MAJOR PERIODS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
The origin of Western Philosophy can be found way back during the ancient times
before the times the three great philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The ideas
of the existing philosophers nowadays come from the ideas of the mentioned philosophers
either redefined, reconstructed, argued, or reclassified.
This paper will allow us to revisit and examine the different philosophical
perspectives and ideologies of the times as espoused by philosophers from the ancient times,
the medieval period, and the modern period. Contemporary period and Postmodernism will
be amplified on the next paper.
I. ANCIENT PERIOD
1. Socrates’ Predecessors
The pre-Socratic predecessors centered their philosophy on answering the three main
issues. These are: the one and the many, change and constancy, and relativism.
The issue on the one and the many explains how one basic thing can be the source of
many varied things. The world contains an enormous variety of objects, some living, others
inanimate; some solid, others liquid. It seems reasonable to suppose that all things come from
a common source or type of stuff. The issue on change and constancy specifies how things
remain constant as they change over time. Not only are there many kinds of things in the
world, but each one is subject to change. While the issue on relativism, namely, determines
whether principles are absolute or created by people.
Now, here are some of the philosophers considered as the Socrates’ Predecessors.
MILESIANS
The first known philosophers of ancient Greece were from a city-state called Miletus.
Residents of Miletus were in contact with surrounding cultures and as such were influenced
by many of their views, particularly theories of astronomy that came from civilizations to the
east of Greece
1. Thales (c. 625-545 BCE) – He held that water is the basic stuff of all things.
2. Anaximander (c. 610–545 BCE) – He held that the underlying cause of everything was an
indefinable stuff that he called the boundless.
3. Anaximenes (c. 585-525 BCE) – He expanded the idea that air is the source of everything.
IONIANS
The enumerated philosophers are from Ionia who joined the previous and formed a
distinct Ionian school of philosophy.
1. Pythagoras (c.570–c.497 BCE) – He held that numbers and mathematical relations
underlie reality. He is known for his Pythagorean Theorem.
2. Heraclitus (c. 540–c. 480 BCE) - He argued that an ever-changing world around us is held
together through a unifying principle that he called the logos.
ELEATICS
, The most radical philosophical theory among the early Greeks was proposed by a
group of philosophers from the city of Elea, a Greek colony on the south-west coast of Italy.
They argued that our everyday perceptions of the world are completely wrong, and all reality
is the One, that is, a single, undifferentiated and unchanging thing.
1. Xenophanes (c. 570–c.478 BCE) who attacked traditional notions of the gods
(Anthropomorphism) and offered a conception of God as identical to the cosmos as a whole
(Pantheism);
2. Parmenides (b. 510 BCE) – He argues that there is only one unchanging thing which he
referred as “ the one”.
3. Zeno of Elea (c. 490–430 BCE): Paradoxes – He defended Parmenides’ view of the One.
The target of Zeno’s work is the commonsense world of appearances that virtually everyone
believes in.
PLURALISTS
To give an answer to the issue on the one and the many is an alternative strategy
called pluralism (literally meaning “many-ism”), which in philosophy refers to the view that
many kinds of things exist.
1. Empedocles (c. 495–c. 435 BCE): He held that there are four basic elements namely
earth, air, fire and water which are organized by the two forces of love and strife.
2. Anaxagoras (500–428 BCE): Mind and the Divisibility of Material Ingredients – He
held that the world is comprised of infinitely divisible portions of ingredients (seeds) that are
set in motion by a cosmic Mind.
ATOMISTS:
Its central thesis is that the world is composed of indivisible particles called atoms
that exist within empty space. Leucippus and Democritus (460-350 BCE) are its two known
philosophers.
SOPHISTS:
It is a collection of traveling freelance teachers with a reputation for skepticism.
Philosophers: Protagoras (c. 490–c. 420 BCE): Relativism (“man is the measure of all
things”) and Gorgias (c. 483-375 BCE): Skepticism is remembered for his skeptical
positions on ethics and knowledge,
2. Aristotle (L. C. 470/469-399 BCE)
He is regarded as the “Father of Western Philosophy”. He stressed that
philosophy should achieve practical results for the greater well-being of society. He
encouraged people to question the things they were told and to look beyond the obvious. It is
also known as the Socratic Method of Teaching.
