Miletian school of philosophy and its main representatives

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

The formation of the philosophy of Ancient Greece took place in the sixth or fifth centuries before Christ. It is during this period that “wise men” appear who try to rationally explain what the ancient myths told about. It is believed that the development of this process is due to the fact that the commercial and industrial part of the population, which began to fight for power with the landowning aristocracy and move to a democratic type of government, developed its own worldview. At the origins of this "naive-spontaneous" thinking was the so-called Miletus school of philosophy.

Thales is traditionally considered the founder of this direction. He lived at the end of the seventh-first half of the sixth century BC. Thales believed that all things have a single beginning. He called them water. And it's not just a liquid or a substance. On the one hand, water for the philosopher -this is the medium on which our world “holds up”, that is, the Earth. On the other hand, it is reasonable, "God's". The whole world, from the point of view of the founder of the direction, which later became known as the Miletus School of Philosophy, is filled with souls. The latter are practically equal to deities and move into bodies to become the source of their intellectual development. Water at Thales also plays a huge role in epistemology. Since everything can be reduced to a single principle, it is also the basis of all knowledge. A wise search and the right choice contribute to this.

What other representatives of the Milesian school of philosophy were there? We know Anaximander, who studied with Thales. The name of his work is known, which bears the name "On Nature". That is why the thinkers of ancient Greece, following in his footsteps, began to be defined as natural philosophers. Anaximander was the first to conclude that the basis of all things cannot be any specific substance, but something all-encompassing, infinite, eternally moving. He called this category "apeiron". The Milesian school of philosophy, represented by Anaximander, even put forward the idea that man could have appeared on earth as a result of evolution. True, he talks about it very naively. The philosopher believed that the first man was born in the belly of a huge fish, where he grew up. And then he went outside and began to exist on his own, continuing his race.

The Milesian school of philosophy was most interested in the origin and basis of being and life, that is, ontology. The disciple of the creator of "apeiron" Anaximenes againreturned to the concretization of a single beginning of everything. He thought it was air. After all, he is the most indefinite and faceless of all four elements known to us. To some extent, this thinker followed his teacher, since he defined air as "apeiros" - non-bumpy. And already its properties are what Anaximander saw, that is, eternity, constant movement and all-penetrating action. Thus, "apeiron" is the quality of the air, and not a separate substance. Echoing Thales, Anaximenes saw in his original source not only matter, but also souls. The latter have even more "airy" qualities - they are not as mundane as bodies, and therefore can create and create new and great.

So, this is the whole Milesian school of philosophy. Its main provisions were briefly outlined. However, the history of the school does not end with these three representatives. Its main, fundamental provisions were developed by a philosopher from another city of Asia Minor, Ephesus. This is the famous Heraclitus. He summarized all the ideas of the Milesians about the beginning and introduced into the scientific discourse a term that we still use today. This is "logos". It is the deepest foundation of being and the goal of all knowledge. At the same time, Heraclitus believes that although all people are reasonable, the highest understanding of the “logos” is not given to everyone. This principle supports everything in being, but its material embodiment is fire. It flares up, then fades away, and therefore everything in the world is transient. It never repeats itself, but is ever changing. Everything consists of contradictions, which not onlyfight, but also support each other. The human soul also comes from a special fire, and its logos is unique - it is capable of self-development. The Logos is also the source of the laws that humans make, as it seeks to maintain order everywhere.