Who were the Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers?
Q: Who were the Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers?
A: The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers were thinkers who were active before Socrates.
Q: Why is the term "Pre-Socratics" popular?
A: The term "Pre-Socratics" is popular because of Hermann Diels' work, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (The Fragments of the Pre-Socratics, 1903).
Q: How much do we know about the pre-Socratic philosophers?
A: Most of what we know about the pre-Socratic philosophers come from quotations by later philosophers and historians.
Q: Have any texts written by pre-Socratic philosophers survived in complete form?
A: No, none of the texts written by pre-Socratic philosophers have survived in complete form.
Q: What are some standard reference works in English for pre-Socratic philosophy?
A: Some standard reference works in English for pre-Socratic philosophy are Gompertz's The Greek Thinkers: A History of Ancient Philosophy, Volume 1: The Beginnings, and Guthrie's A History of Greek Philosophy, Volume 1: The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans.
Q: What idea motivated most of the presocratics?
A: The fundamental idea which motivated most of the presocratics is naturalism.
Q: What is naturalism?
A: Naturalism is the idea that questions about life and the world can be answered without using myths, and that "the natural world is the whole of reality".