Further, he believed on the following notions: human choice was motivated by the
desire for happiness; ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself; and the more a person
The origin of Western Philosophy can be found way back during the ancient times
before the times the three great philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The ideas
of the existing philosophers nowadays come from the ideas of the mentioned philosophers
either redefined, reconstructed, argued, or reclassified.
This paper will allow us to revisit and examine the different philosophical
perspectives and ideologies of the times as espoused by philosophers from the ancient times,
the medieval period, and the modern period. Contemporary period and Postmodernism will
be amplified on the next paper.
I. ANCIENT PERIOD
1. Socrates’ Predecessors
The pre-Socratic predecessors centered their philosophy on answering the three main
issues. These are: the one and the many, change and constancy, and relativism.
The issue on the one and the many explains how one basic thing can be the source of
many varied things. The world contains an enormous variety of objects, some living, others
inanimate; some solid, others liquid. It seems reasonable to suppose that all things come from
a common source or type of stuff. The issue on change and constancy specifies how things
remain constant as they change over time. Not only are there many kinds of things in the
world, but each one is subject to change. While the issue on relativism, namely, determines
whether principles are absolute or created by people.
Now, here are some of the philosophers considered as the Socrates’ Predecessors.
MILESIANS
The first known philosophers of ancient Greece were from a city-state called Miletus.
Residents of Miletus were in contact with surrounding cultures and as such were influenced
by many of their views, particularly theories of astronomy that came from civilizations to the
east of Greece
1. Thales (c. 625-545 BCE) – He held that water is the basic stuff of all things.
2. Anaximander (c. 610–545 BCE) – He held that the underlying cause of everything was an
indefinable stuff that he called the boundless.
3. Anaximenes (c. 585-525 BCE) – He expanded the idea that air is the source of everything.
IONIANS
The enumerated philosophers are from Ionia who joined the previous and formed a
distinct Ionian school of philosophy.
1. Pythagoras (c.570–c.497 BCE) – He held that numbers and mathematical relations
underlie reality. He is known for his Pythagorean Theorem.
2. Heraclitus (c. 540–c. 480 BCE) - He argued that an ever-changing world around us is held
together through a unifying principle that he called the logos.
ELEATICS
, The most radical philosophical theory among the early Greeks was proposed by a
group of philosophers from the city of Elea, a Greek colony on the south-west coast of Italy.
They argued that our everyday perceptions of the world are completely wrong, and all reality
is the One, that is, a single, undifferentiated and unchanging thing.
1. Xenophanes (c. 570–c.478 BCE) who attacked traditional notions of the gods
(Anthropomorphism) and offered a conception of God as identical to the cosmos as a whole
(Pantheism);
2. Parmenides (b. 510 BCE) – He argues that there is only one unchanging thing which he
referred as “ the one”.
3. Zeno of Elea (c. 490–430 BCE): Paradoxes – He defended Parmenides’ view of the One.
The target of Zeno’s work is the commonsense world of appearances that virtually everyone
believes in.
PLURALISTS
To give an answer to the issue on the one and the many is an alternative strategy
called pluralism (literally meaning “many-ism”), which in philosophy refers to the view that
many kinds of things exist.
1. Empedocles (c. 495–c. 435 BCE): He held that there are four basic elements namely
earth, air, fire and water which are organized by the two forces of love and strife.
2. Anaxagoras (500–428 BCE): Mind and the Divisibility of Material Ingredients – He
held that the world is comprised of infinitely divisible portions of ingredients (seeds) that are
set in motion by a cosmic Mind.
ATOMISTS:
Its central thesis is that the world is composed of indivisible particles called atoms
that exist within empty space. Leucippus and Democritus (460-350 BCE) are its two known
philosophers.
SOPHISTS:
It is a collection of traveling freelance teachers with a reputation for skepticism.
Philosophers: Protagoras (c. 490–c. 420 BCE): Relativism (“man is the measure of all
things”) and Gorgias (c. 483-375 BCE): Skepticism is remembered for his skeptical
positions on ethics and knowledge,
2. Aristotle (L. C. 470/469-399 BCE)
He is regarded as the “Father of Western Philosophy”. He stressed that
philosophy should achieve practical results for the greater well-being of society. He
encouraged people to question the things they were told and to look beyond the obvious. It is
also known as the Socratic Method of Teaching.
Further, he believed on the following notions: human choice was motivated by the
desire for happiness; ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself; and the more a person
