Monistic cosmologies and

pluralistic cosmologies in pre-

Hello!
We are Keyur Bhavsar and Raj Chavda
We are here to present you about the Monistic cosmologies and pluralistic
cosmologies in pre-Socratic period.
 INTRODUCTION
Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient
Greek philosophy before crates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly
interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe,
but the inquiries of these early philosophers spanned the workings of the
natural world as well as human society, ethics, and religion.
 They sought explanations based on natural law rather than the actions of
gods. Their work and writing has been almost entirely lost. Knowledge of
their views comes from testimonia, i.e. later authors' discussions of the work
of pre-Socratics. Philosophy found fertile ground in the ancient Greek world
because of the close ties with neighboring civilizations and the rise of
autonomous civil entities, poleis. Pre-Socratic philosophy began in the 6th
century BCE with the three Milesians: Thales, Anaximander, and
Anaximenes. They all attributed the arche (a word that could take the
meaning of "origin," "substance" or "principle") of the world to, respectively,
water, apeiron (the unlimited), and air governed by nous (mind or
intelligence). Another three pre-Socratic philosophers came from nearby
Ionian towns: Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Pythagoras.

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Xenophanes is known for his critique of the anthropomorphism of gods.
Heraclitus, who was notoriously difficult to understand, is known for his
maxim on impermanence, ta panta rhei, and for attributing fire to be the arche
of the world. Pythagoras created a cult-like following that advocated that the
universe was made up of numbers. The Eleatic school (Parmenides, Zeno of
Elea, and Melissus) followed in the 5th century BCE. Parmenides claimed
that only one thing exists and nothing can change. Zeno and Melissus mainly
defended Parmenides' opinion. Anaxagoras and Empedocles offered a
pluralistic account of how the universe was created. Leucippus and
Democritus are known for their atomism, and their views that only void and
matter exist. The Sophists advanced critical thinking and philosophical
relativism.
The impact of the pre-Socratics has been enormous. The pre-Socratics
invented some of the central concepts of Western civilization, such as
naturalism and rationalism, and paved the way for scientific methodology.

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 TERMINOLOGY
Pre-Socratic is a term adopted in the 19th century to refer to The term was coined to highlight a fundamental
this group of philosophers. It was first used by the German change in philosophical inquiries between the
philosopher J.A. Eberhard as "vorsokratische Philosophie' in philosophers who lived before Socrates, who were
the late 18th century.[1] In earlier literature they were interested in the structure of nature and cosmos (i.e.,
referred to as physikoi ("physicists", after physis, "nature"), the universe, with the implication that the universe
and their activity, as physiologoi (physical or natural had order to it), and Socrates and his successors, who
philosophers), with this usage arising with Aristotle to were mostly interested in ethics and politics. The term
differentiate them from theologoi (theologians) and comes with drawbacks, as several of the pre-Socratics
mythologoi (storytellers and bards who conveyed Greek were highly interested in ethics and how to live the
mythology), who attributed natural phenomena to the gods. best life. Further, the term implies that the pre-
Socratics are less significant than Socrates, or even
that they were merely a stage (implying teleology) to
classical era philosophy.[3] The term is also
chronologically inaccurate, as the last of the pre-
Socratics were contemporaries of Socrates.

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 TERMINOLOGY
 According to James Warren, the distinction between the pre-Socratic philosophers and
philosophers of the classical era is demarcated not so much by Socrates, but by geography and
what texts survived. The shift from the pre-Socratic to the classical periods involves a shift from
philosophers being dispersed throughout the Greek-speaking world to their being concentrated in
Athens. Further, starting in the classical period we have complete surviving texts, whereas in the
pre-Socratic era we have only fragments.[5] Scholar André Laks distinguishes two traditions of
separating pre-Socratics from Socratics, dating back to the classical era and running through
current times. The first tradition is the Socratic-Ciceronian, which uses the content of their
philosophical inquires to divide the two groups: the pre-Socratics were interested in nature whereas
Socrates focused on human affairs. The other tradition, the Platonic-Aristotelian, emphasizes
method as the distinction between the two groups, as Socrates moved to a more epistemological
approach of studying various concepts.[6] Because of the drawbacks of the term pre-Socratic, early
Greek philosophy is also used, most commonly in Anglo-Saxon literature.

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 Pre socratic philosophers
 The pre-Socratic Philosophers Pythagoras Heraclitus Thales
 Although these philosophers were called pre – Socratic, they hadn’t lived before Socrates. On the contrary,
they were contemporary with Socrates, or even younger than him. The adjective «pre – Socratic» come
from the classification Aristoteles did. It meant that they weren’t under the Socrates’ influence.
 These philosophers tried to discover principles that could uniformly, consistently, and comprehensively
explain all natural phenomena and the events in human life without resorting to mythology. The pre-
Socratic style of thought is often called natural philosophy, but their concept of nature was much broader
than ours.
 They initiated a new method of explanation known as philosophy which has continued in use until the
present day, and developed their thoughts primarily within the framework of cosmology and cosmogony
encompassing spiritual and mythical as well as aesthetic and physical elements.

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 They brought human thought to a new level of abstraction; raised a number of central questions of ontology,
and cultivated the human spirit so as to open our eyes to the eternal truth.
 The Pre-socratic thinkers present a discourse concerned with key areas of philosophical inquiry such as being
and the cosmos, the primary stuff of the universe, the structure and function of the human soul, and the
underlying principles governing perceptible phenomena, human knowledge and morality.
 They sought the material principle (αρχή - arché) of things, and the method of their origin and disappearance.
Pre-Socratics approached the question of being primarily using two sets of questions: first, whether the ultimate
reality can be conceived of through a model based upon sensible element(s) or intelligible element(s); second,
whether the ultimate reality is immutable or ever changing.
 In a few words, those philosophers had brought attention to the question of the being. We can find some
orientations about this theme, and determinate the following groups of philosophers:The Milesians: Inquiry into
the Principles of Being Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes are grouped together as “the Milesians.” These
thinkers sought the ultimate principle which governs all phenomena in the element or elements of nature.

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 Thales of Miletus (c. 624 - 546 B. C. E Thales of Miletus (c. 624 - 546 B.C.E.) is known as
the first philosopher. This view was established by Aristotle who called Thales the “father of
philosophy”. Thales identified the ultimate reality (ousia) with “water.”
 Next came Anaximander (610-546 BCE), the first writer on philosophy Next came
Anaximander (610-546 BCE), the first writer on philosophy. He assumed as the first
principle an undefined, unlimited substance without qualities, out of which the primary
opposites, hot and cold, moist and dry, became differentiated. He identified it with the
“boundless” or “undefined”(to Apeiron).
 Anaximenes(c. 585 - 528 B. C. E. ) of Miletus equated it with “air Anaximenes(c. 585 - 528
B.C.E.) of Miletus equated it with “air.” The choice of air may seem arbitrary, but
Anaximenes based his conclusion on naturally observable phenomena in the processes of
rarefaction and condensation. It conceiving it as modified, by thickening and thinning, into
fire, wind, clouds, water, and earth.

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 CONCLUSION

 Pre-Socratic philosophers
 Made obvious the dichotomy between reason and
senses
 Attempted to explain reality without religion
(mythos)Attempted to understand how mathematical
numbers were related to the flux of reality
 Attempted to explain the problems of the One and the
Many

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 REFRENCES

 https://iep.utm.edu/empedocles
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Socratic_philosophy

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