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13 May 2013

Classical World View: Quest for the First Principle

The Western Philosophies in Classical or Ancient era had gone after the quest for the ‘First Principles’. Philosophers had discussed about several elements which were supposed to originate the existence of earth with. That quest had begun from first philosopher in western World, Thales of Ionia (636-546 BC) who was one of the pre-Socratic philosophers, till the time of Aristotle (4^th Century BC). These classical or Greek philosophers are often tagged as natural philosophers with their supposition of natural things or world to be the fundamental elements.

The first philosopher to make the quest is Thales of Ionia. He started to talk about natural concept destroying divine and mythological concepts. Argumentative method for philosophy was developed. Thales claimed that everything in this world is made up of water because everything come with moisture. He created the metaphysics. He even believed that the earth floats in water. Seeds of everything have got some sort of moist in it which is the element of water. 

   

But, right after him, his student Anaximander ( 611-547 BC)rejected his idea of water. Anaximander  proposed ‘Indefinite’ to be the cause of these worldly matters which is deathless and indestructible. Anaximander introduced the idea that we’re created from other form and animals. He raised the question to Thales that if water was everything then, how there were things other than water?

A contemporary philosopher to Anaximander, Anaxemenes (586-525 BC)opposed the both ideas established by previous philosophers and said that everything is air. He juxtaposed air with god and claimed that other things/matters are created with the process of rarefaction and condensation. Anaxemenes further argued that though there are several transformations the essence remains the same. Arrangement of molecules and nuclear etc thin out in the process of rarefaction and gets arranged with condensation which forms newer objects.

These three Ionian philosophers are known as ‘Material monist’ with their single proposed idea to be the fundamental thing as the origin of the earth. They ideas are called monism.

After the monists, Pythagoras (582-507) affirmed that everything can be reduce to numbers and said everything can be understood by numerical pattern and numerical pattern governs all the phenomena. Everything is arranged in numbers. For Pythagoras, “to uncover the regulative mathematical forms in nature was to reveal the divine intelligence itself.” (Tarnas 46)

After Pythagoras, Heraclitus (535-507) came into being and asserted that everything is in flux and constant movement of the change. Change is the fundamental aspect of the world and human conditions. He further exemplified that we can’t step in the same river twice because that water is in change.  But, underlying all those changes, something is constant and unchangeable which is ‘Logos’ which regulates all the changes. He further claimed that logos itself doesn’t change rather it causes things to change. He said that we can understand the things in binaries.

Later on, Heraclitus was strongly opposed by Parminedes (512 BC) saying that change is impossible in this world. So the first principle is the one. For Parmenedes, change is something which is not. And ‘what is not’ doesn’t exist. His ‘one’ is round, perfect and absolute which never changes and ceases. He viewed that one “to be” exists all the time because nothing comes out of nothing. So, when we think of something which doesn’t exist and that exists. He further added that change is impossible. Knowledge is truth. Whatever change we see, they are just opinions. So, his principle is called ‘Absolute monism’ because he thinks that everything is one and absolute.

Parmenedes’s principle is further assisted by Anaxogoras (500-428 BC) and Empedocles (495-435 BC). Anaxogoras accepted all these things but said that everything was controlled and governed by mind (‘nous’). The world was one at the beginning but now it has got diverse forms which are caused by motion of mind. Similarly, Empedocles claimed that composition of the world is only possible with four fundamental things which are fire, air, earth and water. Every other thing is composed of these four things with mixing and separation of them. There is ‘love’ to make mixture ‘strife’ to cause separation. So, both philosophers are called ‘pluralist’ with plural ideas or things to be fundamental elements for the origination of the universe.

Later on, Zeno (490-430 BC) came and questioned all the previous developments with his paradoxes. He was famous for his paradoxes. He was contemporary to Parmenedes. His ideas put unpredictability ahead questioning monists and pluralists.

