 Welcome viewers, this is a course on western philosophy, the title of the course is aspects of western philosophy and this is the first module and the first lecture. The topics which we are going to discuss are, first of all we will see the Ionian period, then we will go on discussing or having a very brief overview of Greek civilization. This is very essential to understand the nature, the general features and characteristic features of Greek philosophy, then we will have the social, political and cultural aspects that determined the nature of Greek civilization and Greek philosophy. Then we will see further the rise of Athens, because Athens is very important, because it is most of the philosophical thought that is originated in early Greek world has originated in Athens, one of the city states. Again we will wind up our discussions with the general characteristic features of Ionian philosophy and we will also have a brief look into the specific philosophical views of some thinkers, not all of them, this is not an exhaustive account of Ionian or pre-socratic philosophy, but a very brief overview of some selected thinkers like Thales, Anaximander, Anaximinus, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides and also the Atomist. This will be followed with a kind of summary of the pre-socratic philosophy, that is what we are planning to cover in this lecture. So, we will start with an introduction to the Ionian period in Greek philosophy, which is a very important period in the entire history of western philosophy. And this is a period, which we refer to the period between 600 and 400 BC by Ionian period and during this period, the Greek world witnessed geographically or dialectically distinguishable moments, very crucial period in the history of Greece, in the history of human thought and in the history of western philosophy. And that is why it is an extremely decisive period in the history of human civilization as well, thinkers who are profoundly innovative and experimental, whom we now refer to as the first philosophers, the first philosopher of western philosophy, western history. Before we proceed further, let us have a very brief look at the map of Greece. So, we can see the city states here, we can see here Crete, Athens, Thebes, here is Olympia and these are all what we refer to as the Greek word. Here we will see the Aegean sea and what is so important to note is the emergence of city states, if we can find that the entire Greek civilization is concentrated on this city states or the emergence of philosophies also associated with the emergence of various city states in the Greek world. So, there are different cultures, so that is one thing which is very important to be noted that when we call Greek philosophy, we are talking about the philosophical thinking, the thoughts that have originated in various Greek cities and Greece as such did not exhibit a very homogenous culture of civilization as such. There are different cultures that existed in different city states, the environments and socio-political structures were also different in these different city states. So, these differences also contributed to the richness and the diversity of Greek philosophy as we understand it today. So, before we look into the details of Greek philosophy, let us have a very brief overview of Greek civilization and this is particularly accounted by Bertrand Russell in his A History of Western Philosophy. So, this account relies on Bertrand Russell's account in his book History of Western Philosophy. This is what Russell says at the very outset in all history, nothing is so surprising or so difficult to account for as the sudden rise of civilization increase. So, there are lot of issues connected, there are lot of arguments, lot of viewpoints about the emergence of Greek civilization, I am not entering into those details here. I will straight away come to the point from around 2500 B.C. to 1400 B.C. the Mayan culture existed in the island of Crete and it spread about 1600 B.C. to the mainland of Greece. This is the beginning, we can understand this as the beginning and the Myanmar culture was dominated in commerce and was artistically advanced. Again about 900 B.C. the Missenians whose spoke Greek conquered them and when you come to Greek civilization again, the Greeks came to Greece in three successive ways. This is according to Bertrand Russell. First the Ionians, then came the Achaeans and finally the Dorians and these are not, there are lot of conflicts involved in this successive arrival of Greeks. The Ionians adopted the Cretan civilization, the Achaeans defeated them, but their civilization was destroyed by the Dorians. So, it is a story of conflict as well. Again Dorians retain the original Indo-European religion of their ancestors. So, when we talk about Greek civilization, the first thing that comes to our mind probably is the wonderful religion these people, the mythology, the Greek mythology these people have developed which is depicted and narrated in the works of Homer, Iliad and Odysseus. So, Dorians have retained the original Indo-European religion of their ancestors and that was spread all over Greece during this period. The religion of classical Greeks was blend of Dorian and the Mycenaean legion. Both during the later part of the Mycenaean age and after its end some of the invaders settled down and became agriculturalists while some pushed on first into the islands of the Asia Minor, then into Sicily and southern Italy where they founded cities that lived by maritime commerce. Again in these maritime cities the Greeks first made qualitatively new contributions to civilization. So, here