work on philosophy

2. Topics by zafar iqbal
• Greek philosophy
• Pre Socratic period,
• initial Greek civilization and culture ,
• The atomists Philosophy
• Heraclitus philosophy ,

3. Zafa iqbal

5. One of the most unique and wonderful
of Greek inventions was philosophy
Philosophy was the special way
Greeks attempted to make sense out
of the world, in a non-religious way
This means that rather than using
myths and stories to understand the
world, they would use their intelligence
and reasoning skills

6. “Philo-” means love, and
“-sophia” means wisdom, so
the word “philosophy” really
means “the love of wisdom.”
Basically, philosophy is
thinking about the world and
making sense out of it.

7. Early Greeks began asking the
question, “What exists?”
They questioned the world
around them and tried to make
sense out of what they saw.
Other, different philosophies were
developed, each of which tried to
make sense out of the world.

8. Eventually,
upon each
their
other
ideas
until
built
very
complicated philosophies were
developed
These early thinkers were so
influential that their ideas are
still around today, and people
still study them in colleges and
universities

9. The earliest of Greek
philosophers
answer the
tried to
question of
what exists by coming up
with a number of different
ideas

10. Four Elements
Thales, who lived around 600
BC (nearly 2,600 years ago)
determined that everything
was made up of water, which
he thought was the single
primal element

11. • Anaximander,come up
with his own idea that
everything was made
up of an element he
called the
“boundless,” which
was divided up into
hot and cold, and wet
and dry.

12. It was these early ideas that
helped later philosophers to
the entire
to the
classify
according
elements: Earth, Air,
world
four
Fire,
and Water

13. Mathematics :
Pythagoras, around 530
BC, saw the key to all of
existence in mathematics,
and
entire
thought
world
that the
could be
explained with numbers.
Developed an advanced
system of geometry that
we still use today (people
still study the
Pythagorean Theorem in
geometry).

14. Around 450
Atoms
BC,
philosophers, Leucippus
there were two
and
Democritus, both of whom thought that
the world was made up of little particles
that were so small we couldn’t even see
them. They called these particles atoms,
and thought that they made up everything
in the universe.
Eventually, modern science would prove
that these atomic theories were right,
even though they were developed
thousands of years ago

15. TheSophists
Around 450 BC, philosophers known as Sophists
thought that “man is the measure” of everything.
In other words, they thought that the only things
that matter are human beings and the way we
see the world.
Taught their students that they should use their
reason, or intelligence, in order to succeed in life.
Sophists also believed that there is an important
difference between things that are man-made
versus things that are naturally made, and said
that natural products were better than man-made
ones

16. Socrates
Socrates, who lived from 469-399 BC, was one of the
most influential philosophers of all time
He disagreed with the sophists because they charged
their students money, but didn’t teach them how to be
ethical
Being ethical means acting in a morally responsible
manner, like doing the right thing, no matter what.
Socrates was one of the first philosophers to ask the
question “What is right and wrong?”
His teaching technique, later called the Socratic
Method, involved asking his students questions and
correcting them, so that they would come up with the
right answers

17. Historical Period on Philosophy
1. Pre-Socratic Period
The Pre-Socratic philosophers
*The world’s first official Philosophers(Pioneer)
*shifted from traditional mythological explanations( rejected
the gods/ goddess and monsters) to natural law.
*They started to ask questions like:
Where did everything come
from? why is there such
variety, and
how can nature be described mathematically?
*They tended to look for universal principles to explain the whole
of Nature.
*Monists( everything can be explained by single element)
*The ideas and philosophies of the Pre-Socratic philosophers
were written in stone.

18. 1.1 The Milesian School
The Pre-Socratic school of philosophy founded on
the 6th Century B.C. in the Ionian town of Miletus (a
Greek colony on the Aegean coast of Anatolia in
modern Turkey).
The major philosophers included under this
label are Thales, Anaximander and
Anaximenes.
Thales of Miletus:
Designated as the first Philosopher
He is regarded as the founder of natural philosophy.
He proposed that everything is composed of WATER,
as the source of life, indispensible, necessity for
survival. Water and other liquidities were tough force of
nature.