Though the Zeno put uncertainties, two atomists Democritus and Leucippus supported and opposed Parmenedes at the same time. For the atomists, everything is made up of ‘atom’ which is a unitary changeless substance. They put their idea of having ‘Void’ which means empty or not-to-be. And void is needed for atoms to move and combine. Thus, they accepted the parmenedes’s idea of ‘one’ to be the source of everything. They also rejected the idea of pluralist Anaxogoras’s idea claiming that atoms move and combine out of natural necessities but not of mind ‘nous’. Shapes, arrangements and positions make the things varied. But other qualities like smell, quality etc make no differences on essence.  Everything was created with the arrangements of atoms. Similarly, “Democritus considered that human beliefs in gods was no more than an attempt to explain extraordinary events like thunderstorms or earthquakes by means of imagined supernatural forces.” ( Tarnas 24)

A group of philosophers ( Sophist)  including Protagoras, Gorgias etc came with their diverting thought regarding philosophies and its quest for the first principle. They thought that what originates the earth doesn’t have any value in life. So, they focused more on practicality of knowledge. They claimed that rationality should be used in our society with practicability. They were getting more practical or pragmatic. They professed to know, to teach and charge money. We’ve to be capable in practical knowledge.  But, their influence over people got very limited and got rejected by the time of Socrates (469-399 BC) and Plato (127-347 BC).

After few decades of intervention in the development of first principle during the time of Sophists, Socrates came with acknowledgement to the existence of some principles. Socrates rejected the idea of education. Tarnas comments “Socrates believed such an educational philosophy was both intellectually misconceived and morally detrimental” (Tarnas 33). He was always after the essence and true knowledge which was tried to be achieved with his famous dialectical method of arguments. “In Socrates view, any attempt to foster true success and excellence in human life had to take account of the innermost reality of a human being, his soul or psyche.” (Tarnas 33) He further claimed that true happiness can be attained with the understanding of Delphic motto “Know thyself” or understanding yourself and psyche. He further stated that mind is the kingdom of heaven  and earth.

The quest for fundamental element or first principle got new height in the time of Plato. Plato is the student of Socrates who wrote numerous dialogues. Plato acknowledged the existence of world of idea/from to be  the source of this world of matters. The ideas are eternal, universal and absolute; and true, good and beautiful. The world of idea is the real world but this world of matters is just the illusion. Plato asserted that everything is on the way of ‘becoming’ or in the process of transformation from one from to another. Thus, first principle of Plato was world of archetypical forms/ideas. Ideas are god for Plato. Plato had used the ‘allegory of the cave’ to differentiate the world of ideas and the world of illusion. For him, human beings are like prisoners who are chained inside the cave and the light is thrown in from back side of them in which they can only see their shadows. And they perceive those shadows are real picture. But, they got out of that chain and get out of the cave. They will get the real world or picture. They were in the illusion until they were inside the cave. So, the true knowledge ( the first principle) for Plato is the light which is thrown in from outside and the chained people can’t see it. Thus, no one can get the genuine truth and knowledge only with the sense perception but with the philosophical and intellectual mind in disciplined fashion.  

Plato discussed many genres of knowledge but the world of idea is the one to regulate everything. Among several genres of knowledge, Plato’s epistemology talked about the theory of recollection: Human being already possess knowledge about the world of ideas, but the knowledge is veiled. Similarly, in cosmology, he talks about the movement of the heavenly planets and its circular movement. Besides that, Plato included that an irreducible element of irrationality and necessity, which he calls ‘ananke’.

Immediately after the Plato, his student Aristotle (384-322 BC) brought the opposing idea claiming that particular/individual has the fundamental element i.e. form and matter whereas Plato had viewed that particular need to be relied upon universal form. The matter in an object gives it a potentiality and the form it has gives the actuality. Thus, for Aristotle everything can take teleological transformation from potentiality to actuality. He included the four different causes for this type of transformation which are material, efficient, formal and final.

Later on, Aristotle came with another exception in which claimed that the form of the universe that causes its movement is separate from its matter because matter doesn’t move without its form which leads. And, potentiality gets lost when it becomes an actual. So, for the movement of universe, it needs potentiality as matter and it needs to be free from its mover, the supreme, universal and absolute form.

Aristotle established ten type of categories i.e. substance, quality, quantity, place, time, position, action, state, relation and affection. Among them the substance can only bear the element of the thing. Without the presence of substance, other categories don’t exist. Substance is primary and essential. He covered the issues like ethics to taxonomy into his philosophy. He focused on the quest for the first principle with his teleological theory of actualization, theory of causation and categorization.

Thus, philosophy with the quest for first principle developed along with numerous contradictory ideas which made it more rich with discoveries and definitions of ideas.

Works Cited

Tarnas, Richard. The Passion of the Western Mind. London: Pimlico, 1996.