We explain what ancient philosophy is, where it originated and what its history is. In addition, we explain the main philosophers of the period and their theories.
The first period in the history of philosophy originated in the city of Miletus.
What is ancient philosophy?
Ancient philosophy is the philosophy produced during the first period of the history of philosophy. The period spans the centuries from the 6th century BC to the 5th century AD. Its historical and geographical origin is located in Miletus, a Greek city of the 6th century BC where Thales, considered by many to be the first Western philosopher, and many other early philosophers, such as Anaximander and Anaximenes, lived.
The first philosophers (Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes), along with Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Parmenides, are part of the philosophers called pre-socratics. His object of study was Nature (physisin Greek) and lived during the 6th century BC.
They were followed by sophists, such as Gorgias and Protagoras, masters of rhetoric and theoretical enemies of Socrates (470-399 BC). Socrates was the one who started the classical period of ancient philosophyIt was attended by Plato (427-347 BC), his disciple, and Aristotle (384-322 BC), Plato’s disciple.
The classical period was followed by the Hellenismfocused on ethical issues and the search for happiness. Skepticism, Epicureanism and Stoicism were also part of Hellenism. At the same time, and as a trace of the classical period, the minor Socratic schools emerged, such as the Cynics, the Cyrenaics and the Megarians.
Ancient philosophy ends in what is known as the Late Antiquitya stage that some historians consider to be a transition towards medieval philosophy. During late antiquity, Neoplatonism emerged, which was a recovery of Platonic ideas through the works of Philo of Alexandria (13 BC-52 AD), Plotinus (204-270) and Proclus (480-485).
Also emerged, at the same time, the patristicswhich occupied the first Christian thinkers and began the defense of the faith (the apologetics) against pagan thought.
From myth to philosophy
Ancient philosophy arose in Greece around the 6th century BC. Thales of Miletus is credited with the first attempt to give an ultimate explanation of reality. In this sense, philosophy, in its origins, was close to other forms of knowledge such as myth, religion or poetry.
Myths, extraordinary narratives about gods and heroes, sought to provide answers to different concerns, such as the divine or good and evil. The difference with philosophy was that myths did not appeal to rational arguments to provide their explanations of the world, but rather appealed to the fantastic and to different elements of the order of the marvelous.
The emergence of philosophy in ancient Greece is considered as the transition from myth to reality. logos (the rational). Its beginnings were given when trying to transform the mythical explanation into a rational explanation, just as the pre-Socratic philosophers of the 6th century BC, such as Thales, Parmenides or Heraclitus, tried to do.
This did not mean that myths disappeared from the thinking of the Greek people, but that they came to occupy a lesser place. After all, Plato continued to use mythological narratives, just as Aristotle maintained that philosophers were lovers of myths.
The pre-Socratic philosophers
In the 6th century BC. C., on the coast of Asia Minor, in the cities of Miletus, Samos, Colophon and Ephesus, the first ancient philosophers emerged, today known as the pre-Socratic philosophers, since their work occurred before the thought of Socrates (470-399). BC), in the 5th century.
Pre-Socratic philosophers wrote about astronomy, cosmology, and physics. His thoughts reach us through Plato, Aristotle and some doxographers (compilers of opinions) such as Diogenes Laertius (180-240 AD). Their most important contribution is in having taken the step from myth to logos, since they sought a philosophical-scientific explanation for the origin of the world.
They carried out a rational reading of the myths, asking about the state of things, their origin, form and effects, seeking to give an account of an ordered conception of the totality of the world.
Their main concern was with nature. They sought to give an account of its origin, as well as the order of things and their presence in the world. This is the reason why they are known as “the philosophers of nature”, although at that time they were talking about physisunderstood not as the natural but as the totality of the world, of the cosmos.
Thales and the philosophers of Miletus
Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes lived in the city of Miletus. All three searched for a principle or arjé (arkhé, in Greek ἀρχή, meaning “beginning” or “origin”) common to all things that could account for the changes and multiplicity observed in nature.
The best known among the thinkers of Miletus was Thales, considered by historians of philosophy to be the first philosopher. Thales was a legislator, mathematician and astronomer. who was born in 640 BC. C. and was known as one of the seven wise men of Greece.
Thales is famous for having introduced the concepts of physis and arch to philosophy. The physis indicates the natural process by which something becomes what it is, and the arkhe It is the principle or origin from which that thing springs.