19. Anaximander
A younger contemporary of Thales
He believed that all those elements and more comprised
a common element he called APEIRON or the
BOUNDLESS. All things arise from apeiron and all things
return to apeiron.
Anaximander placed the Earth at the center of a universe
composed of hollow, concentric wheels filled with fire, and
pierced by holes at various intervals (which appear as the
sun, the moon and the stars);
Anaximenes
A pupil of Anaximander
Air is the root of all
things
Anaximeness saw the sun and the moon as flat disks
travelling

20. 1.2 The Ephesian School
is a Greek Pre-Socratic school of philosophy of the 5th
Century B.C., it refers to the ideas of just one man,
Heraclitus a native of Ephesus in the Greek
colony of Ionia.
his view was that the world witnesses constant change, rather than no
change at all. The dictum: "everything is in a state of flux",(change) . Life is
never ending sequence of birth and death, creation and destruction; cycle of
combustibility
The transformation of material from one state into another does not happen
by accident, he held, but rather within certain limits and within certain time and
according to law or "logos", according to which all things are one. He
considered that the basis of all the universe is an ever-living fire (although this
is used more as a symbol of change and process, rather than actual fire), so
that the world itself consists of a law-like interchange of elements,
symbolized by fire.

21. 1.3 Pluralism
is a Greek Pre-Socratic school of philosophy of the 5th
Century B.C., consisting of three major philosophers:
Anaxagoras, Archelaus (5th Century B.C.) and Empedocles.
Pluralism as a philosophical doctrine is a concept used many different ways,
but, in general terms, it is the theory that there is more than one basic
substance or principle, whether it be the constitution of the universe, of the
mind and body, the sources of truth, etc .
Archelaus, a student of Anaxagoras , asserted
that air and infinity are the principles of all things, that primitive Matter is
air mingled with Mind, and that the principle of motion was the separation of
hot from cold, from which he endeavored to explain the formation of the
Earth and the creation of animals and humans.

22. Empedocles (c. 490 - 430 B.C.)
was a Pre-Socratic Greek
philosopher, usually considered a
member of the poorly- defined
Pluralist school in that he was
eclectic in his thinking and combined
much that had been suggested by
others.
He is perhaps best known as the
originator of the cosmogenic
theory of the four classical
elements of the ancient world:
earth, air, fire and water, which
became the standard dogma for
much of the next two thousand
years.
Empedocles believed that the
organic universe sprang from
spontaneous aggregations
of parts, and only in those
rare cases where the parts
were found to be adapted to
each other, did the complex
structures last. He assumed a
cyclical universe, whereby
the elements would return to
the harmony of the sphere in
preparation for the next period
of the universe.

23. 1.4 Pythagoreanism
is an early Pre-Socratic Greek school of philosophy based around
the metaphysical beliefs of Pythagoras and his followers.
Pythagoras proposed that life was a numbersgame.
He taught that everything could be explain through mathematical theorems and
formulae. Though Pythagorean thought was dominated by mathematics on the
other hand it was also profoundly mystical.
He also believe in reincarnation and his follower were vegetarian. They believe
in metempsychosis (the transmigration of the soul and
its reincarnation after death)
He also subscribed to the views of another of his teachers,
Anaximander, that the ultimate substance of things is what he
described as "apeiron" (variously described as "the
boundless" or "the undefined infinite")

24. Protagoras
He is regarded as the first
sophist Man is the
measure of all things
was the famous credo of
Protagoras.
It is actually an extreme case of
relativism. It is a dismissal of Big
picture of Universal Truth. Where
what is true for me may not be true
to you and vice versa. Anything
goes was the natural devolution of
such principle. If its feel good . Do it
. If it gets you ahead even at the
expense of another, go for it
anyway.
His being apathetic view toward gods cause him to be charge of
impiety and subsequent death sentence

25. 1.6 Atomism
is a Pre-Socratic school of thought from ancient Greece, establishedin
the late 5th Century B.C. by Leucippus of Miletus (5th Century B.C.) and
his more famous student, Democritus .
Atomism is the theory that all of reality and all the objects in
the universe are composed of very
small, indivisible and indestructible building blocks known
as atoms (from the Greek "atomos", meaning "uncuttable").
This leads logically to the position that only atoms exist, and
there are no composite objects (objects with parts), which
would mean that human bodies, clouds, planets, etc, all do not
exist.
There is no room in this theory for the concept of a God, and
essentially it is a type of Materialism and Physicalism .

