The First Philosophers

Oxford World Classics

The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists

Personally I like philosophers who don’t just talk the talk but walk the walk. Take Diogenes; he turned social criticism into a performing art. Aptly named the Dog, he lived in a trashcan in the middle of Athens marketplace, and took to censuring his fellow citizens: Masturbating in the street, defecating in theatres, and urinating on his enemies, were his hallmark protests. We will also find him strolling about town in daylight with a lit lamp proclaiming: ‘I am just looking for an honest man!’ Diogenes was a precursor to Rousseau, because he saw civilization as a prison, and obviously just wanted to be free - this is why he is known as the father of Cynicism. 

Of course, Diogenes may not be to everyones taste. If we want to something more Zen, then we can try Heraclitus who offered maxims like: ‘It is not possible to step into the same river twice,’ ‘everything flows,’ and ‘dying is all we see while asleep, sleep is all we see while awake.’ This Grecian Buddha, believed the world was in perpetual flux. However, if he is a little too poetic we could pick Pythagoras: The famed mathematician who saw the world entirely by numbers. He also was also known as a magician, a vegan, a fond musician, and an advocate of reincarnation who heard the voice of dead relatives in dog barks! It was he who discovered the earth is round. 

Parmenides was similar to Heraclitus but also the exact opposite. For him, the more things change the more they stay the same. Our eyes deceive us, the world is not separate, and time is an illusion. In reality all is One and One is all: Indivisible; unborn, uncreated, and unconditioned. Poetry is not the best method to propound logic, nevertheless he argues a case: ‘It must be that what can be spoken and thought of, Is, and it is therefore being. And there is no such thing as nothing. These are the guidelines I suggest to you.’ He eventually decided: ‘It is indifferent to me where I begin, for there shall I return,’ which is perhaps why his ideas, for all there brilliance, reached a dead-end. 

Of course there were those philosophers who were scientists rather than Shamans. Democritus believed the world consisted of Void and little tiny particles called Atoms. In fact ‘the nature of the eternal, consists in minute substances infinite in number [...] to small to be perceived’ which bounce about in a ‘chaotic state.’ Whats more, ‘creation is the combination of Atoms, destruction is their dissolution, and accordingly creation is just modification.’ I’m no scientist but thats what I learnt in GCSE physics! Whats more, ‘A balanced load is better than a heavy load,’ ‘contentment comes to men from a moderate amount of enjoyment,’ and finally, ‘it is important to compare one’s own life with the life of those who are less fortunate [...] and count ones blessings.’ Word.

Sophists were the first Salesmen: Not only were they famed rhetoricians, they were also known to setup schools, charge extortionate fees, and love networking. They would be very happy in today’s world, and obviously have LinkedIn profiles and Twitter accounts, and would most likely be found in the Marketing Department. Nevertheless they also believed philosophy should not just dwell in the clouds, but come down to earth. Sophists taught their students to be savvy, rich, and successful. In doing so, they also paved the way for Sociology and Semiotics. Protagoras the founder famously said: ‘Man is the measure of all things.’ Georgias went further and declared: ‘Nothing exists; even if it exist it no human being could apprehend it; that even if it were apprehended, still it could not be explainable to our neighbour.’ Ah, we all ready see our ancestral Nietzsches here! Sophists believed in relativity, but they were also Postmodernists. All Values have equal validity, but the accepted Value is the one that fits into the ideological discourse. I.E. knowledge is a byproduct of language.  

This Oxford World Classics edition is a great little gem for it offers a concise summary of all those Wisdom-lovers who paved the way for Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Not to mention Descarte, Kant,  Hume, Mill, Hegel, and Wittgenstein. All the present day scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and politicians. Even the lawyers, judges, fat cats and professors. In fact, every branch of human knowledge, can be traced back down a golden path to Ancient Greece. And I’m sure there are some latter-day Diogenes yet.