The Top 30 Prestige Philosophers in History

The Pre-Socratic philosophers Have been perhaps one of the most important generations of thinkers in history. Among its representatives we can find people as enlightened as Thales of Miletus, Pythagoras or Heraclitus.

The pre-Socratic philosophy is defined as that developed before and contemporaneously with Socrates. Aristotle referred to all thinkers in this group as physikoi, because they sought natural explanations for the phenomena they observed.

They rejected the traditional mythological view of the time to provide a more rational explanation of things.

You may also like This list of philosophers of the Old Age or Is from the Middle Ages .

Top 30 Prescient Philosophers

1- Thales of Miletus

The Top 30 Prestige Philosophers in History

Tales of Miletus (624 BC - 546 BC), born in Miletus (now Turkey), is traditionally recognized as the first Western philosopher and mathematician. He was able to accurately predict the solar eclipse on May 28, 585 BC. And was known as a great astronomer, geometer, statesman and sage.

It is said that Tales was the first to wonder about the basic composition of the universe and established that the First Cause was water. It has the capacity to change shape and move, remaining intact in substance.

There are no known writings made by Thales and all that is known of his life and work is through what others have written of him.

Heraclitus

The Top 30 Prestige Philosophers in History 1

Heraclitus of Ephesus (535 BC - 475 BC), born in Ephesus (now Turkey), was known to his contemporaries as the dark philosopher, because his writings were quite difficult to understand.

It is best known for its doctrines that things are constantly changing (universal flow), the attraction of opposites and that fire is the basic material of the world. In his cosmology he posits that the world was not created by God or man, but has always been and will exist by itself.

3- Parmenides

The 30 Most Important Presocratic Philosophers of History 2

Parmenides of Elea (n. 515 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in the colony of Elea in southern Italy. He is known for being the founder of the Eleatic School of Philosophy, which teaches a strictly monistic view of reality.

This principle is based on the belief that the world is one in substance, has not been created and is indestructible. In his vision change is not possible and existence is eternal, uniform and unchangeable. Parmenides was a disciple of Xenophanes of Colophon, but left his master to follow his own vision.

4- Anaximander

The 30 Most Important Prestige Philosophers in History 3

Anaximander (610 BC - 545 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, in modern Turkey. He belonged to the School of Miletus and was a disciple of Thales. With time he became a teacher of this same school and counted among his pupils to Anaximenes and Pythagoras. He was a proponent of science and tried to observe the different aspects of the universe, in particular its origins.

He believed that nature was controlled by laws, just as human societies, and any disturbance in the balance of it could not last long.

5- Empedocles

The Top 30 Prestige Philosophers in History 4

Empedocles (490 BC - 430 BC) was a philosopher and poet born in Acagras, in Greek Sicily. He was one of the most important philosophers who worked before Socrates and a poet of great ability and influence for later characters like Lucretius.

He is best known for being the creator of the classical cosmogonic theory of the four elements He also proposed that the forces of love and conflict mix and separate each of the elements together. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, Empedocles was a vegetarian and supported the theory of reincarnation.

6- Anaxagoras

The Top 30 Prestige Philosophers in History 5

Anaxagoras (510 BC - 428 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor. He lived and taught in Athens for more than 30 years. His vision described the world as a blend of imperishable primary ingredients.

Change was never caused by the absolute presence of a particular ingredient, but by the preponderance of one of them over the others. He introduced the concept of Nous as an ordering force that moves and separates the original mixture, which had homogenous characteristics.

7- Democritus

The Top 30 Prestige Philosophers in History 6

Democritus (460 BC - 370 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace. It is best known for its formulation of the atomic theory of the Universe, which is quite similar to the atomic structure proposed in the nineteenth century. His contributions are difficult to distinguish from those of his mentor Leucippus, since both are mentioned at par in various texts.

It is said that Plato maintained a rivalry with this one and ordered to burn all his books reason why only today fragments of his work are known. Democritus is considered by many to be the father of modern science.

8- Zeno of Elea

The Top 30 Prestige Philosophers in History 7

Zeno of Elea (490 a.C. - 430 BC) was a pre-Socratic philosopher member of the Eleatic school founded by Parmenides. It is known exclusively by the proposition of a great number of ingenious paradoxes, in particular those referring to the movement.

He was also called as the inventor of dialectics and is credited with laying the foundations of modern logic. Aristotle was in contradiction to the ideas of Zeno about the movement and called them fallacies.

However, many thinkers and philosophers throughout the millennia keep their thoughts in force when trying to explain it to them (8).

9- Protagoras

The Top 30 Prestige Philosophers in History 8

Protagoras (490 BC - 420 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace. It is considered to be the first to promote the philosophy of subjectivism, arguing that the interpretation of reality is relative to each individual in experience, judgment and interpretation.

