosophers who was noted for his concept of the arche, was Thales of Miletus. Thales the Milesian’s concept of the arche had ignited other philosophers to consider the idea that all things that are in existence come from a primary substance or matter which is opposed to the conventional belief of supernatural origin. This idea of had been expounded by the succeeding philosophers such as Anaximander, Anaximenes and Heraclitus among others. Although most of these philosophers argued that the arche was not water but other tangible substances such as fire, air, apeiron, numbers and other matter. However, the variations in the primary substance still adhere to the basic and fundamental notion of the arche which originated from the philosopher Thales. This concept of a basic unit of all things that are in existence had influenced and served as a foundation for the studies in science which resulted into the discovery of the molecules, the atom, the DNA and other basic units of life. The arche also influenced the classification of the states of matter into solid, liquid, gas and plasma. 4. The rationalism of the early Milesian philosophers has had a profound influence in the development of philosophy and science. Explain what is meant by "rationalism" in this context. Can you identify in the contemporary world of science some manifestations of the four main ideas developed by the Milesian philosophers: arche, physis, logos, and kosmos? The rationalism of the early Milesian philosophers can be called Hylozoism, matter that has a self-developed living force that can reproduce the living organism without the interferences of an outside power or force (Stamatellos 2006). This rationalism or in this case may be called as reasoning is primarily based on nature or tangible substances as the source or origin of all things that are in existence. The ideologies of the Pre-Socratic philosophers motivated the next generation of philosophers. Some of the great philosophers which were influenced by the Pre-Socratics were Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The great influence of this reasoning with the concepts of the arche, logos, kosmos and physis is evident in contemporary science. These concepts served as the basis for the studies on the basic unit of life which is the atom which was ensued by the studies on the DNA, the formulation of theories on the origin of the Earth such as the Big Bang Theory, the Spontaneous Generation theory and the much debated Theory of Evolution. Furthermore, with man’s quest on finding the primordial substance that the Pre-Socratic concepts had initially probed and pondered on had also made a great impact on the differentiation or classification of the states of matter in nature which were named as solid, liquid, gas and plasma. In addition, the studies in the branches of science and philosophy such as Ecology or environmental science, Biology, Astronomy, Cosmology, Physics, Etiology and Chemistry were only some of the disciplines that were influenced by the concepts of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. CITED WORKS Stamatellos, G. (2006). Ancient Greek Philosophy. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from   Giannis Stamatellos Web site: http://www.philosophy.gr/index.htm Stamatellos, G. (2006). Pre-Socratic Philosophy. Retrieved December 8, 2007, from   Giannis Stamatellos Web site: http://www.philosophy.gr/presocratics/index.htm Read More