Greek Philosophy Before Socrates

Socrates, his student Plato, and Plato's student Aristotle are often credited with founding Western philosophy. Nevertheless, even great thinkers do not emerge ex nihilo, but rather are born into an existing context and paradigm that the build from, respond to, and react against. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at the Pre-Socratic philosophers and how their ideas created the ground from which Socrates' own thought emerged.

[amreyes]

i listen to so many of the Centre Place talks i recognize the voices, and it was so cool to finally see the crowd, thanks tony

[jaredsayers]

Wow, what an absolutely fantastic lecture! Please keep producing this content. It is hard to find such detailed and clear lecture on presocratic philosophers, this was such a joy to watch!

[juliogadelhaparente]

I mean, How the heavens are you guys able to produce this much content in incredible depth every week?! Thank you John

[exoplanet]

I felt so sorry for John, who clearly had a cough or something in his throat, after he got barraged with so many questions (and non-questions). Way to pull off a great lecture, JH!

[UCANREACT]

Great lecture! You laid that out very clearly. Enjoyed it.

[glenn-younger]

Well THAT put a lot into perspective, didn't it? Well done! The thing that strikes me is how, as humans in search for our understanding of the why and how behind the big picture, we're still looking for that one underlying "Principle": The key to EVERYTHING.

We make premises. Connect mental dots. Test it out. Throw it out. Bring some back. Connect more dots. Test it out. Throw it out. And so we go along in our spiral of evolution.

From the earlier premise of water being the underlying Principle to everything, today we're at quantum mechanics. That's really something, isn't it? If I had one wish for humankind it would be this: I wish we didn't have the tendency to be so doggone dogmatic at every step of our way. Oh, how that holds us back. Hopefully, we'll grow out of that, too. :-)

[fraser]

I was privileged to encounter philosophy rather late in my life while previously I was living life with a mishmash of understanding that more times than not was contradictory but not entirely without value and thanks to philosophy and my imperfect understanding of it that philosophy has helped place so much of my life into a perspective. Having said that philosophy remains a constant in my life though I wander at times it’s reassuring to know that philosophy awaits my further exploration and implementation into my life.

[MattFRox]

This channel, and of course it’s corresponding institution, has made me decide that I am definitely visiting Toronto soon. I would love to catch one of these lectures.

[fly_]

I'm really loving this presenter! There's a heap of great introductory items clearly presented!

[kirtipuri]

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH JOHN, this gave me so much clarity

[Spellweaver]

Empedocles is probably my favourite philosopher. Something about his idea of love and strife being the two opposing forces of the universe that can only be productive when they are in balance feels right, even if it's not a literally correct understanding of the world. I haven't seen any fantasy writer yet beat the kind of setting that Empedocles invented.

[nobodynowhere]

This man better be the head of The Classics Department in a major University.

[zyxyuv]

I hope there can be a lecture on Hermeticism.

[martinarreguy]

Philosophy, she has been my mistress every since the age of 35, I do love the pre-socractics for they contemplated natural phenomena and what it was to live a good life. But all of it is worth reading, looking at and ruminating over indeed.

[andruwxx]

The thirsty dolphin thing. That would have crossed my mind in 1000 years. I love lectures like this where there’s knowledge all the way through.

[TeaParty]

Discovery of The Mind in Greek Philosophy And Literature-Bruno Snell
Ancilla To The Presocratics-Kathleen Freeman

[d.russellmoros]

I have learned to understand the pre-socratics as the earliest known materialist philosophers as against superstition, mythology, speculation, philosophical idealism generally. That, to know the universe, all one had to do was study it with one's senses, with the aid of tools.

[charlesandrews]

I was always afraid of philosophy until I read a book called the history of philosophy I don't remember who wrote it but it was excellent for someone of my level. I'm hoping this lecture by an historian will be similarly educational and entertaining

[LuisAldamiz]

Great exposition. I knew a philosopher in my youth who claimed that Greek philosophy ended with the presocratics, he was totally derisive of the socratic school (and he was probably right). Empedocles and Democritus would be today great scientists, well, they were in their day, I guess.

[belomolnar]

We have started our 2.600 years lasting Hegemony of Philosophy by New Year 2024. 🍀🍀🍀🕊🕊🕊🌍🌍🌍⛲️⛲️⛲️. First known philosopher Thales of Miletus was born in 624 before Our chronology, acc. to Brittanica. 🍀🗽❤️. One of the Seven Sages.