Protagoras was the first to teach this point of view as a sophist. A sophist was a rhetorical, political, and logical teacher who served as a private tutor to the young of the wealthy classes.

10- Anaximenes of Miletus

The 30 Most Important Presbyterian Philosophers of History 9

Anaximenes of Miletus (585 BC - 528 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, considered the third of the School of Miletus and disciple of Anaximander. Anaximenes is best known for his doctrine that air is the source of all things, differing from his predecessors as Thales, who considered water as the source.

From this idea, he constructed a theory that explains the origin of the nature, the earth and the celestial bodies that surround it. Anaximenes also used his observations and reasoning to provide causes of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, rays and the rainbow.

11- Gorgias

Gorgias de Leontino (485 a.C. - 380 BC) was a Sicilian philosopher, orator, and rhetorician. He is regarded as one of the founders of sophistry, a traditional movement associated with philosophy, which emphasizes the practical application of rhetoric in political and civil life.

Like other sophists, Gorgias was an itinerant who practiced in various cities, giving public displays and charging for instructions and private talks. His performances included spontaneous public questions for impromptu responses.

12- Euclid

Euclid (n. 300 BC) was a Greek mathematician best known for being the"father of geometry". He lived and worked in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I."Elements"is one of his most influential works on the history of mathematics, becoming a reference book for teaching matter since its publication until the beginning of the century XX.

In this book, Euclid deduces the principles of what is now known as Euclidean geometry from a series of axioms.

13- Filolao

Filolao (470 BC - 385 BC) was a Greek and contemporary Pythagorean philosopher of Socrates. He was one of the three most important figures of the Pythagorean tradition, writing a rhetorical treatise on philosophy.

Filolao was the first to declare that the earth was not the stationary center of the cosmos, but moved around a central fire along with the fixed stars, the five planets, the Sun, the Moon and a mysterious parallel earth.

He argued that the cosmos and the whole were made of two basic types of things: limited and unlimited things.

14- Alcmeón de Crotona

Alcmeón de Crotona (n. 510 BC) was one of the most important natural philosophers and medical theorist of antiquity. He was the first to support the importance of the brain as the basis of consciousness and intelligence. I also came to practice the dissection of human bodies for research purposes.

For Alcmeón, the soul was the source of life. He also established that cosmic harmony is the harmony between opposing pairs and therefore human health consisted of the balance of opposing compounds in the body.

15- Archelaus

Archelaus (5th century BC) was a Greek philosopher, pupil of Anaxagoras and possible teacher of Socrates. He is best known for establishing the principle that movement was the separation of the hot from the cold and from which he attempted to explain the formation of the Earth and the creation of animals and humans.

Archelaus held that air and infinity were the beginning of all things. He also stated that the Earth was flat, but that the surface was depressed in the center. Del Sol went on to say that it was the largest of all stars.

16- Brontinus

Brontinus of Metaponto (n. Century BCE) was a Pythagorean philosopher and disciple of the same Pythagoras. It is not known whether he was the father or the husband of the philosopher Theano. Some Orphic poems are also recognized. In addition, he is credited with the point of view in which the monad, or first cause, transcended all kinds of reason and essence in power and dignity .

17- Damo

Damo (n. 500 BC) was a Pythagorean philosopher born in Crotona, believed to be the daughter of Pythagoras and Theano. Because in the school formed by his father, he took the authorship of the works of its members, many of the contributions created by it were attributed to him.

According to one story, Pythagoras inherited his writings from Damo, and she kept them from refusing to sell them, with the firm belief that the knowledge stored in them was more valuable than gold.

18- Diogenes of Apolonia

Diogenes of Apolonia (n. 425 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in the Greek colony of Apollonia in Thrace. He believed that air was the sole source of all existence and as primary force, possessed intelligence.

All other substances in the universe were derived from the air by means of condensation and rarefaction. Diogenes also held that there are an infinite number of worlds, as well as an infinity of emptiness.

As for the Earth, I believed that it was round and its shape was the product of hot vapors turning on it.

19- Hermótimo de Clazómenas

Hermotus of Clazomenas (n. 6th century BC) was a philosopher who proposed that physical entities are static and the mind is the cause of change. Hermotus belongs to a class of philosophers who held a dual theory of a material principle and an active theory as causes of the universe.

20- Hipón

Hipón (5th century BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and was related to being born in Regio, Metaponto, Samos or Crotona. It is also possible that there have been more than one philosopher with this name.

Although he was a natural philosopher, Aristotle refused to locate him along with other pre-Socratic philosophers because of the"insignificance of his thoughts." He was accused of atheism, but because he has no record of his texts, he can not know why.

