phil- The Presocratic Sophos WITH 100% CORRECT ANSWERS

As early Greek civilization became increasingly refined and sophisticated (c. 500 b.c.e.), a new kind of thinker emerged, known as a sophos, from the Greek word for "wise." These "wise men"(and they were almost exclusively men) asked increasingly sophisticated questions about all sorts of things, but especially about natural processes and the origins and essence of life. Although mythology and religion continued to play important roles in the lives of most people for centuries, these first philosophers were noted for their attempts to use reason and observation to "figure out" for themselves how the world works. In a wonderful book called Philosophy as a Way of Life, French philosopher Pierre Hadot describes how, in the ancient world, a true philosopher was usually viewed as someone out of step with daily life. To be a "philosopher" was to be "different." As you learn more about the ancient sophos, you can decide for The sorts of atypical traits Hadot has in mind include a lack of concern with such "normal" things as practicing a trade (having a regular job), pursuing wealth, or desiring fame and power. The sophos was someone who devoted himself to asking questions that other people thought had already been answered (by religion and mythology) or were unanswerable (and thus a waste of time). The sophos lived and spoke in ways that were interpreted as showing disregard for conventional values and that set him apart from "regular folks" living "normal" lives. It is hardly surprising, then, that one of the earliest popular images of philosophers is the stereotype of a shabby, unkempt, "absent-minded," starry-eyed dreamer and an asker of silly questions. Socrates (Chapter 4), perhaps the most-recognized example of the ancient Western sophos, was even called "unclassifiable" (atopos) because he was a "philo-sopher" in the archetypal sense: a person in love with wisdom. In Plato's Symposium, Diotima, an ancient woman philosopher whom Socrates referred to as one of his teachers, says that wisdom is not a human state at all, but a "divine" level of perfection and knowledge. If these ancient commentators are correct, the sophos is always a "stranger to the world." From Sophos to Philosopher In his earliest incarnations, the Western sophos was predominantly a sage, or "wise man," in the general or generic sense. He was not a professional thinker. That is, he did not charge people fees (tuition) to study with him or to accompany him. His relationships with his students were personal, complex, and long-lasting. In many cases his pupils were more like disciples than like paying students. We cannot help but wonder what philosophy may have lost by overlooking the contributions of women philosophers for so long. Dea/G. Nimatallah/De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images "Woman as Sophos" Aesara of Lucania (c. fourth century b.c.e.-first century c.e.) was a Pythagorean philosopher who has only recently attracted any attention. In the single existing fragment of her book—On Human Nature, she says that through the introspection and contemplation of our own souls we can discover the "nat The very first Western thinkers identified as philosophers were initially concerned with questions about the nature of nature (physis) and of the "world order" (kosmos). Today, we would classify many of their concerns as scientific. It would be a mistake, however, to think that ancient philosophers "specialized" in the modern sense. Indeed, Plato and Aristotle (Chapters 5 and 6) were interested in ethics, logic, language, art, human nature, politics, and mental and physical health. Aristotle was also interested in physics, biology, botany, and anatomy. In Greece wise men speak and fools decide. — Anacharsis Whereas the sophos (sage, or wise man) was seen as a kind of prophet-priest-therapist, the philosopher, who is in love with wisdom but not necessarily wise, was seen as an unusual sort of thinker and truth-seeker. Thus, we notice an ambiguity in the early use of the word "philosopher" that carries over into the present day. Whereas initially the philosopher, like the sophos, was expected to live a "philosophical life," today a philosopher is not required to live a wise life but to devote his or her energies to "thinking" about certain things in a rigorous way. In Chapter 18 we will see the very notion of being a philosopher come under scruting as contemporary philosophers challenge the possibility of objectivity and universal truth. The Search for a Common Principle The earliest Western philosophers are referred to as the Presocratics because they appeared prior to Socrates, the first major figure in the Western philosophical tradition. Some of the Presocratic philosophers are described as proto-scientists because they initiated the transformation of mythology into rational inquiry about nature and the cosmos. In the beginning, the