onwards we have to be a little more attentive that real contributions to human civilization starts with this settling down of Greek people. The supreme of sea of Athens came a little later and was associated with naval power. I will explain it little more detail while we proceed and now we will listen to the social and political aspects that have shaped Greek civilization or Greek culture and philosophical outlook. So, here when we talk about the ancient Greek politics, there are three major approaches or rather three major trends that was prevalent. First of all there is the tyrannical period, the tyranny then comes the aristocracy and then comes democracy. So, all these three existed at the same period in different cities and we can see that there is a kind of a conflict between the supporters of aristocracy and the supporters of democracy. Later which will find this is culminated in the death of Socrates as well. We will discuss all these issues in the subsequent lectures and here one interesting aspect is that when we talk about Greek democracy, it is a unique conception of democracy not in the sense we understand the term democracy today in the modern world. So, but still it was a government by all the citizens, but they have a conception of citizen which was unique. It was not an all inclusive notion that it never included every human being in the society. They of course, they left out women and slaves they were not included into the category of a citizen in the Greek democratic culture. So, this is a portrait of Homer and when we refer to cultural aspects of course, Homer is one person which comes to our mind so frequently and so suddenly. And here we have to refer to the art of writing and this was the Greeks have got this from the Phoenicians. Greeks modified it and this accelerated the rife of rises their civilization. That is another interesting thing about Greek civilization and also about European civilization in general that they have got a lot from others from other civilizations from the Asians, but they have made it they have appropriated it they have further developed it. Similarly, the art of writing was also sort of developed further and this is resulted in the dramatic rise of Greek civilization. And next major event in the history of Greek civilization is the composition of Iliad and Odisi by Homer which I have already mentioned during 750 to 550 D.C. So, here is a paragraph here is a quotation from Bertrand Russell. Homer as a finished achievement was a product of Ionia that is of part of Hellenic Asia Minor and adjacent islands sometime during the 6th century at latest the Homeric poems became fixed in their present form. It is also during this century that Greek science and philosophy and mathematics began. So, let us have a kind of summary the three main civilizations of Greece now the Trojans and Troy the Cretan or Minoan in Crete and the Messinian in the Greek mainland. And one thing to be noted here when we since this is a quotient philosophy the most striking aspect or the most important and relevant thing to be noted is the rise of Asians as a superpower. Super power not in the modern sense not in the military sense of the term, but in the intellectual sense of the term. So, there are several reasons for that geographical, cultural, historical, political and several other reasons for this the first one is that it is located in the east was a gateway to Asia Minor. So, since it performed as a gateway lot of exchanges went on lot of interaction with other cultures other civilizations happened this is contributed to the richness and diversity of Athenian people had a very good part that is another reason because since it had a very good part commerce took place in a major way had a great maritime fleet and again during 490 to 470 B.C. together with Sparta Athens fought with the Persians and under Darius and Cessars. So, this is another very important aspect political aspect because there is a fight there is a conflict there is a war with Persians who are Asians. So, Asia and Europe started firing with each other during this period and in this war Athens was supported by Sparta as well Sparta provided the army and Athens the navy and Europeans fought against the Asians and finally defeated them after the war now suddenly that is the reality they had to face after the war what happened Sparta demobilized its troops and suffered economic turmoil because the troops that sent back home demobilized and what will these people do, but for Athens turned its navy because Athens contributed with naval power. So, it could immediately transformed turn its navy into a merchant fleet which is further contributed to the development of commerce economic vibrant economic activities. People in Athens interacted with the people across the world different cultures different civilizations and again trading necessitated the growth of mathematics. So, gradually this process this vibrant economic process has also fostered the growth of sciences various sciences first of all mathematics because trading necessitated the growth of mathematics also contact with India where mathematics and philosophy were dominant. They had trading relations with India since ages the Greeks and the Romans had trading relationship with India during that period India was a great civilization where mathematics was developed astronomy was developed and also philosophy was dominant. So, naturally the Greeks were also they also came into contact with these intellectual developments in other civilizations and other cultures. Astronomy became necessary for the navigators because and because they had to sort of go to the sea