PHL 187 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Milesian School, Cosmogony, Theogony
30 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
First observed and articulated by aristotle in analytics. John locke said: god barely made man two-legged so it was up to aristotle to make them rational. Aristotle"s writings describe and praise the attainments of the men who first discovered his own philosophy. Presocratic philosophers - widely differing interests and professions. Presocratic rationality is often misunderstood, and sometimes denied. The ancient greeks were not, as a whole, devoted to reason. Presocratic men rose above the average, uneducated, and bigoted men in 5th and 6th century bc. Mainly concerned with the non-scientific aspects of presocratic thought. Should not assume that rational men reject the supernatural. Scholars often contrast the naturalistic cosmogonies of the milesian philosophers with mythological stories (like hesiod"s theogony) Unargued fables were replaced by argued theory; rather than comparing science or gods to natural forces. Theology and the supernatural can be treated rationally. If presocratics reject blank assertions of piety and poetry, that does not reject the divine or supernatural.
