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".
Search within the encyclopedia