difference between a philosopher and a proto-scientist was one of subject matter; later it became one of method. A general understanding of the development of Presocratic philosophy is helpful for placing subsequent philosophical issues and disagreements in context. As you study the Presocratics, note how they struggle to offer rational arguments and explanations for their views. Note, too, their efforts to be objective and to uncover universal (general) principles. Also note the role that language plays in the develo As significant and interesting as the Presocratics are, they lived and thought in a radically different world from ours. Consequently, what is obvious to us might have been unthinkable in their world, and what was obvious to them might be obscure or unfathomable to us. Don't be surprised or discouraged if some of their ideas seem alien to you. Rational Discourse Traditionally, the first Western philosopher is said to have been Thales (c. 624-545 b.c.e.). Thales lived in the city of Miletus, part of a Greek colony on the Asian coast in an area known as Ionia. His parents are thought to have been Phoenician. For the most part, it seems that Thales devoted himself to his speculative studies, devoting only the minimum effort necessary to his financial affairs. In one of the earliest "absent-minded professor" stories, Plato records that Thales fell into a well "when he was looking up to study the stars . . . being so eager to know what was happening in the sky that he could not see what lay at his feet." Philosophically, Thales is significant for his attempt to find a common source, a single substance underlying all things. For him, this basic "stuff" was water. Aristotle says that Thales "observed" that "the nutriment of everything is moist, and that . . . the As Thales' ideas became known, other philosophers offered rational explanations and modifications of his claims. For example, Thales claimed that the earth floats on water. But what "holds up" the water? A pupil of Thales named Anaximander (611-546 b.c.e.), who was also from Miletus, made another contribution to philosophical reasoning by offering a purely rational explanation for what holds the earth in place. This explanation was "rationalistic" because it did not rely exclusively on experience since Anaximander could not perceive the earth in its entirety or observe whatever held it up. Anaximander reasoned that the earth stays where it is because it is at the precise center of the cosmos, "not supported by anything but resting where it is because of its equal distance from everything." Aristotle said that Anaximander's reasoning rested on the principle that nothing happens without a reason. (Today, this principle is known as the principle of sufficient reason.) According to Aristotle, Anaximander argued that there was "no reason" why the earth should move in one direction rather than in any other direction. And the earth cannot move in all directions because "it cannot move in opposite directions at the same time. So it necessarily rests where it is." Anaximander also claimed that in the beginning, the earth was fluid and that an external source of heat dried some of it. The dried sections became land. Variations in temperature caused winds, and living organisms arose at varying stages of this drying-out process. In theorizing this way, Anaximander underscored the importance of Thales' recognition of the need for some unifying principle to explain natural occurrences by providing a systematic explanation of natural phenomena. Anaximander thought that particular "stuffs" emerged in pairs of opposites (hot-cold, dry- The Problem of Change Thales' direct legacy culminated in Anaximander's pupil, Anaximenes (died c. 500 b.c.e.), the third of the Presocratic Milesian philosophers. Anaximenes' notion that the first, universal, underlying element is air, or pneuma, was yet a further refinement of philosophical reasoning. Pneuma is the ultimate, pervasive spirit that holds the world together. Just as Anaximander identified problems in Thales' thinking, Anaximenes recognized an important muddle at the heart of Anaximander's doctrine: On one hand, Anaximander characterized the apeiron as indefinite or "boundless"; on the other hand, he insisted that the apeiron is one thing. How can one thing contain many particular things and still be only one thing? In what sense is it "one thing" then? If it is indefinite, limitless, how can it be a "single thing"? Anaximenes advanced the search for a common principle with the introduction of the argument that qualitative differences can result from quantitative changes. Rather than pairs of opposite stuffs, Anaximenes proposed two opposing processes of exchange: condensation and rarefaction. In Anaximenes' cosmology, air (pneuma) is invisible in its pure, original state. Pure air becomes progressively denser through the process of condensation, in the following