Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Development of Scientific Thinking and Philosophical Views of the Universe…
Development of Scientific Thinking and Philosophical Views of the Universe
3. Plato (427–347 BCE) – The Metaphysical Universe of Forms
Student of Socrates; founded the Academy (387 BCE).
Core Works:
Republic, Phaedo, Timaeus.
Theory of Forms
Sensory world = imperfect copy of an eternal, intelligible realm.
Dualism: World of Becoming (physical) vs. World of Being (ideal).
Epistemology:
True knowledge arises from reason, not sense experience.
Cosmology:
The universe is rationally structured and morally ordered.
Influence:
Shaped Western metaphysics and Christian philosophical theology.
2. Socrates (469–399 BCE): Ethical Knowledge and the Moral Cosmos
Focus:
Ethics, virtue, and knowledge.
Historical Context:
Classical Athens during the intellectual rise of the Sophists.
Key Ideas
“Know thyself.”
True wisdom begins with acknowledging one’s ignorance.
Knowledge and virtue are inseparable.
Method
: Socratic questioning (elenchus) - critical dialogue to reveal truth.
Influence:
Shifted philosophy from natural explanations to moral and rational inquiry.
1. Historical Foundation: From Mythos to Logos (c. 600–450 BCE)
Era
: Early Greek Philosophy (Presocratic Period)
Transition
: Mythic → Rational explanations of the universe
Contribution
Moved beyond mythological accounts.
Initiated rational, naturalistic inquiry: the roots of scientific reasoning.
Key Figures
Thales of Miletus (c. 624–546 BCE): Proposed water as the fundamental substance (archê).
Anaximander (c. 610–546 BCE): Introduced the apeiron (infinite or boundless) as the source of all.
Heraclitus (c. 535–475 BCE): Emphasized change and flux (“everything flows”).
5. Synthesis: The Philosophical Continuum (c. 600–322 BCE)
Intellectual Evolution
Socrates: Moral introspection.
Plato: Metaphysical idealism.
Aristotle: Empirical realism.
Historical Significance
Shifted from cosmological myth to rational philosophy.
Linked ethics, metaphysics, and natural science.
Established the intellectual foundation for modern scientific inquiry.
4. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) – Empirical Universe and the Birth of Science
Student of Plato; tutor to Alexander the Great; founded the Lyceum (335 BCE).
Major Works:
Physics, Metaphysics, On the Heavens, Nicomachean Ethics.
Key Concepts
Rejected Plato’s separate realm of Forms.
Proposed hylomorphism – form and matter exist together.
Introduced Four Causes: material, formal, efficient, final.
“Unmoved Mover” as the ultimate cause of motion.
Approach:
Observation and classification of nature → early scientific methodology.
Impact:
Foundation for natural philosophy; influenced medieval scholasticism and early modern science (e.g., Galileo, Newton).