26. Leucippus and Democritus
Were the first to theorize that the world was
composed of tiny particles called ATOMs( these
particles were invisible, indivisible to the
human eye yet Ubiquitous( universal,
omnipresent)

27. Greek philosophers all started a new type of
thinking. Rather than believing in myths and
stories, they began searching for the truth of
the world by using their rational thinking.
The ideas of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and
hundreds of other Greek philosophers, have
all remained important in the
development of
very
other
ideas, as well as science,
new philosophical
astronomy,
physics, medicine, and mathematics

29. The Greek civilization
started in the Balkan
Peninsula, but some Greeks
lived in islands and in Asia
Minor (Turkey)
They started to live
together in city-states or
polis, which had its own
government, laws and
army. Athens and Sparta
were important city-
states.

30. The rulers of the polis were rich
people, or aristoi, and so this form
of government was called
“aristocracy”.
Sparta was an example of
aristocratic government.
Later, in some polis, “democracy”,
replaced aristocracy. People met at
“assemblies” to make decisions and
choose their representatives. They
also created “councils” which
prepared subjects to discuss at
assemblies. Athens was an example
of democratic government

31. Between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, Greece went
through a period of crisis because the population
increased and as the land wasn’t fertile, there was not
enough food for everyone; so many Greeks migrated
and founded colonies around the Mediterranean sea.
Colonies had the same traditions and organizations as
the polis they came from, but they were independent.
Colonization spread Greek influence beyond
its frontiers.

32. Greek society was an unequal society, it was divided into two groups:
citizens and non-citizens. Only a minority of people were “citizens”
who enjoyed many rights, as the right to vote or take part in politics.
There were three different categories
of “non-citizens”:
Foreigners, who were free and could fight in the army, worked in trade
and crafts but could not own land or houses.
Slaves, who were not free and worked for a family. They worked in agriculture of
domestic work.
Women,who could be free or slaves, but had no rights.They were
always under the rule of a man.

33. • Ancient civilizations used myths to explain the world.
The Greeks were the first to look for an explanation of
natural phenomena using logic and reasoning. That is
why the Greeks are considered to be the fathers of
Philosophy and Science. The three greatest Greek
philosophers were Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
• Education was very important in Greece. Boys
started school at the age of 7, they learnt to read and
write and some mathemathics. They learnt about
traditions, ethics and had military training. Girls did not
go to school and were iliterate.

34. The Greeks believed in many gods, each city-state has its own
deity. The gods were inmortal but they behaved as humans,they
ate, loved and fought, Zeus was the king of gods and lived with
the rest in Mount Olympus.
They also believed in Heroes who were sons of gods and humans,
Ulyses or Hercules were very powerful but mortal.They also
believed in fantastic creatures, such as cyclopes and centaurs.
The Greeks invented myths, that were stories about their gods and
heroes.
The Temples were the homes of the gods, and the priests were
their servants.The gods communicate with humans through
“Oracles”, that were messages from the gods that were
interpreted by a priest.

35. Greek Architecture: The Greeks constructed many different
types of buildings, but the most important ones were the
temples. They were rectangular and normally built in white
marble and painted in colours. Greek architects, who were
concerned about proportion, harmony and beauty, followed very
strict rules according to three orders that determined the style of
the building.The three orders were Doric, Ionic and
Corinthinian.
Greek Sculpture: Most of Greek sculptures and reliefs represented
deities and heroes and were found in temples. Greek Sculptors
were interested in representing the beauty of the naked human
body: Most of the sculptures were made in marble and bronze and
painted in bright coulours.