go to the ocean and to find their directions they need to master in astronomy and this they could do because of their contact with the Egyptians and the Babylonian civilization where astronomy was developed and economic prosperity the next step economic prosperity naturally got lesser and security which are essential for speculative philosophical thinking. So, naturally there are lot of lesser time available for the rich people in Athens to think about the contemplate about the first realities to highly metaphysical questions raise the first metaphysical most innovative questions of human reality. Now, we will see a brief summary of this development what we have discussed now. So, the early and later Greek civilization the early period is two twelve hundred B.C. where the fall of Mycenaean civilization is what we refer to as the early period then comes eight hundred B.C. which is called the later civilization where the emergence of city states took place in between you have the dark ages we do not know much about this period what has happened in this period or the intellectual and other kinds of developments that have taken place during this period is not really known to us and also you know no significant influence of early on rate because of this dark ages which comes in between there is no significant influence of the early on the later. And when we talk about emergence of city states I have already mentioned it Greece was divided into a large number of small independent states each consisting of a city with some agricultural territory surrounding it. So, this is what gives you a picture of Greek city states. And finally, we have the greatest philosopher of Greek civilization arguably the greatest philosopher of Greek civilization Socrates three ninety nine B.C. And we are particularly concerned about the pre Socrates thinkers here this is the pre Socrates thinkers with whom we are dealing with in this lecture Ionians Pythagorean's eliotic philosophers and the Sophists. Sophist of those we will not be discussing in this lecture. So, this is of again a brief overview of philosophy you have Ionianic Pythagorean eliotic and the Sophistic. And here Ionian thinkers have developed they were good in physics. Physics in the not in the typical scientific sense of the term we identify it as the development of physics here, because these philosophers were naturalist they were concerned about the natural world which is sensible. When we come to Pythagoreans Pythagoreans Pythagoras was was reputed for as developing a philosophy based on mathematics numbers and also a religion. So, ethics was given at most importance in Pythagoras philosophy. So, ethics then when it comes to eliotic we will find the dialectic development. So, physics, ethics and dialectic and when you come to the Sophist which is which is almost the Socratic period we will find the decline of all these sciences. So, there you can find that there is a real need for an emergence of philosophy in a new fashion which we will see in the subsequent lectures. Now, when we talk about I will have a very brief overview of this when we talk about the early Ionians we refer to Thales Anaximander and Anaximanus the first Aristotle actually calls them the first physiologist or students of nature the reason will be explain later. The problem of the origin and loss of the physical universe this is was the this was a major concern of these early Ionians the origin and loss of the physical universe the fundamental substance we will explain it slightly later. The world is originated from a primitive substance that is that primary assumption there is a substance out of which everything in this universe the diversity the diverse objects everything in this universe has come out of that is the primary assumptions of this early Ionian philosophy and when we come to the later period later Ionians are again very profound thinkers like Heraclitus and Patoclas and Axogoras and the like and the problem of the origin and nature of the universe still persist even for them that is very important though they have advanced the thinking the line of thinking the approaches of the early Ionians further into different domains still the problem of the fundamental substance persist in their philosophy as well. Distinguish the primitive world forming force from the primitive matter of which the world was made that is another advancement in their thought force is distinct from matter there is a distinction they make between force and matter which is very important from the scientific perspective as well as a philosophical perspective we will see the other Ionians now. So, we have the most prominent thinker here is Pythagoras 560 to 480 BC who was studied under Thales before traveling to Egypt and Mesopotamia ultimately establishing his own school of philosophy in Korat in southern Italy. So, one of the very important thinkers in human intellectual history Pythagoras and every school children every student every 5th standard student would be able to tell us who Pythagoras is the famous Pythagoras theorem, but of course, Pythagoras was not just a mathematician he was a philosopher and also have developed he has developed a unique religion I am not going to the details of that here. The eliotic school again of Sinofines and Parmenides and Sinu we will be discussing Parmenides a little bit in detail here in this lecture again the atomists like Eucipus and Democritus these are the other Ionians. Now, before we examine some of the important thinkers as I mentioned earlier I will be focusing only the contributions of some of these people not every one of them, but before that we will have a