Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Front 1

Thales

Back 1

held that the basic stuff out of which all else is composed is water

Front 2

Anaximander

Back 2

held that the original source of all things is a boundless, indeterminate element.

Front 3

Anaximenes

Back 3

said that the underlying principle of all things is air.

Front 4

Pythagoras

Back 4

maintained that enumerability constitutes the true nature of things.

Front 5

Heraclitus

Back 5

held that the only reality is ceaseless change and the underlying substance of the universe is fire.

Front 6

Parmenides

Back 6

said that the only reality is permanent, unchanging, indivisible, and undifferentiated being and that changes and motion are illusions of the senses

Front 7

Zeno

Back 7

divised clever paradoxes seeming to show that motion is impossible.

Front 8

Empedocles

Back 8

held that apparent changes in things are in fact in the positions of basic particles, of which there are four types: earth, air, fire, and water. Two forces cause these basic changes: love and strife.

Front 9

Anaxagoras

Back 9

mantained that all things are composed of infinitely divisible particles; the universe was caused by mind (nous) acting on matter.

Front 10

The Atomists

Back 10

(especially Leucippus and Democritus) said that all things are composed of imperceptible, indestructible, indivisible, eternal and uncreated atoms. Motion needs no explanation.