The Presocratics: Crash Course History of Science #2

So, who was this Presocrates guy? Just kidding!
Long ago, some philosophers worked very hard to separate myths from what they actually knew about nature.
Thales theorized that everything in the world is made of water. Pythagoras was a mathematical-mystical vegetarian. And Democritus, we all know and love as the Atom Guy…
Meet the Presocratics!

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Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?

[SuperCaleb]

The little giggle before he said "This is so great" made me smile ear to ear. You can FEEL how much he's loving this series and I'm so glad that he's sharing this awesome passion with us!
Crash Course is amazing, and I'm really glad that they're doing History of Science.

[dotsandprintsdesigns]

I'm 23, kinda done with studying for a bit... and at school I DIDN'T always love studying (which was how it felt...as opposed to learning) and now I can't stop watching your videos and I'm so restless, I wanna learn so much! About math, science, philosophy and everything under the sun! All of this made me a much better person and thank you for sparking this interest in me (or making me realise how incredibly nerdy I am... I don't even enjoy mainstream cinema anymore... only documentaries.. I think this will continue until I feel at least a little satiated with knowledge)

You truly make this world a better better better place! Thank you

[hefaidhbahaeddine]

I can't stop watching crash course, you people are simply awesome and this is a very big hello from tunisia, your courses surpassed borders and seas

[feynstein]

Crash Course is a national treasure. They should definitely do a series on logical reasoning. Everyone needs to know that. Like how to read and write.

[MahRiiNoo]

I'm in University doing my Bachelor of Nursing, so I have been watching Hank teach me Anatomy & Physiology and Psychology for the past several months so I can rock my midterms and exams... and now I'm watching him some more for the pure enjoyment of it!

[camiloiribarren]

Please, Hank, keep teaching us philosophy and science. Keep us learning in the most fun ways, through Crash Course

[thiefoftrust]

I love how the intro goes through freshman, sophomore, and junior years, but doesn't show a senior year. Science is still changing, and we haven't graduated yet!

[vampyricon]

Fire. Earth. Water. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in ignorance. But then, everything changed when the Presocratics attacked.

[Rin-otww]

I recently bought books about historical sciences and to find that Crashcourse is making animations about this for better understanding, couldn't have been any better!

[cheesecakelasagna]

For a second I thought this is going to be about procrastination throughout history.

[camdenjones]

The people at Crash Course have never failed to exceed expectations in every series they pump out. Really wishing I could binge watch this whole series right now

[pathoesr]

Rhetoric is the art of language and ancient Greeks loved it. It was a sport for them.

I'd be really happy if you could do a crash course on that topic at some point in the future (I'd be happy to network you to resources). People always refer to it as "propaganda" or misunderstand it to be something like "pretty words, " but it really is much more than that.

[HerodotusVon]

HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OF THE SQUARE ROOT OF TWO IN MY BEAN LESS CULT!

[jeffreybernath]

The pre-Socratics were nerds. You heard it here first.

[BenTajer]

"Atoms of the void..." has a nice ring to it.

[GustavoSilva-nyjc]

5:01 That's mind blowing, if you think about it.

[vxlley_flower]

My teacher showed us one of your videos, and now I can't stop watching.

[zhoeypm]

This episode gave me a tour way way back to history. I learned so much to these presocrates philosophers. I'm amazed to them, who are trying to separate myth from the truth and developing valuable methods that we use today. They shared thoughts and learnings to our world that made us moving on from being arrogant such as Thales who separated the world from the divine, Anaximander's formless initial state called the apeiron, pythagoras introduction of idealism to science and democritus' knowledge atoms

[darrenkrivit]

Man, this is bringing back a lot of info from the days I took the college courses early 80s. Thanks Hank for making these lessons much more enjoyable!

[nashimaguinaresmail]

Contradiction has always been an exciting part of learning, and thru these greek philosophers, they embodied with such a genius way of deliberating different theories and principles of one another.

Thales, without being irreligious is really a pro for founding the Milesian school which opened the doors for greek amateur scientist such as Empledocles, Anaximander, who later then disproved Thale's water substrate theory to an apeiron one. How I wish I could witness their debates and all.

Pythagoras, being more mystic thinker compare to Milesians, he believed in idealism that aspires to create an abstract model of perfect stuff. He is way being an idealist for creating something out of his vivid imagination and justifying them. Idealism was never bad at all.

Democritus, who argued with Zeno about his idea of Atomism is an excellent and brave way of proving for what he believed in. Yes, it sounded weird and funny to hear what is between the atoms of the void, so much interesting!

This school of thought was a brilliant idea for opening irrational debate in dealing with arguments and contradictions, even a up to this time, science yet did not end up with absolute TRUTH. Always exciting to know more of their stories.