Ionian school (philosophy)
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The Ionian school of pre-Socratic philosophy refers to Ancient Greek philosophers, or a school of thought, in Ionia in the 6th century B.C, the first in the Western tradition.
The Ionian school included such thinkers as
who tried to explain the nature of matter.The first three philosophers (Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes) were all centred in the mercantile city
Thales
Aristotle wrote in Metaphysics, "Thales, the founder of this school of philosophy [Ionian school], says the permanent entity is water (which is why he also propounded that the earth floats on water). Presumably he derived this assumption from seeing the nutriment of everything is moist, and that heat itself is generated from moisture and depends upon it for its existence (and that from which a thing is generated is always its first principle). He derived his assumption, then, from this; and also from the fact that the seeds of everything have a moist nature, whereas water is the first principle of the nature of moist things."[8]
Anaximander
Anaximenes
Anaximenes of Miletus (Greek: Ἀναξιμένης ὁ Μιλήσιος; c. 585 – c. 528 BCE), like others in his school of thought, practiced material monism and believed that air is the arche.
Heraclitus
Heraclitus (Greek: Ἡράκλειτος, Hērakleitos) of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) disagreed with Thales, Anaximander, and Pythagoras about the nature of the ultimate substance and claimed instead that everything is derived from the Greek classical element fire, rather than from air, water, or earth. This led to the belief that change is real, and stability illusory. For Heraclitus "Everything flows, nothing stands still." He is also famous for saying: "No man can cross the same river twice, because neither the man nor the river are the same."
Anaxagoras
Archelaus
Archelaus (Greek: Ἀρχέλαος, Arkhelaos) was a Greek philosopher of the 5th century BCE, born probably in Athens. He was a pupil of Anaxagoras, and is said by Ion of Chios (Diogenes Laërtius, ii. 23) to have been the teacher of Socrates. Some argue that this is probably only an attempt to connect Socrates with the Ionian school; others (e.g. Gomperz, Greek Thinkers) uphold the story. There is similar difference of opinion as regards the statement that Archelaus formulated certain ethical doctrines. In general, he followed Anaxagoras, but in his cosmology he went back to the earlier Ionians.
See also
- History of metaphysical naturalism
- Mechanism (philosophy)
Notes
- ^ American International Encyclopedia, J.J. Little Co., New York 1954, Vol VIII
- ^ Laks, André (May 3, 2018). "The Concept of Presocratic Philosophy: Its Origin, Development, and Significance". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Daniel W. Graham.
- ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, 986b.
- ^ See Farrington, Greek Science, two vols, 1953.
- ^ Francis Cornford. From Religion to Philosophy. p. 144.
- ^ Herbert Ernest Cushman. A Beginner's History of Philosophy. p. 22.
- ^ Cornford, From Religion to Philosophy, p. 7
- Perseus Project.
Further reading
- Algra, Keimpe (1999). "The beginnings of cosmology". In Long, A. A. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 250–270. ISBN 978-0-521-44667-9.
- Barnes, Jonathan (2002). "Diogenes of Apollonia". Early Greek Philosophy. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-044815-3.
- Graham, Daniel W. (6 August 2006). Explaining the Cosmos: The Ionian Tradition of Scientific Philosophy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12540-4.
- White, Stephen A. (2008). "Milesian Measures: Time, Space, and Matter". In Curd, Patricia; Graham, Daniel W. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 353–363. ISBN 978-0-19-514687-5.
External links
- Turner, William (1910). . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8.
- . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 731–732.