stages: air → fire → wind → cloud → water → earth → stone. Matter becomes progressively lighter during the process of rarefaction: stone → earth → water → cloud → wind → fire → air. Thus, the ongoing cosmic and natural cycle of generation and destruction provides a single underlying world order that itself stays the same throughout all change: air ↔ fire ↔ wind ↔ cloud ↔ water ↔ earth ↔ stone. The Logos Heraclitus A native of Ephesus, a city on the Ionian coast north of Miletus, Heraclitus (c. 500 b.c.e.) took up the question of what holds the real substance of the world together—what makes it an ordered whole, a cosmos. Heraclitus is one of the most important and enigmatic of the Presocratics. Although virtually nothing is known of his life, the extant fragments of his writings reveal a powerful intellect, a profound artist, and a withering social critic. Greatly admired by the Cynics and Stoics (Chapter 7), Heraclitus was claimed by Nietzsche (Chapter 16) as a philosophical ancestor. The Sophists, Plato, and Aristotle (Chapters 3, 5, and 6) were also influenced by Heraclitus's ideas. Because the available fragments of Heraclitus's work are pronouncements rather than arguments, philosophers disagree about their meaning. The summary that follows concentrates on the Heraclitean emphasis on the power of disc According to Heraclitus, ignorance occurs when people do not comprehend the basic structure of the human psyche (soul) and its relationship to the universal principle through which all things come to exist. Heraclitus called this universal principle logos. The complex Greek word logos is intriguing. It meant all of the following: "intelligence," "speech," "discourse," "thought," "reason," "word," "meaning," "study of," "the record of," "the science of," "the fundamental principles of," "the basic principles and procedures of a particular discipline," "those features of a thing that make it intelligible to us," and "the rationale for a thing." Although logos retains these associated meanings for Heraclitus, in its most important sense the Logos was the rule according to which all things are accomplished and the law which is found in all things. Heraclitus said that there is one Logos to which everyone ought to listen, although he thought that most people are unable to comprehend it. Some recent commentators suggest that the Heraclitean Logos is both an account of reality and that which is revealed by the account. This Logos is the fundamental reason for things being as they are; it is the fundamental principle of the world. The Heraclitean capital-L Logos is like God, only without the anthropomorphizing (humanizing) by the earlier philosophers and poets who attributed human qualities to the gods. According to Heraclitus's impersonal view of God, the Logos is a process, not an entity. As such, the Logos is unconcerned with individuals and human affairs, in much the same way that gravity affects us but is unconcerned with us. Some scholars see the Heraclitean Logos as a Western expression of Tao (Chapter 1), but such cross-cultural comparisons are difficult. In this case, comparisons are particularly tricky because Heracl Appearance and Reality Heraclitus distinguished "comprehension" and "understanding" from "knowledge," and being "asleep" or "dreaming" (ignorance and foolishness) from being "awake" (seeing beyond ignorance to the wisdom that comes only from recognizing the Logos). He also thought that the Logos is very close to us. For Heraclitus, the love and pursuit of wisdom is the love and pursuit of the Logos. He rejected all other conceptions of wisdom because they were not based on comprehension of the Logos as it operates in all things: "There is only one wisdom: to recognize the intelligence who steers all things through all things." "When Homer said he wished war might disappear from the lives of gods and men, he forgot that without opposition all things would cease to exist."-Heraclitus Danita Delimont/Getty Images According to Heraclitus, even though many things appear to remain the same, "Change alone is unchanging." Tr According to Heraclitus, the harmonious quality of the "hidden reality" cannot be grasped by the senses, but only by "seeing" or "hearing" the Logos: "The unseen design of things is more harmonious than the seen." The harmony that Heraclitus refers to is not, as you might expect, a pleasant and gentle mixing or commingling of complementary forces. Rather, it is harmony created by tension. According to Heraclitus, the world (cosmos) exists as a constant struggle between opposing forces. He compared stability (permanence) to the kind of tension that a bent bow or stringed musical instrument is under. A bow appears to be "at rest" only because the bowstring and bow pull "equally" against each other. According to Heraclitus, in both nature and convention (society), stability (permanence) is the result of tension between equal and opposite forces.