Sometimes Democritus (c. 460–370 BCE) would laugh heartily, and to those around him, this laughter seemed senseless, occasionally interpreted as a sign of madness. Even Hippocrates was invited to check Democritus’ mental health. However, the “father of medicine” concluded that the philosopher was physically and mentally sound. Furthermore, he regarded...
The great Nietzsche calls out to humanity with these words in his central work Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Zarathustra turned to the people and said: “I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?… All beings so far have created something...
It is already known to us that Greek philosophy emerged in the 7th century BC. The first philosopher, Thales, laid the foundation for the first school of philosophy. The philosophers of Miletus were interested in what lies at the foundation of the world, i.e., the primary substance, the origin of...
With its unique culture, political system, and philosophy, Greece is one of the first settlements of mankind. Ancient Greece is a universe in itself. The history of Ancient Greece spans from the 8th to the 2nd centuries BCE. During this period, Greek culture began to form, a new Greek alphabet...
In his book A History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell writes: “In all history, nothing is so surprising or so difficult to account for as the sudden rise of civilization in Greece. Much of what makes civilization had already existed for thousands of years in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, and...
Alcmaeon of Croton (5th century BCE) is, according to some sources, a disciple of Pythagoras. However, unlike Pythagoras and many other philosophers of his time, his area of interest did not include physics or astronomy. Instead, Alcmaeon chose medicine and considered as the author of the first medical book in...
To gaze at the heavens – this is the answer of Pythagoras (582–496 BCE), to the question of why humans live. According to some sources, Pythagoras traveled to Miletus in his youth, where he met the elderly Thales and Anaximander. Thales inspired in the future philosopher an interest in mathematics and...
The city of Miletus, located on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea, is the birthplace of the first school of philosophy in Ancient Greece and, indeed, the entire Western world. The founders and members of this school are already familiar to us: the three wise men of Miletus—Thales, Anaximander,...
Written Greek philosophy begins with Anaximander (610–546 BCE), who was the first philosopher to document his thoughts in writing. The Milesian sage’s book On Nature is considered the first scientific work of ancient Greece. However, only a fragment of it has survived to our time. Anaximander was a student of...
A warm summer night, the Aegean coast, Thales the first “academic” of Greece, wanders the streets of Miletus, gazing at the night sky. Suddenly, as he stumbles on a rock and nearly falls, an old woman remarks, “How can you understand what the heavens are saying if you can’t see...