John Nicols, Professor of History
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The Intellectual Revolution in Classical Greece

1. Myth and the pre-scientific mind
   1. The purpose of myth is to provide a logical structure capable of overcoming contradiction. To explain why nature is sometimes benevolent, and sometimes hostile, why there is famine or bounty; why some life and others die;
   2. Myth is not devoid of truth, thought its answers may often strike the modern as fallacious, 'scientific' answers have also failed. What it does do is to relieve anxiety about the unknown, it suggests that powerful forces (whether the sun will rise, the weather) can be controlled. It answers questions about (for example) unexpected or irregular events /disasters. Consequences: flood; marshes before and after.
   3. The subject of myth is the supernatural. Myth personalizes the natural world and gives the illusion of human control.
2. Assumptions of scientific inquiry.
   1. Universe is natural whole: gods; supernatural forces are not active; not necessarily atheistic, simply that gods do not intervene.
   2. Unchanging patterns or laws governing forces. Nature always acts the same way unless another pattern overlaps
   3. Human can ascertain (tho not necessarily control) those forces; does not mean that one knows everything, only the the potential is there to understand.
3. The Logic of Myth
   1. No separation of subject and object; external world seen as sympathetic or hostile. Child kicks door; the golf club.
   2. Reason serves purpose of immediate action. Monkey uses stick to get banana. Science speculates about all.
   3. Objects of interest only in so far as they affect humans; no knowledge for its own sake. Note that science cannot provide all the answers; we must tolerate the fact that the evidence is ambiguous (i.e., that our knowledge is incomplete). Sometimes too, solutions of science are as mythical as those found in the pre-scientific world.
   4. Each event is unique.
4. The Pre-Socratic "Philosophers" actually more physicists than philosophers in the modern sense of the word; more concerned with investigation of natural and natural phenomena than with ethics. A brief summary of their ideas...
   1. The definition of the First Principle (arché‚) or Elements. What is the substratum of matter? what persists despite change in form? Thales. Some examples: Everything from water; earth, air, fire and water; atoms
   2. Transformation and change: rarefaction and condensation; irregularly shaped atoms in void; anything that has the power and will to move has soul (not a metaphysical phenomenon). Conservation of matter.
   3. Cosmology: earth floating in water; in equilibrium, various weight density of elements each in natural place. Stars, moon, planets, meteorites. Anaximander's universe; Pythagoras'.
   4. Theory of knowledge/skepticism: senses panta rei (everything flows)
   5. Most important: all explanations, regards of scientific value by our standards, are non-theological. Nonetheless, they were not atheists.
5. Instruments of Pre-socractics First two found in ANE.
   1. Classification:
   2. Accurate observation:
   3. Public debate; critique of competitors (level of skepticism)
   4. Analogy: heaven like an over surrounded by fire
   5. Law of contradiction: water vs. fire; motion; lightening; children.
   6. Verification: autopsy (=eye witness)
6. Some General Thoughts on the Achievements and Limits
   1. Central problem: How to explain apparently irregular and unpredicatable events in a way that would make them orderly, and do so without reference to the gods. Theory of knowledge; what can we know and how do we know that it is the case?
   2. Research, yes (Herodotus), but major thrust was no the theoretical structure as tested by common sense
   3. Not atheists; but reject the anthropomorphic.
   4. Some important theories:
      1. conservation of matter and energy
      2. the infinite and the void
      3. notion of equilibrium (proportion, harmony)
      4. "Nothing happens in vain (without reason), everything has a cause and is the result of necessity" Leucippus.
         
   5. Assumptions that proved "wrong":
      1. only circular motion is eternal
      2. "preserve the phenomena"; e.g., the rotation of the earth.
7. The Revolution in Ionia: Some factors in the transformation of thinking.
   1. Extensive contact with East: data, material prosperity, leisure
   2. A human centered universe (humans make law; not given by gods)
   3. Breakdown of traditional religion?? Gods too human.
   4. Colonization
   5. High level of cultural achievement
   6. "There is something about the polis..."
8. Note how Herodotus uses these elements in his study of the flow of the Nile.