He believed that water and fire were the primary elements, being the original water of the fire and developing water to be the beginning of all things. He also showed interest in biology, and stated that all living things have an adequate level of moisture to function.

21- Leucippus of Miletus

Leucippus of Miletus (fifth century BCE) is considered as one of the first philosophers to develop a theory about atomism. This is based on the belief that all things are composed entirely of several indivisible and indestructible units called atoms.

Leucippus constantly appears as the master of Democritus, to which he also formulated an atomic theory.

There has long been a debate about the existence of Leucippus, since its supposed contributions to atomic theory tend to be difficult to discern from those of Democritus.

22- Samos Meliso

Meliso de Samos (n. V century BC) was the third and last member of the Eleatic School of Philosophy. It is known that he was the commander in a fleet of ships just before the Peloponnesian War.

Like Parmenides, Meliso established that reality has always existed, is indestructible, indivisible, and remains still without change. He came to argue that existence is unlimited and extends to infinity in all directions.

His thoughts were written in prose and not in poetry as Parmenides did, and of them only 10 fragments are preserved.

23- Metrodoro of Chios

Metrodoro of Chios (n. IV century BC) was a Greek philosopher belonging to the school of Democritus and predecessor of Epicurus. It is considered that he was pupil of Neso of Chios or some believe that of the same Demócrito.

Metrodoro was considered a skeptic and included among his concepts the theory of atoms and emptiness and the plurality of worlds. He also endured the theory that stars were formed day by day by moisture in the air in the heat of the Sun.

He is credited with having had an advanced cosmological view for his time, holding that"a single piece of wheat in a large field is as strange as a single world in an infinite space."

24- Lampsaco Metrodoro

Metrodoro of Lámpsaco (331 BCE - 277 BCE) was a Greek philosopher of the epicurean school. His belief was that perfect happiness came from having and maintaining a well-built body. He was in conflict with his brother for not admitting that the belly was a test and measure of things that belonged to a happy life.

25- Myia

Myia (n. 500 BC) was a Pythagorean philosopher daughter of Theano and Pythagoras. She was married to Milo de Crotona, an athlete. A letter dating from the 2nd century BC. Is attributed to Myia and addressed to one Phyllis. It describes how the needs of a newborn need to be met in accordance with the principles of harmony.

According to her, a baby naturally wants things in moderation and the one who takes care of them must attend to those needs with the same moderation.

26- Ferécides de Syros

Freices of Syros (n. 6th century BC) was a Greek thinker born on the island of Syros. Its main contribution is a cosmogony derived from three divine principles known as Pentemics: Zas (Zeus), Cthonie (Earth) and Chronos (Time).

This constituted a union between the mythological thought of Hesiod and pre-Socratic philosophy. No direct samples of his work are preserved, but this is referenced by philosophers of the Hellenistic period.

He was the first thinker who is acknowledged the communication of his philosophical reflections in a prosaic style.

27- Pródico de Ceos

Prado de Ceos (465 BC - 395 BC) was a Greek philosopher known for being part of the first generation of sophists. He arrived in Athens as ambassador Ceos and quickly became known for being a speaker and teacher.

Plato considers Pródico with great respect above other sophists and in his dialogues, Socrates appears as his friend. It is recognized by its bearing on linguistic theory and its insistence on the correct use of words.

Like other Sophists, Pródico interpreted religion as the personification of the Sun, Moon, rivers, fountains and any other element that would bring comfort to life.

28- Antiphon, the sophist

Antiphon (480 BC - 411 BC) was a Greek orator and philosopher who lived in Athens. One of his texts in political theory is of importance because it is the forerunner of the theory of natural rights.

His vision expresses principles of equality and freedom associated with democracy. Nature is seen as an entity that requires spontaneity and freedom, in contrast to the restrictions imposed by institutions.

Antiphon was also a mathematician and was the first to assign an upper limit and lower than the value of pi.

29- Xofopanes of Colophon

Xenophanes of Colophon (570 BC - 475 BC) was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet and critic. Some of his writings account for a skepticism where traditional religious views were satirized as human projections.

He established that humans were independent entities of the gods and that discoveries in science and other areas were the results of human labor and not divine favors.

As for the physical world, Xenophanes wrote that the world was composed of two opposites: the wet and the dry. He also believed in the existence of an infinite number of worlds that were not juxtaposed with time.

30- Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos (570 BCE - 495 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and mathematician and founder of a movement known as the Pythagoreans. He made great contributions to philosophy and religion, but is best known for developing the Pythagorean theorem that bears his name.

As Anaximander's disciple, his vision of astronomy was the same as that of his tutor. Many of the accomplishments that are credited to him were in fact carried out by his colleagues and successors. There are no known writings made by him and most of the information that is known about him was compiled by others over the centuries.

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