very brief general characteristic features and understanding of the general characteristic features of these Ionian philosophers this is by Bertrand Russell the Militians school is important not for what it achieved, but for what it attempted not for what it achieved, but for what it attempted. So, this is Bertrand Russell's comment about these people these original thinkers and let us see what Zeller has to say about it. Pre-socatic philosophy arose from the inclination of natural science to enquire about the essence and of the natural phenomena. This is one of the fundamental features of philosophical enquiry one brand of philosophers at least the traditional ancient philosophers they were always interested in the concept of essence look out for the essence, because the world which we leave is chaotic the world which we leave has tremendous diversity different objects lot of different qualities different objects, but underlying all these differences underlying all these diversities there is something which is essential. So, there is a search for essence which is one of the features of philosophical enquiry even in 20th century philosophy we can find it people like Uzer Uzer's philosophical project itself is Edmund Uzer the great mathematician, logician, phenomenologist whose philosophical project itself is to arrive at something called presuppositionalist philosophy. Phenomenology itself is kind of an attempt to see essences the things in themselves. So, we can see that you know this is this is one of the most important philosophical exercises attempts by thinkers to see the essence of natural phenomena here and we can characterize it as a philosophy of nature. So, that is another way to see this the important contributions of this early Greek philosophers as a philosophy of nature locate the essence of all things in a corporate subtract that is another attempt, because see one thing which differentiates these thinkers from people like as I have already mentioned Uzer or any other contemporary or 20th century philosopher is that though all of them are interested to locate a senses this these pre-socceric thinkers or these onions they were not just interested in essences, but they were also under the impression that this essence itself would be something material in nature. So, in one sense they were materialistic they were scientific they were reductionist all these are attributes that can be given to these original early thinkers. Again everything in the universe was made from a material substrates. So, that is a condition. So, that is something very important, because there is an attempt to explain everything all phenomena by natural causes which is a scientific approach to things which is not mythological which is not religious which is not theological which is not based on faith, but based on reason this is something which the birth of rational endeavors begin. Here as I mentioned it is not a mythical account the question here is the question of essence and the question of the basic substance what is the basal substance out of which everything is come out. And here normally for such questions there could be religious explanations theological explanations, but here there is an attempt to answer in terms of sense perception what our experience sense experience tells us. So, that is why it is scientific and these philosophers have different substances they have identified different philosophers have identified different substances different material substances as a primary object the primary essential substance fundamental substance out of which everything is come out for one philosopher tales it is water another it is air another one it is fire another one it is undifferentiated mass whatever it is in spite of all these such differences they all focus on something which is material. It is the cause the material cause of everything. So, the notion of cause affect relationship which is so central to scientific endeavors. And here we will see the general features of iron in thinking first of all here there is something called the birth of philosophy as a rational endeavor. As I mentioned we can see the birth of philosophy as a rational endeavor at this point because as I already mentioned there is a look out for reasons rational explanation for everything. Again it is a birth of science as well because identifying the cause the material cause of something which is a scientific approach. The nature of the basal structure of things that is again another very important aspect then again the question a philosophical question as being introduced one of the most important philosophical questions in the history of philosophy the question of appearance and reality the philosophers are hesitant to believe what is directly given to sense organs what appears is not real. There is a basic skepticism about what appears what is directly given to us and there is a look out for something which is not given to us something which is underlying the given something which is responsible for the appearance that is real appearance and reality which is a central problem in philosophy almost in every civilization. So, you can see that here there is a question of substance what is that substance what is immediately given to us or what we experience is the world of diversity, but there should be an underlying substance. So, appearance and reality when it comes to another one change of permanence everything in this object seems to be changing everything in this world every object is under motion the entire universe is under motion, but whether motion itself is real or not. So, that is the question some philosophers argued that