Great minds I HC 1
Happiness is not pleasure - Aristotle's
Important concepts: Logos, kosmic
Objections to arguments: targeting one or two premises and showing why the premises are
false.
What makes something philosophical? And how can you recognize it?
It deals with fundamentals
➔ Questions about existence, knowledge, morality, meaning, or reality.
It questions assumptions
➔ Not just “what is true,” but “how do we know it’s true?”
It’s abstract and universal
➔ Concerns that apply broadly, not just in one case.
It’s reflective and normative
➔ It asks about how things ought to be, not only how they are.
It’s reason-driven
➔ Built on arguments, reasoning, and counterarguments, not only data or opinion.
Great Minds I, HC 2: Presocratics Inquiry
Mythology and Philosophy Pt 1
Heraclitus
Heraclitus (about 500 BCE) was a thinker from Ephesus in Asia Minor. He came from a rich
family, maybe even royalty. People called him “the Obscure” or “the Riddler” because his
writing was hard to understand.
He’s usually linked with the Ionian School, which studied nature and the origins of the cosmos.
He was part of a group of early Greek thinkers who studied nature and the universe. Some before
him (like Thales) thought everything came from one basic substance (materialist monism).
Heraclitus agreed but had his own ideas.
,Heraclitus might have taught himself, but some say he was also a student of Xenophanes
(another early Greek thinker).
He wrote one book called On Nature, made of short sayings, and left it in the temple of Artemis.
His own writings are mostly lost. We know about him because later writers like Plato and
Aristotle mentioned him.
Parmenides
Parmenides (around 500 BCE) was a philosopher from Elea, a Greek city in southern Italy
(Magna Graecia). He was from a rich, noble family and may have also worked as a lawgiver or
even a doctor.
He wrote one book called On Nature. Most of what we know about him comes from later writers
like Plato, Diogenes Laërtius, and Simplicius.
He may have learned from Xenophanes, Anaximander, or the Pythagoreans. He belonged to the
Italian School of thinkers, which included the Pythagoreans and Xenophanes.
He started the Eleatic school, with followers like Zeno and Melissus. His big idea was
metaphysical monism, the belief that reality is one single, unchanging being.
Parmenides said: “Change and movement aren’t real, reality just is and doesn’t move.”
His student Zeno made puzzles (called paradoxes) to
defend this idea. One of them is the arrow paradox:
● When an arrow flies through the air, at every
single moment in time, the arrow is just sitting in
one spot (not moving).
● If every moment is like that, then how can the
arrow ever actually move?
Zeno’s point: motion seems real, but if you break it down, it looks impossible.
➢ He wasn’t trying to prove that arrows don’t fly. He wanted to make people question their
senses and agree with Parmenides, that reality doesn’t truly change.
Framing Concepts: Cosmology
Cosmology
➔ Thinking about the universe: where it came from, where it’s going, and how it changes.
,Archê (beginning)
➔ The starting point. Example: a seed is the archê of a plant.
Telos (end/goal)
➔ The final purpose. Example: the grown plant (flower, tree, fruit) is the telos of the seed.
Motion/change
➔ How things grow and transform between the start and the end.
➢ So, cosmology = start + change + goal of everything.
Framing Concepts: Polarity & Analogy
1. Polarity (opposites)
➔ Idea: things can be explained using opposites.
➢ Example: Fire vs. Earth, Water vs. Air. One “gives life” when the other “dies.”
➔ Simple idea: everything has an opposite, and opposites are connected.
2. Analogy (similarities or comparisons)
a. Induction (particular → particular)
➔ Look at one example and say it works for similar cases.
➢ Example: “A fool gets excited by every word” → all fools act like this.
b. Induction (particular → universal)
➔ Look at one example and make a general rule.
➢ Example: “Even posset falls apart if not stirred” → anything similar will fall
apart if not stirred.
c. Comparison (particular → particular)
➔ Compare two specific things to understand them.
➢ Example: “Pigs wash in mud, birds in dust or ash” → different animals have
similar habits in their own ways.
Logos (λόγος): Unitary Characterisations
➔ Describing the logos as a single, unified thing.
➔ The word logos can mean: account, reason, language, speech, or principle.
, a. Constancy of the Logos
➔ Logos always stays the same.
➢ Examples from Heraclitus:
● “This logos holds always” (B1)
● “The logos is common” (B2)
There is a truth or principle that never changes.
b. Logos as Arche (starting principle)
➔ Logos is the rule or principle behind everything.
➢ Example: “All things come to be in accordance with this logos” (B1)
Everything that happens follows this universal order.
c. Relating to the Logos (humans and understanding)
➔ Humans struggle to understand the logos, even after hearing it. (B1)
➔ Wisdom comes from listening to the logos itself, not just a person. (B50)
➔ People often ignore or fight the logos, even though it’s everywhere in life. (B72)
In short
➔ Logos is the universal truth or law.
➔ It is always the same and guides everything.
➔ Most humans don’t notice it, but the wise try to understand it.
Logos, Plural Characterisations:
➔ The plural use of logos shows that the word can refer to different kinds of reason,
accounts, or explanations.
d. Logos of the Soul
➔ The soul has its own deep, unique logos.
➢ Examples:
● “You would not discover the limits of the soul… so deep a logos does it have.”
(B45) → The soul is complex and hard to fully understand.
● “The soul has a self-increasing logos.” (B115) → The soul’s reasoning can grow
and develop on its own.
Each soul has its own reasoning power, different from the universal logos.
