Philosophy - Wayne State - College of Liberal Arts amp; Science哲学-韦恩国家文科和科学学院；.pptVIP

? R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permission ? R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permission Philosophy: From Mythos to Logos The Evolution of Philosophical Problematics Thales of Melitus (ca. 580 B.C.) Primary first cause is water We are born of a watery world water = steam = ice (states!) Water wears stuff away Elementism (with a touch of determinism and changing states) “The magnetic stone has soul because it sets the stone in motion.” So “soul” = movement (and, perhaps, in later psychology “intent” and “purpose” Anaximander (ca. 610 - ca. 546 B.C.) Why did everything not return to water? Existence must be boundless and there must be some balancing factor: – uninterrupted tensions and opposites – “boundlessly indeterminable” first matter “the everlasting generative matter split apart in the creation of our world and out of it a sphere of flame grew around the air surrounding the earth like the bark around a tree; then, when it tore apart and bunched up into definite circles, the sun, moon, and the stars took its place.” “Into that from which things take their rise they pass away once more, as is ordained, for they make reparation and satisfaction to one another for their injustice according to the ordering of time.” Organicism (and, perhaps a suggestion of some element unlike those we experience) Suggested that humans were borne of sea animals Anaximenes (ca. 545 B.C.) Every form of matter can serve as basic – and they are all transformed into one another Continuation of “transformation of states” seen in Thales and of the organismic balance seen in Anaxamander BUT, a sign of transformation from “quality” to “quantity” in his analysis of the rarefaction and expansion of air -- later to become a Pythagorean mythos Pythagoras (c. 570 B.C.) Secret cult of numbers Do not eat beans. Heraclitus (535-475 BCE.) fire – perpetual change, flux – as described in Plato’s Theaetetus, “You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are