Topic > The Philosophy of Western Civilization

The philosophy of Western Civilization is said to have its origins in ancient Greece. Here it revolved around three of the world's most famous thinkers; Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Unfortunately this is not where we will begin our study. While Socrates may have been one of the world's greatest thinkers, his philosophy was based on the men who came before him. The philosophical fertility present in ancient Greece was more than abundant when the big three arrived. This early era is often referred to as pre-Socratic philosophy, which literally means philosophy before Socrates. It was here that more than a hundred philosophers attempted to make a name for themselves. In this article we will look at two of them; Anaximander and Pythagoras. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To further immerse ourselves in the culture of the time, it would behoove us to explain that pre-Socratic philosophers tended to focus on three main questions. The first of the three is the “one and many” mentality, in the sense that a simple thing can be the explanation for multiple phenomena. In class we established that this type of thinking could be reduced to deductive or inductive reasoning. Or put simply, bringing the general to the specific, or building on the specific to create a general overview of what is happening around us. The second issue is that of “change and coherence. “There is a wide variety of ever-changing elements around us. This can include water, trees, rocks, your dog, and even yourself. But the problem is asking where and why we keep changing. What power is causing this and what is its ultimate purpose in doing so. Also, how can things change while maintaining their original identity. A dry tree is still a tree and a rock eroded by rain is still a rock. The second half of this problem is consistency. If most things around us, even ourselves, continue to change, this prevents other things from changing at all. How do plants continue to grow each year in the same soil they were grown in the previous year? How could the sky constantly change but the stars in the sky always return at some point in the year. In this case our class discussed that everything you perceive could be consistent or corresponding. The coherence is that everything is relative to a set of beliefs that might contain the truth. The corresponding is that the things you perceive are here because they fall within the parameters of what you personally believe to be true. Finally, we are brought to the question of relativism and reality. The philosophers of this time and age had a very limited science, although it was continually growing. Not many scientific facts were disseminated but rather theological truths. Therefore, many had difficulty determining whether the principles they believed were absolute or man-made. Regarding relativism, many believed that the opinion presented to them should not be based on worldly truth but rather be useful as a springboard for growth. As long as a theory could be modified, philosophers considered it to be a sufficiently accurate point of view. While reality-based science was literally what people could see happening right in front of them. If the same result could not be reproduced then it was no longer reality, but a falsified theory. These two conflicting factors gave rise to different worldviews and led many of these pre-Socratic philosophers to seem crazy. But without them there would be no big three to begin with. Now that the context has been outlined, let's move directly tobeliefs of Anaximander the Milesian. This man was one of the first known philosophers of ancient Greece who was stationed in a city-state called Miletus (which is now Turkey). He was born in 610 BC and died in 546 BC Anaximander was the Greek philosopher who first developed a systemic philosophical vision of the world. Although only a very small fragment of his work survives, Anaximander was known to have been quoted by later philosophers in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries. It is said that he went to Sparta and installed a shadow-casting wand to predict the equinoxes, solstices, and various times of day. At a later time in his life he was also suspected of having drawn a map of the world and having constructed a celestial globe. If one considers his philosophical views, Anaximander was quite an experimenter. He proposed that everything originated from the “apeiron”, or infinity, rather than from a particular element. He rejected the teachings of his teacher Thales, who believed that water was the tether to all life on earth. He thought rather that the first beings arose from evaporative moist elements, and that man came from some other species of animal, such as a fish or a bird. He thought this because the amount of time needed to raise a child was very extensive, and if they were formed only from water, they would not survive long enough as they do now. Anaximander was also one who questioned the movement of the stars above him. He believed that the inhabited part of the earth was flat while the rest of the world was shaped like a cylinder. He believed this because the sun and moon were constantly the same distance away, no matter how many times they appeared. The Earth was positioned so that everything revolved around it because it had no reason to move. Yet he has not forgotten his aperion. He stated that the world was not eternal as one day everything would be destroyed and returned to infinity, in which a new world would later be born. Therefore, all existing things must “pay each other pain and punishment for their injustice, according to the disposition of the time,” as he is said to have quoted. Anaximander was also said to have investigated much deeper into early astrology, but his efforts were easily overlooked. Regardless, his logic and his attempts to explain the world had a lasting influence and were developed by many philosophers after him. Secondly, we will talk about the famous mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras. He was born in 570 BC and died between 500/490 BC Pythagoras was based in Metaponto, Lucanio (Italy) and here he formed the Pythagorean brotherhood. Together with his men he formulated many principles that would later influence the thinking of Plato and Aristotle and would contribute to the future development of mathematics. It is not certain how many of his works have survived, but it is known that many of his followers cited his name in their personal discoveries. However, he is generally credited with the theory of the functional meaning of numbers and musical speculation. It is also said that within his own school he carried forward the idea of ​​the transmigration of souls. Although his main doctrine was that "all things are numbers", meaning that the essence of all things could be determined by relating them numerically. At first this practice was also a very broad generalization of things that he could not adequately understand but would later understand. transform into a refined science. Some observations consisted of discs, tubes, strings and the like to demonstrate that they were somehow connected. The thought of the relationship was then brought into the picture when he tried to compare them to each other. In one-dimensional extensions Pythagoras was able to observe.