pre-Socratics
Ancient Greek thinkers
The pre-Socratics were Greek philosophers who lived before or contemporaneously with Socrates, roughly the sixth and fifth centuries BCE.
They represent the earliest Western philosophical tradition, turning from mythological explanations toward rational inquiry about nature, existence, and the cosmos.
Figures like Thales, Heraclitus, and Parmenides asked what the world is fundamentally made of and how change occurs.
Their fragmentary writings survive mostly through later quotations.
First Western philosopher
- HeraclitusPre-Socratic philosopher of flux
- DemocritusAncient atomism's founder
- PythagorasAncient Greek mathematician
- ZenoGreek paradox thinker
Existing as something
- changeTo make different
- permanenceQuality of lasting indefinitely
- unityWholeness through cohesion
- multiplicityState of being many
substance · nature · necessity · motion · paradox · appearances · truth · reason
Incomplete broken pieces
- AristotleGreek founder of formal logic
- PlatoGreek philosopher, academy founder
- HippolytusTragic chaste youth
- naturalismWorldview excluding the supernatural
rationalism · Western philosophy · metaphysics · inquiry · speculation
Orderly totality of existence
- elementsFundamental parts or substances
- originsPoints where things start
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
- voidWithout legal effect
chaos · infinity · logos · flux · becoming · opposites · fire · water
Ancient Greek city, Asia Minor
- CrotonWestchester hamlet, Hudson's edge
- IoniaAncient Aegean coastal region
- AegeanEastern Mediterranean sea
- Asia MinorWestern Turkey's peninsula
Thales
First Western philosopher
- HeraclitusPre-Socratic philosopher of flux
- DemocritusAncient atomism's founder
- PythagorasAncient Greek mathematician
being
Existing as something
- changeTo make different
- permanenceQuality of lasting indefinitely
- unityWholeness through cohesion
multiplicity · substance · nature · necessity · motion · paradox · appearances · truth · reason · perception
fragments
Incomplete broken pieces
- AristotleGreek founder of formal logic
- PlatoGreek philosopher, academy founder
- HippolytusTragic chaste youth
naturalism · rationalism · Western philosophy · metaphysics · inquiry · speculation
cosmos
Orderly totality of existence
- elementsFundamental parts or substances
- originsPoints where things start
- cosmogonyStudy of universal origins
void · chaos · infinity · logos · flux · becoming · opposites · fire · water · air
Ephesus
Ancient Greek city, Asia Minor
- ancient GreeceAthens, Sparta, Zeus, Parthenon, Acropolis
- Greek philosophyAristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, Academy, ethics
- philosophyethics, logic, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology
- Ancient GreeksPlato, Aristotle, Homer, Pericles, Sophocles
- ancient philosophyPlato, Aristotle, Platonism, Epicureanism, Stoicism
- ancient scienceAristotle, Plato, Ptolemy, Galen, Pythagoras