Happiness is not pleasure - Aristotle's
Important concepts: Logos, kosmic
Objections to arguments: targeting one or two premises and showing why the premises are
false.
What makes something philosophical? And how can you recognize it?
It deals with fundamentals
➔ Questions about existence, knowledge, morality, meaning, or reality.
It questions assumptions
➔ Not just “what is true,” but “how do we know it’s true?”
It’s abstract and universal
➔ Concerns that apply broadly, not just in one case.
It’s reflective and normative
➔ It asks about how things ought to be, not only how they are.
It’s reason-driven
➔ Built on arguments, reasoning, and counterarguments, not only data or opinion.
Great Minds I, HC 2: Presocratics Inquiry
Mythology and Philosophy Pt 1
Heraclitus
Heraclitus (about 500 BCE) was a thinker from Ephesus in Asia Minor. He came from a rich
family, maybe even royalty. People called him “the Obscure” or “the Riddler” because his
writing was hard to understand.
He’s usually linked with the Ionian School, which studied nature and the origins of the cosmos.
He was part of a group of early Greek thinkers who studied nature and the universe. Some before
him (like Thales) thought everything came from one basic substance (materialist monism).
Heraclitus agreed but had his own ideas.
,Heraclitus might have taught himself, but some say he was also a student of Xenophanes
(another early Greek thinker).
He wrote one book called On Nature, made of short sayings, and left it in the temple of Artemis.
His own writings are mostly lost. We know about him because later writers like Plato and
Aristotle mentioned him.
Parmenides
Parmenides (around 500 BCE) was a philosopher from Elea, a Greek city in southern Italy
(Magna Graecia). He was from a rich, noble family and may have also worked as a lawgiver or
even a doctor.
He wrote one book called On Nature. Most of what we know about him comes from later writers
like Plato, Diogenes Laërtius, and Simplicius.
He may have learned from Xenophanes, Anaximander, or the Pythagoreans. He belonged to the
Italian School of thinkers, which included the Pythagoreans and Xenophanes.
He started the Eleatic school, with followers like Zeno and Melissus. His big idea was
metaphysical monism, the belief that reality is one single, unchanging being.
Parmenides said: “Change and movement aren’t real, reality just is and doesn’t move.”
His student Zeno made puzzles (called paradoxes) to
defend this idea. One of them is the arrow paradox:
● When an arrow flies through the air, at every
single moment in time, the arrow is just sitting in
one spot (not moving).
● If every moment is like that, then how can the
arrow ever actually move?
Zeno’s point: motion seems real, but if you break it down, it looks impossible.
➢ He wasn’t trying to prove that arrows don’t fly. He wanted to make people question their
senses and agree with Parmenides, that reality doesn’t truly change.
Framing Concepts: Cosmology
Cosmology
➔ Thinking about the universe: where it came from, where it’s going, and how it changes.
,Archê (beginning)
➔ The starting point. Example: a seed is the archê of a plant.
Telos (end/goal)
➔ The final purpose. Example: the grown plant (flower, tree, fruit) is the telos of the seed.
Motion/change
➔ How things grow and transform between the start and the end.
➢ So, cosmology = start + change + goal of everything.
Framing Concepts: Polarity & Analogy
1. Polarity (opposites)
➔ Idea: things can be explained using opposites.
➢ Example: Fire vs. Earth, Water vs. Air. One “gives life” when the other “dies.”
➔ Simple idea: everything has an opposite, and opposites are connected.
2. Analogy (similarities or comparisons)
a. Induction (particular → particular)
➔ Look at one example and say it works for similar cases.
➢ Example: “A fool gets excited by every word” → all fools act like this.
b. Induction (particular → universal)
➔ Look at one example and make a general rule.
➢ Example: “Even posset falls apart if not stirred” → anything similar will fall
apart if not stirred.
c. Comparison (particular → particular)
➔ Compare two specific things to understand them.
➢ Example: “Pigs wash in mud, birds in dust or ash” → different animals have
similar habits in their own ways.
Logos (λόγος): Unitary Characterisations
➔ Describing the logos as a single, unified thing.
➔ The word logos can mean: account, reason, language, speech, or principle.
, a. Constancy of the Logos
➔ Logos always stays the same.
➢ Examples from Heraclitus:
● “This logos holds always” (B1)
● “The logos is common” (B2)
There is a truth or principle that never changes.
b. Logos as Arche (starting principle)
➔ Logos is the rule or principle behind everything.
➢ Example: “All things come to be in accordance with this logos” (B1)
Everything that happens follows this universal order.
c. Relating to the Logos (humans and understanding)
➔ Humans struggle to understand the logos, even after hearing it. (B1)
➔ Wisdom comes from listening to the logos itself, not just a person. (B50)
➔ People often ignore or fight the logos, even though it’s everywhere in life. (B72)
In short
➔ Logos is the universal truth or law.
➔ It is always the same and guides everything.
➔ Most humans don’t notice it, but the wise try to understand it.
Logos, Plural Characterisations:
➔ The plural use of logos shows that the word can refer to different kinds of reason,
accounts, or explanations.
d. Logos of the Soul
➔ The soul has its own deep, unique logos.
➢ Examples:
● “You would not discover the limits of the soul… so deep a logos does it have.”
(B45) → The soul is complex and hard to fully understand.
● “The soul has a self-increasing logos.” (B115) → The soul’s reasoning can grow
and develop on its own.
Each soul has its own reasoning power, different from the universal logos.