36. “No man ever steps in the same river twice,
for it's not the same river and he's not the
same man.”
―Heraclitus

37. Life of Heraclitus
Heraclitus (late 6th
century BC) was a
pre-Socratic Greek
philosopher, a
native of Ephesus,
an important city on
the Ionian coast of
Asia Minor, not far
birthplace
from Miletus, the
of
philosophy.

38. We know nothing about his life other than
what can be gleaned from his own
statements, he regarded himself as self-
taught and a pioneer of wisdom; for all
ancient biographies of him consist of nothing
more than inferences or imaginary
constructions based on his sayings.
Life of Heraclitus

39. Life of Heraclitus
From the lonely life he
led, and still more from
the apparently riddled
and allegedly paradoxical
nature of his philosophy
and his stress upon the
needless unconsciousness
of humankind, he was
called "The Obscure" and
the "Weeping
Philosopher".

40. Heraclitus appears to have written only one
book, entitled On Nature. Diogenes states that
Heraclitus' work was "a continuous treatise
On Nature, but was divided into three
discourses, one on the universe, another on
politics, and a third on theology.”
Theophrastus says (in Diogenes) "...some
parts of his work [are] half-finished, while
other parts [made] a strange medley.
On Nature

41. On Nature
The complete text of
Heraclitus' book has been
lost; however, since he was
frequently quoted by other
ancient philosophers, there
are about 130 fragments of
writing attributed to him.
Unfortunately, more than
one-half of these fragments
have been challenged as to
their authenticity by
various scholars at various
times. This leaves only
about 60 fragments which
are accepted as genuine by
all classical academics.

42. According to both Plato and Aristotle , Heraclitus held
extreme views that led to logical incoherence. For he
held that
everything is constantly changing
opposite things are identical
everything is and is not at the same time.
TheDoctrineofFluxand
theUnity ofOpposites

43. Logos
The writing of
Heraclitus was the
first place where the
word logoswas given
special attention in
ancient Greek
philosophy.

44. Heraclitus argued that there was an objective truth
about everything, an underlying current flowing across
a time, and on to the next one. This constancy he called
Logos. Logos, for Heraclitus, was the world’s rationale,
its determining formula, the truth, and thus the key to
everythings nature. Heraclitus, therefore, was
understandably opposed to the naïve empiricism of his
time, and pleaded that men come to discover the ‘depth
of the soul’s own logos’.
Logos

45. Arche - Fire
Fire, for Heraclitus the
primordial element arche.
From fire all things originate,
and return to it again in a
process of eternal cycles. He
believed fire gave rise to the
other elements. He regarded
the soul as being a mixture
of fire and water, with fire
being the noble part of the
soul, and water the ignoble
part.

46. This Cosmos[the same of all] did none of gods or men make.
But it always was, and is, and shall be an ever-living Fire,
kindling in measures and going out in measures.
This passage contains the earliest extant philosophical
use of the word kosmos denoting the organized world in
which we live, with earth, sea, atmosphere, and
heavens.
PhysicalTheory

47. Heraclitus' criticisms and metaphysical speculations are
grounded in a physical theory. He explains the order and
proportion in which the stuffs change:
The turnings of fire: first sea, and of sea, half is earth, half firewind
Fire is transformed into water ("sea") of which half turns
back into fire ("firewind") and half into earth. Thus there is a
sequence of stuffs: fire, water, earth, which are
interconnected
PhysicalTheory

48. When earth turns back into sea, it occupies the same volume
as it had before it turned into earth. Thus we can recognize a
primitive law of conservation-not precisely conservation of
matter, at least the identity of the matter is not conserved,
nor of mass, but at least an equivalence of matter is
maintained. Although the fragments do not give detailed
information about Heraclitus' physics, it seems likely that the
amount of water that evaporates each day is balanced by the
amount of stuff that precipitates as water, and so on, so that
a balance of stuffs is maintained even though portions of
stuff are constantly changing their identity.
PhysicalTheory

49. I chose Heraclitus as a subject of my presentation
because I find natural philosophers’ theories very
engaging in general and Heraclitus’ theory of fire being
‘the beginning of everything’ caught my attention. In
process I found out about his Doctrine of Flux which is
a very interesting and unusual concept too and gives
food for thought.
Why Heraclitus?

50. Thank you