The Presocratic Philosophers
Four Concepts and Twelve Philosophers that Led to Socrates and Plato
I’m currently making my way through three books about the lives of early Greek philosophers. My goal is to better understand the ideas that Plato addressed in his dialogues. These thinkers were called pre-socratic in that they predated Socrates, however it’s helpful to think of this in terms of ideas rather than years, as some of the lives of these philosophers actually overlapped the life of Socrates.
The Four Main Concepts
In the Penguin Classics Early Greek Philosophy, translator and editor Jonathan Barnes identifies four main concepts considered by the Presocratics:
The Cosmos (κóσμος - kósmos) - the orderly arrangement of the entire universe. Since it is ordered, its principles can be extracted and explained.
Nature (φύσις - physis) - nature consists of the things that can grow and is contrasted with τέχνη - technê, which are artificial things designed by humans.
Ruling Principle (ἀρχή - archê) - the search into nature leads to a search for the fundamental building blocks. Some Presocratices thought this was air, water, or fire.
Logos (λόγος) - as Barnes states, this is a multifaceted concept “of the human faculty which enables us to offer explanations or reasons for things".”
The Twelve Main Philosophers
Thales of Miletus
Anaximander of Miletus
Anaximenes of Miletus
Xenophanes of Colophon
Heraclitus of Ephesus
Parmenides of Elea
Zeno of Elea
Melissu’s of Samos
Pythagoras of Croton
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae
Empedocles of Acragas
Diogenes of Apollonia
One interesting thing to note is that none of these philosophers were from Athens. We’ve come to identify Athens as the birthplace of philosophy thanks to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, but the Presocratics were from Italy, Asia Minor, and Greece.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be considering these concepts and philosophers on both the podcast and my weekly articles.