One of the last pre-Socratic philosophers of Ancient Greece, Anaxagoras hailed from the Ionian city of Clazomenae but is notable for being the first one to bring philosophy to Athens. There he taught and flourished for about 30 years until the mid-5th century BCE when he went back to Ionia due to charges brought against …
Continue reading Anaxagoras on Change: Everything Contains Everything
In my last article on the exploration of the historical context of the time around 130 years before Socrates, we discovered the events of roughly 50 years of the 6th century BCE. It was the time when most known philosophical activity of the Greeks was still taking place in their Ionian city-states, on the coast …
Continue reading Xenophanes from Colophon – a Pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher (ca. 540 BCE)
Last week I wrote an introduction article giving an overview of the historical ground we will cover in the roughly 130 years leading up to the famous Greek philosopher Socrates. This post is the first part of our journey. We will visit the Asian side of Greek city-states (Asia Minor): the Ionian region where, so …
Continue reading 130 Years Before Socrates: Historical Exploration (Part 1 – Persians Conquer Ionia)
In this article, I explore some of the core ideas of the ancient Greek philosopher Anaximenes. He was one of the 'Milesian trio' (of the city of Miletus) and the youngest of the three. You can read about the ideas of his older fellow citizens and thinkers here: Thales, the first recorded Greek philosopher, and …
Continue reading Anaximenes – the last of the ‘Milesian Trio’ Philosophers
Last week I wrote the first part of this article. In it, I started drawing the historical background leading up to the first recorded ancient Greek philosopher - Thales. In this second part, I finish the article and bring our time journey from its last stop (~10th/9th century BC) some 300-400 years ahead to the …
Continue reading Before Socrates – Origins of Western Philosophy (Part 2 of 2)
It is ironic, really - a man who made it his point to never write down any of his thoughts and claimed that he knew nothing is also the man who is among the most famous western philosophers. One of the "founding fathers", so to speak. I am referring to Socrates, of course. Luckily, his …
Continue reading Before Socrates – Origins of Western Philosophy (Part 1 of 2)
