PSY 4130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Anaximander, Xenophanes, Arche
5 Jun 2018
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Lecture 4: Pre-Socrates Greeks
Miletus: was a town in Ionia on the west coast of Turkey, featured four prominent Greeks: Thales,
Anaximander, Anaximense, and Xenophanes.
Thales 624-546: created the formula for radius/diameter of a circle, measuring heights by the length
of shadows, believed that all matter is alive, and contains gods.
He also proposed that all matter is composed of a single fundamental substance (water) and perhaps
because we observe water in its three phases (solid, liquid, gas).
This thinking is remarkable because is presages a search that continues today: what are the
fundamental building blocks of the universe around us?
• before Thales the world was explained through myths
• Thales was an early scents who proposed theories and hypothesis that could be used to test theories
• represented a sharp departure from invoking spirits or gods
Anaximander (610-547 BCE)
• that there is one fundamental substance, but it was not water
• it was apron or the indefinite/infinite
• there are four fundamental elements but the fundamental substance must be something else
An early proponent of recycling, believing that everything that dies results to the elements form
which it came.
Anaximander also proposed a mechanical model of the universe with earth as a short cylinder
floating at the centre with no need for support.
• the sun, moon, and other bodies were on wheels at different distances from the earth
• proposed mechanisms for the phases of the non and eclipses
• created the first maps of the mediaterranean world
Anaximes
• proposed that the fundamental material (arche) was air which also made up our souls
Xenophanes
• criticized the beliefs in anthropomorphic gods and proposed a single infinedt deity
• espoused causation rather than divine intervention
• he emphasized observation rather than theology
• noted the difference between belief and knowledge, proceed a truth that is not accessible to
humans
Pythagoras
• started a cult that practiced vegetarianism as part of its ascetic lifestyle
• noting that the length of a string determines the frequency of the note that results when it is
plucked thus music is mathematical
• the Harmony of Spheres: reflecting his belief that the motion of the starts and planets was
determined by mathematics
• equations correspond to musical notes creating a celestial symphony
Proposed dualism as a universal principle
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Document Summary
Miletus: was a town in ionia on the west coast of turkey, featured four prominent greeks: thales, Thales 624-546: created the formula for radius/diameter of a circle, measuring heights by the length of shadows, believed that all matter is alive, and contains gods. He also proposed that all matter is composed of a single fundamental substance (water) and perhaps because we observe water in its three phases (solid, liquid, gas). Anaximander (610-547 bce: that there is one fundamental substance, but it was not water, it was apron or the indefinite/infinite, there are four fundamental elements but the fundamental substance must be something else. An early proponent of recycling, believing that everything that dies results to the elements form which it came. Anaximes: proposed that the fundamental material (arche) was air which also made up our souls. Believed that (a) change is ever-present and (b) the fundamental substance is fire.