For Thales, the arch of nature was water, an element that he postulated as the principle and origin of all things since it was what could vivify all that is.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans
On the island of Samos, in 570 BC. C., Pythagoras was born, creator of the theorem that bears his name and founder of the school from which the brotherhood of the Pythagoreans would emerge.
In Pythagorean thought there are two very important concepts: the cosmos and numbers. The cosmos speaks of the order and harmony present in nature, whose origin or arkhé It was in the numbers. The Pythagoreans believed that the principles of mathematics were also the principles of all things..
The Pythagoreans, following their teacher, also postulated that the human being was composed of body and soul: the soul was the noble part that entered the body through breathing in order to purify itself.
Heraclitus of Ephesus
Born in 544 BC, Heraclitus was a philosopher from the Ionian city of Ephesus. He is called “the dark one” because Their opinions were difficult to understand, as they were presented in an enigmatic way.just as an oracle would do.
From the work of Heraclitus, written in prose by him in a book called Of the nature, 130 short fragments are preserved. He proposed that above all things was the logos (λόγος), a word of Greek origin that means “to explain”, “to speak”, “to show what is” or even “reason”.
Heraclitus maintained that within the cosmos was the logoswhich was the truth behind nature and whose essence was such that it loved to hide.
On the other hand, to explain the change in the future of the world, Heraclitus said that “everything flows” (“panta rei”, in ancient Greek Πάντα ῥεῖ) and that “you cannot bathe in the same river twice.” He believed, as he observed the change of the world, that in that change was the essence of all things.
In addition to the fragments cited, he used the metaphor of fire, which transforms everything, which is why many thinkers believe that he postulated fire as the arkhe of the cosmos.
Parmenides of Elea
Author of the poem About NatureParmenides was born in 520 BC and died in 450 BC. 170 verses or fragments of his work survive, divided into three large parts according to each topic (the beginning of the journey, the doctrine of truth and the path to opinion).
Parmenides’ poem speaks of two paths: that of truth and that of opinionThe path of truth is the one that will lead the philosopher to discover the doctrine of being, which establishes that being is and non-being is not. He opposed the theory of opposites, attributed to Heraclitus, and decreed that only what is exists.
Parmenides is also known to have been the teacher of Zeno, who wrote several aporias (among them, the most famous is that of Achilles and the tortoise).
The philosophers of the classical period
The philosophy of the Pre-Socratics met, in the 5th century BC, with the city of Athens as the cultural and economic centre of Greece. The cradle of historians and artists, this city was home to the greatest Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. These three thinkers make up what is known as the classical period of ancient philosophy.
The sophists
Before the Socratic era arose, a group of thinkers known as sophists. Masters of rhetoric, the sophists emerged on the occasion of democracy and as a result of the demand for teachers by those who sought access to power.
The name “sofitas” comes from the word sophos (σοφός), meaning “wise.” The sophists were wise men turned teachers. By abandoning the study of nature, they devoted themselves to the study of man and his customs, and submitted the idea of truth to the judgment of their audience through the dialectical method (that is, through dialogue). Some sophists became famous, such as Protagoras of Abdera and Gorgias of Leontinos.
Although it is true that many of them were accused of being relativists by Socrates, they have the merit of having turned philosophical study to moral topics, such as the virtues. This did not prevent, however, Socrates dedicated his life to combating sophistic teachingsand reproached them for their skeptical attitude towards moral values, and for charging for their teachings.
Socrates
From the participation of the sophists in the Greek philosophical scene, and in opposition to them, the thought of Socrates emerged. Born in Athens in 470 BC, Socrates dedicated his life to the education of the young people of the city, among whom was Plato, the most famous of his disciples.
In 399 BC Socrates was accused of corrupting his disciples and acting against the state religion, for which he was condemned and killed.
Since he did not leave his teachings in writing, what is known about his life is from the testimonies of his disciples, as happens with Plato’s dialogues, in which he is usually the main character. Most of the time Socrates is shown exercising maieutics, which is the name given to the method used to do philosophy through dialogue.
His way of thinking was strongly marked by the refutation of erroneous thinking and the use of irony. In all the works in which he appears, he is portrayed immersed in conversations that seek to find universal definitions regarding different values and concepts. Elements such as good, virtue or justice are…