The Présocratiques are philosophers who lived medium of seventh century BC until the time of Socrate.

The présocratiques ones are, in the ancient Greece, the philosophers who take part in the origins of philosophy.

Certain presocratic are thus not literally the présocratiques ones, the hedonist S, the Sophiste S, Démocrite, Leucippe, etc They are regarded as the initiators of certain aspects of the philosophical speculation (philosophy of nature for example). Their doctrines and their life, because of lacunar state of our sources, are not very well-known. Moreover, according to what remains to us their writings coming from works of later philosophers, especially Plato and Aristote, we find ourselves vis-a-vis reinterpreted texts in a sometimes tendentious way (for example Aristote, Métaphysique , delivers A).

Some elements of history

If the Histoire of philosophy made Socrate (which however did not write anything) one decisive moment of the history of the Idée S (so that there exists before and after Socrate), it does not remain about it less than the présocratiques ones had a very great influence on thinkers such as Plato and Aristote. It would be thus incorrect to make a teleological history , whose Socrate would be the convergent point.

One can support besides that the evolution of the thought of Plato led it to minimize the doctrines of its Master: the writings of the maturity and the old age of Plato are indeed clearly influenced by Héraclite and Pythagore.

As for Aristote, its design of the to be is inspired clearly by the ideas of Parménide.

There is thus a movement of return to presocratic which starts as of the Antiquité, unless those were never forsaken, and that we are victim of a deformation of the historical prospect, due to the texts which reached us. No complete book of présocratique reached us, their thought is rebuilt on quotations, by their echo on posterior works.

Héraclite d' Éphèse (560-480 av. JC) wished to answer the raised question with Milet by Thalès and Anaximandre: what remains through becoming to it men? Thalès saw water like principle of all things, Héraclite rather saw the fire, which was for him the reason, the logos . Héraclite sought to seize the unit of contradictory tensions. One can consider that it is at the origin of a thought Dialectique.

Xénophane de Colophon, born in Ionie, would be, according to Plato, the founder of the Eleatic school, philosophical school located in the south of current Italy at Élée, colony of Phocée in Ionie.

At the éléates, one finds the idea of Être.

Parménide is the philosopher of the Être and the father of the ontology. It was one of the principal representatives of the Eleatic school, and arrived at 65 years at Athens, where it knew Socrate. It started to format the first Concept S aiming to research of the Vérité: perfect truth (the Être is), and confused Opinion (the doxa, imperfect knowledge). Parménide is especially known to us by Zénon d' Élée, its disciple, like by one of the dialogs of Plato, which bears its name: Parménide .

Parménide is the author of a poem, Of nature .

According to Parménide, the Être is and the non-being is not. This proposal can seem to be only one truism. It is actually, like base of its doctrines, carrying developments of a very important range: it is the germ of the principle according to which a thing cannot be what it is and at the same time its opposite. This principle is at the base of all the Logique aristotelician and, so of all our Logique Occident ale, which founded the modern Science. Thanks to this design of the ontological Reality , Parménide opened the way with the philosophy of the Idée S. It provided the concept of method and brought fundamental ideas to philosophy. Its distinction of the Truth and the Opinion announces that which Plato between science and the Conjecture will establish.

Zénon d' Élée, disciple of Parménide, belonged to the Eleatic school. It is, according to Aristote, the inventor of the Dialectique.

Démocrite, born in Abdère in Thrace towards 460 av. J. - C., borrows from Parménide the concept To be.

At the 19th century, it is with Hegel that the modern philosophers will start to be interested again in the présocratiques ones, by relativizing the importance of Socrate. The movement continues with the philologist and hellenist Friedrich Nietzsche. Hegel and Nietzsche took as a starting point the philosophy of Héraclite. At the 20th century, Heidegger was also inspired by presocratic, its interpretations were discussed. Parménide was as redécouvert, though less snuffed as Héraclite. For example, the Général de Gaulle knew the presocratic philosophers, apparently rather Héraclite, philosophical of the movement, that Parménide, philosophizes of permanence (the de Gaulle general seemed more marked by Aristote that by Plato).

There is not a doubt that if we discover important works of these philosophers, the vision which we have today of the Greek thought would be entirely modified. We know for example that the Old ones had as much regard for works of Démocrite than for those of Plato. At that time, the philosophy of Plato was doctrines among others. It is difficult for our contemporaries to correct these deformations of prospects, which made sink the présocratiques ones in a certain lapse of memory, at least for the greatest number.

The little of works of which we lay out is a poem of Parménide, Of Nature . August 1st

The hellenists are best placed to adjust our vision of the présocratiques ones.

Geographical location and policy of Présocratiques

A cartography of the Greek thought on the circumferences of the the Mediterranean reveals a division of the thought:

At the 5th century, the philosophical debate will be held with Athens.

The political unit of the ancient Greece is that of the city; tragic and bloody unit, since the cities did not cease clashing. However, although originating in different cities, Présocratiques were among the first to become aware of the unit of the Greek people, and they were often side-hellénistes. This political project was never concretized.

Concepts of Présocratiques

To supplement.

Critical of the idea of Présocratique

Michel Onfray in his course " Genius of hedonism I - the pre-chrétien" archipelago; (2002/2003) to the popular Université of Caen calls into question the concept even the présocratiques ones, this term giving according to him too importance to Plato and the Idéalisme in the history of philosophy and minimizing voluntarily the importance of other philosophers. It would result from a writing of the history by the Platonisme itself, victorious - victorious because in perfect philosophical agreement with the all-powerful moyenâgeuse scholastic during centuries, which will take care of the copy of the ancient texts and the determination of the " cléricalement" correct…

Chronological table of some Présocratiques

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PlotData= barset: inventions width: 15 from: - 625 till: - 547 text: " Thalès de Milet " color: Plio anchor: from from: - 611 till: - 547 text: " Anaximandre " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 585 till: - 525 text: " Anaximène " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 580 till: - 490 text: " Pythagore " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 545 till: - 480 text: " Héraclite " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 580 till: - 470 text: " Xénophane " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 510 till: - 450 text: " Parménide " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 495 till: - 430 text: " Zénon d' Élée " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 500 till: - 428 text: " Anaxagore " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 484 till: - 424 text: " Empédocle d' Agrigente " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 485 till: - 420 text: " Protagoras " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 460 till: - 399 text: " Prodicos " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 480 till: - 410 text: " Antiphon " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 480 till: - 370 text: " Gorgias " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 460 till: - 370 text: " Leucippe " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 460 till: - 370 text: " Démocrite " color: Pinf anchor: from from: - 470 till: - 399 text: " Socrate " color: Pinf anchor: from

List of Présocratiques

See too

Sources

  • List of the sources relating to the presocratic philosophers ( to make )

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