What is philosophy?

philos = loving

sophia = wisdom

Pythagoras of Samos (d. c. 500 BC)

Philosophy…

…seeks to organise reality into oneunified worldview

…seeks to step away from religion,basing worldview on reason ratherthan divine influence

…seeks to have application to daily life

Why study philosophy?

Enjoyment and edification

Distinguishing self from animals,maturing as human being

Because we do it anyway!

“The unexamined life is not worthliving.” (Socrates)

Milesian school (Cosmogonists, fromMiletus in Asia Minor)

Thales (d. c. 547 BC)(all is water)

Anaximander (d. 546 BC)(the Boundless)

Anaximenes (d. 528 BC)(all is air)

Pythagoras of Samos (d. c. 500 BC)

Founded scholarly community inS. Italy

Philosophy as guide to life

Pythagorean discoveries and philosophy

Work with number sequences

Irrational numbers e.g. √2

Pythagoras’ theorem

Reality is numbers

Pythagorean discoveries and philosophy

Transmigration of the soul

Need for self-discipline andpurification

Use of music and medicine

Pythagoreans mostly wiped out byrebellion

Heraclitus of Ephesus (d. 475 BC)

“Most men are bad.”

Everything changes

Everything made from fire

Role of changing elements

Parmenides of Elea

Visible changes are illusions

Everything that exists is a being. Otherwise it isa non-being

Impossibility of change

Each being is what everything else is

Reality is one single, solitary, unchanging being

Differences are only appearances

Zeno of Elea (d. c. 425 BC)

Zeno’s Paradoxes:

Achilles and the Tortoise

The Flying Arrow

Sophists

“Man is the measure of all things.”(Protagoras of Abdera, d. c. 410 BC)

No objective truth or other values. Rolesof convention and personalpreference

Atomism

Developed by Leucippus of Miletus(5th c. BC)

Existence of non-being

Reducing matter to atoms

Democritus of Abdera (d. c. 370 BC)

Protagoras Archelaus (5th c. BC)