Presocratics Part 2: Mathematics, Atoms, and Logic

Continuing our examination of the Presocratic Greek philosophers, we examine some early formulations of mathematics, atomism, and logic. This will include figures from the Eleatic school, including Zeno and his famous paradoxes, and then moving on to the pluralists such as Anaxagoras and Empedocles. This leads to the Abdera school and Democritus, for our first conception of the atom, as well as the Sophists, the famous itinerant thinkers.

Script by Luca Igansi

Check out "Is This Wi-Fi Organic?", my book on disarming pseudoscience!

[LPVince]

Only Zeno would try to disprove movement with movement.
And this guy is remembered thousends of years after his death kids. If he can do it, so can you.

[thorstormlord]

Great video series Professor. Thank you for sharing our philosophy and history with the world. Hope you make more and take some deep dives

[philipparker]

Finished my masters in philosophy in 2014, and I really like how these series refreshes my memory of it. I devoted both my theses to Kant, one of which was geared towards his criticism of attempting to determine the existence of God. I really hope Dave will read up on that and explains this as well. I still think his criticism is on point and am curious how Dave would assess it.

[FreedomandRightsUS]

Didn't expect to wake up to philosophy on prof Dave's channel. Nice surprise

[frankpulmanns]

Those ancient greeks were some smart cookies. Anyone claiming ancient peoples of whatever ethnicity couldn't possibly have achieved anything should really take a course on how much of our current knowledge is based on and was predicted by these people. And I don't mean just the greeks.

[GetMoGaming]

Why they have names like "Touchindeez" and "Tickledeez"?

[anbesivam]

Sir please make full complex numbers, sequrlence and series, statistics and probability videos in mathematics playlist

[AriaHarmony]

I'm excited for this series! Thanks professor Dave 👍

[christophergetchell]

Thank you for a bit of a refresher of some things that I learned in college almost 20 years ago!

[obviousmaths]

Gwyneth Paltrow ski crash trial had two experts arguing over a factor of 1/2 in applying Newton's laws of motion to the force needed to break ribs. One of them has made a massive howler, but which one? This was crucial evidence in the trial and the experts effectively cancelled each other out. Can you take a look at this?

[ivoryas]

1:40
Ah, yes. I _love_ reading Ben Shap-xeno!

[jonerlucas]

Funny how the shape of the statue of Pythagoras at 8:13 slightly resembles a triangle.

[uncleanunicorn]

Zeno's Paradox is not a paradox from the simple observation that objects in motion will indeed hit other objects given enough time. But apparently they were not experimentalists. Thus, it amounts to a lot of mental masturbation until you get to empiricism

[lolitaras]

I like Democritus, he was an early polymath.

[-xb]

I find it funny how heaps of philosophers kept thinking everything must be made from one thing but could not agree on it being called 'stuff.' Name a single material thing not made from stuff and that the cosmos itself is from stuff made what else were they looking for? Things? A simple play on words but what are words but things and so distinction was created in the zooming into the cosmos its "parts" perhaps we're going about things backwards and ought to zoom out or look at both perspectives simultaneously - something being incorrect is as much information as something being correct. Yin and Yang kinda thing. Mysticism. The universe seems to have symmetry at least.

[glennpearson]

Imagine that. An impactful thinker doing a video on impactful thinkers.

[Qwaspolk]

In this playlist are 5 videos that can't be played, why they are censored and what is their topic?

[ZIKBK]

Bros name was Epicurus, that's epic

[NZRic]

Hi Professor Dave and followers… I am just changing tact and hoping to pass on that Physics Girl (another awesome science creator) host has been bed ridden with long Covid for months and is not well at all… she has been hospitalised with CFS as a result of the long Covid and is under full time care by family…. this is an unsolicited comment but I know many, like me, are followers of both of these wonderful and inspiring people… sorry to of put anyone…

[ThomasAndersonbsf]

interesting that they I guess chose the "elements of nature" based on observed states of matter, from solid "earth" liquid "water" gas "air or wind" and plasma "fire" lol