Pre-Socratics 500-400 BC


Thales of Miletus (tha-les of My-lee-tus)

Thales of Miletus is seen as the first philosopher. At a time when people believed Zeus, Poseidon and Hades controlled everything, Thales was the first recorded person to break from mythology and look for natural explanations.

While others blamed a good or bad harvest on the gods. Thales noticed patterns between weather and crop production. He invested heavily in olives when he believed the conditions favourable. It turned out he was right and it let him to believe that everything had a natural cause and effect.

Democritus (dem-oc-ritus)

Democritus theorized that if you took an apple and cut it over and over again, you'd get to a point where it wouldn't be cuttable. This is where we get the word 'atom' which is greek for uncuttable.

He believed there were gaps between these atoms because a knife or cut wouldn't be able to break through something unbreakable.

Some philosophers at this time theorized about parallel universes which seems to us like a modern science fiction concept.

Page 45 of philosophy book

Heraclitus

He was most famous for his insistence on ever-present change — known in philosophy as "flux", as the characteristic feature of the world; an idea expressed in the sayings, "No man ever steps in the same river twice", and "everything flows".

Modern science tells us that matter cannot be destroyed but only changes form. You might smash a window, it's elements are merely scattered.

You might burn a pile of wood, but fire is merely a chemical reaction separating the oxygen, hydrogen and carbon.

Because matter is never created or destroyed, it cycles through our world. Atoms that were in a dinosaur millions of years ago—and in a star billions of years before that—may be inside you today. The tiny particles called atoms are the basic building blocks of all matter.

Pythagoras

Pythagoras discovered and believed that the world was made of math. In discovering universal objective truths known as

He believed everything in the universe could be known. For example, growing a plant might be an unknown calculation of a perfect amount of water plus the perfect hours of daylight. Similar to a receipe book. He believed he was uncovering universal truths and he gained much of a cult, almost religious following.

His idea that everything is math inspired the early workings of physics.

Conclusion

Some early philosophers hypothesized that everything is made out of water. Some claimed the soul is made out of fire. They weren't always right but to discover anything you have to be wrong a few times.

Many of the scientific laws we take for granted today, were once merely ideas and arrived at with just reason alone. Philosophy is how we as big questions.  How can you discover anything without asking questions?

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