Pre-Socratic Philosophers

The problem of the one and the many basically states, to begin with, that the universe is composed of many different objects. For instance, the computer that I am typing on is different from me. Yet, there are unifying aspects between all the different things in the universe. My younger self is different from my current self, yet we are the same person. (And no, that is not paradoxical. We should be careful with the way we use the word “paradox.”) The computer that I am typing on can, like me, make basic computations. Additionally, it is composed of matter, like me. So, the problem essentially is: what is the one “element” that unifies all “things” in the universe? Many pre-Socratic philosophers have come up with different responses, some of them rather ridiculous.

As for Logos and Mythos, we see the early Milesians relying more on reason and less on the supernatural. They developed ideas which were founded on their own sense of logic and less on established religious tradition. They questioned earlier beliefs and created their own beliefs. Certainly, those are signs of logos. Yet, it is also very mythos in the sense that their beliefs aren’t as logical or rational as the natural sciences. The articles mention how the early Pre-Socratic philosophers did not engage in much debate and how they could find very little common ground for their beliefs. Based on what I have read, there is very little common ground, and that is a problem with metaphysics in general.

Their ideas, though to a certain degree founded on reason, are vague and obscure. They make very little sense and aren’t as well established as the sciences are. Even the later atomists, who were right about matter being composed of indivisible atoms, were very mythos, since their beliefs weren’t established through empirical evidence. They were just very lucky. The progression of atomic theory, beginning with Dalton, is very logos and serves as a contrast to the Atomists.

Back to the Milesians, their ideas are pretty strange. Thales believed that the unifying element is water. Anaximander believed it was the “intermediate,” whatever that is. Anaximenes believed it was air. Their reasons for believing these elements are somewhat weak. They are like the silly continental philosophers. Even Nietzsche makes more sense than them. Though, to be fair, we know very little about their reasoning and very few of their works survive. A better judgment would be made if we knew more.

Simply by passing off the question of the one and the many as a “search for a metaphysical principle which would give an account of the entire empirical world” does not mean that philosophers can come up with random conjectures that superficially appear to be deep. A lot of metaphysics has to do with science, and this seems to be ultimately a scientific question.