#Pre-Socratic philosophy

[tagitables]

Anaxagoras takes me aside and instructs me as follows: – Mind is the first principle of all things, and it is the cause and master of all, and it provides arrangement for what is disarranged, and separation for what has been mixed, and an orderly universe for what was disorderly.

— passages in the doxographists referring to Anaxagoras; Herm. I. G. P.6 (D. 652).

[alenasbdesign]

Happy World Philosophy Day!

[annabelle-o-belmont]

philosophy is so fucking funny, like you go all the way back to the ionian school of pre-socratic philosophy and its like everyone is out here changing up what they believe the world arises from.

Thales of Miletus believed all things are derived from water because of moistness.

Anaximenes believed everything is derived from air.

Heraclitus believed all things are derived from fire.

straight up just like switching out what came before.

(lmao i know it’s more complicated than that and they had solid reasoning, but it’s funnier to think about them just like being like “fuck you philosophy father!! the archae is this!!!”)

i love philosophy so much lmao.

[pink-lemonade-rose]

The Muses were goddesses of poetry, but poetry itself encompassed a very wide domain. Many of the pre-Socratic philosophers (Parmenides, Xenophanes, Empedocles) expressed their thoughts in poetry, and Empedocles, at least, invokes the Muses for their aid. [...] Empedocles' use of the figure of the Muse should remind us of the range of the Muses' functions in the culture of early Greece: not only are they givers of pleasure who soothe cares and immortalize the deeds of men in song, as daughters of Mnemosyne they know everything about the past and the unseen world of the gods, and they are also authorities on ethical matters and wisdom generally.

Penelope Murray, “The Muses and their Arts”

[lindahall]

Zeno of Elea – Scientist of the Day

Zeno of Elea, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, flourished about 450 B.C.E; we estimate he was born around 490 B.C.E. and died around 420.

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[ahalal-uralma]

Eastern Philosophers vs Western Philosophers. Epic Rap Battles of History

I’ve watched a lot of these, but I can’t believe I’ve missed this one and it is the best one out of all of them easily. I needed a few minutes to clear my eyes from laughing too hard. I have thoughts, but will preserve them in tags.

[outerblog]

Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing, for the known way is an impasse.

Heraclitus (trans. Brooks Haxton)

[stastrodome]

Five Fun Facts about Anaximenes of Dabra

- Anaximenes of Dabra often took parts in debates with Empedocles where he  vigorously questioned the status of the sandal as universal footwear.

- Unaware of Socrates, Anaximenes of Dabra and his contemporaries obviously did not call themselves "Pre-Socratics".  They were called "Zaxy and The Dab-Lords".

- Anaximenes of Dabra was known as a physicist but he was also a beloved local candy maker who made confections with two simple ingredients: sugar and salt. 

- Jealous of Anaximenes of Miletus's perfection of the sun dial, Anaximenes of Dabra spent his last years trying to invent the pocket fisherman.

- Anaximenes of Dabra was the first person to actually slap another person for using the word “synergy”.

[boudicca]

morning classes are an evil that must be vanquished

[cryptotheism]

If we are going to talk about Hermes Trismegistus, we have to talk about pre-socratic authorial ethos, which is a fancy way of saying “How intellectual clout worked a long ass time ago.” Remember that in ancient times, capital-T Truth came from one of two places: tradition, and legendary sages. The idea that people could somehow find new Truth lying around was seen as ridiculous, and a bit arrogant. “What, you say you have new Truth? You think you’re smarter than Aristotle? You think you’re better than the way we’ve been doing it for a thousand years? Yeah right, buddy.” if you wanted people to care about your religion or philosophy, it needed to be ancient, or you needed a legendary sage. The figure of Hermes Trismegistus solved both these problems. Trismegistus was the ancient-est, legendary-est sage, which made Hermeticism the ancient-est most traditional-est tradition. It follows logically that this ancient ur-wisdom would touch on damn near everything from God to magic to math.

Talking about syncretism and hermeticism today on patreon

[thoodleoo]

would love to introduce a pre-socratic philosopher to a middle school student. this is partly because my middle schoolers are willing to engage ancient philosophy where it is because they too are still formulating their own perceptions of the world based on the limited knowledge they have of its deeper functions. mostly though it's because i know they'd respond like

[tagitables]

Theophrastos says that the teaching of Anaxagoras is much like that of Anaximandros; for Anaxagoras says that in the separation of the infinite, things that are akin come together, and whatever gold there is in the all becomes gold, and whatever earth becomes earth, and in like manner each of the other things, not as though they came into being, but as though they were existing before. And Anaxagoras postulated intelligence (noun) as the cause of motion and of coming in to being … if one were to assume that the mixture of all things were one nature undefined in form and in amount, which he seems to mean, it follows that he speaks of two first principles, the nature of the infinite and intelligence, so that he appears to treat all the material elements in much the same manner as Anaximandros.

— passages in the doxographists referring to Anaxagoras; Theophr. Phys. opin. Fr. 4 (D. 479).

[ogrepoppenangleaksofficial]

Does Big D believe in sex, or does he subscribe to the pre-socratic philosophy of Spontaneous Generation?

[finelythreadedsky]

doing my assigned 'you have to have some degree of knowledge spanning the breadth of the field of classics' reading on the pre-socratics and i have to say this is really not improving my opinion of ancient philosophy. they were out there saying stuff like "some things are big, and other things are small" or "some things are wet and hot, but some things are wet and cold, and other things are dry and hot, and still other things are dry and cold" and we're still reading about it 2500 years later.

[lindahall]

Anaximenes of Miletus – Scientist of the Day

Anaximenes was the third of the three Ionian pre-Socratic philosophers from Miletus, on the west coast of Asia Minor.

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[whencyclopedia]

Plato

Plato (l. 424/423 to 348/347 BCE) is the pre-eminent Greek philosopher, known for his Dialogues and for founding his Academy in Athens, traditionally considered the first university in the Western world. Plato was a student of Socrates and featured his former teacher in almost all of his dialogues which form the basis of Western philosophy.

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