motion is real or motion alone is real change alone is real according to some it is permanence again abstract or concrete the world as we experience is very concrete world, but is there anything which is underlying that something which is abstract something which cannot be seen that is a question. So, all such philosophical questions were introduced by the early Greek thinkers themselves. When we talk about the beginning of rational thinking early Greek thinkers were influenced by as I have already mentioned Babylonians and Egyptians astronomy and mathematics inform them about the precision and accuracy the universe exhibits see it is let us accept that the world around us is under motion there is a flux there is change, but whether this change is arbitrary whether this change is blind or does it exhibit or does it follow some sort of a low some sort of a principle. So, this is the search for such principles is a scientific search we have we can see this in the classical example of the discovery of gravitation principle by Isaac Newton the principle of gravity is a low which every object in this universe follows. So, the change that takes place in this universe is not arbitrary it is not by chance things happen, but there are certain lows there are certain principles. So, identifying those principles and locating those principles or finding a kind of resemblance with those principles and the principle that enables man to identify them that is reason rationality there is some sort of a connection between these two this is what makes science and philosophy unique rational endeavors. So, all these things we can see in the contributions of these early Greek thinkers the idea that everything can be rationally understood. So, there are things which we can definitely approach any phenomena in this world from a theological perspective why certain things happen because God has decided it happen. So, there is no further questioning of this issue then if you say that everything is decided by God, but a rational approach cannot be satisfied with such a reference to faith. So, you need a causal explanation model which has become so central to scientific endeavors later the essence of things can be grasped something which human beings are capable of understanding with the help of certain faculties in our mind that is the rational ability. Now, I have already given a very brief outlook a kind of a feel about what are some of the important characteristic features of pre-soccer thinking. Now, let us see some of the very important thinkers as I mentioned here this is not an attempt to elaborately discuss the individual contributions of each and every philosopher in the pre-soccer age. See one thing we have to keep in mind is that the there is no direct accounts of these pre-soccer thinkers they have not written anything till Socrates no one has written anything we have information about their philosophies by second resources primarily by several other writers. One important information we receive from Aristotle himself who refers to many of these the contributions of many of these thinkers in his writings. So, there is there are certain limitations when we try to approach when we approach their philosophical contributions, but at the same time historians of philosophy have arrived at reasonably good accounts of these the thinking the philosophical contributions of these early thinkers. So, let us start with Thales of Melitius and he is hailed as the celebrated father of western philosophy Thales and he was one of the seven wise men of Greece. He was born about the year BC for 640 in Miletus in Asia Minor and died at the age of 78. These are some of the tentative information about his life which we have there is no unanimity about these views, but roughly these are the things which we understand about him. Thales who had some contacts with Babylonia where astronomers knew that eclipses recur in a cycle of about 19 years predicted an eclipse which took place in 585 BC this made him famous. So, he was primarily known as recognized as an astronomer then later on his philosophical thinking also developed. So, he was as I mentioned earlier he was hailed as one of the seven wise men of ancient Greece and he learnt from Egypt the science of geometry as well. He there are a lot of issues when you call Thales as a father of western philosophy, but of course it is reasonable because the whole rational approach to problems began with Thales. We can we can assume in that way though there could have been other thinkers before Thales at least Thales is the first major name that occurs referred by many later philosophers including Aristotle. So, rational approach raised the question of primitive causes of things and avoided providing explanation in a mythical language. So, this is the most important contribution of Thales primitive causes of things and explanation not in a mythical language, but in a rational manner. So, when the question is about the fundamental substance Thales answer is interesting he says that what is the most primitive ultimate substance that is the fundamental substance. Everything comes out of water and returns to water this is this theory and there are interesting details about it, but one the important aspects to be noted here are number one it is a materialistic approach. So, in that way it is very important whether it is water or air whatever it is it is a materialistic approach it is reductionistic reductionistic in the sense that it is reducing everything to one single principle. It is scientific because it looks for the causes the fundamental causes then it is rational it does not depend on mythological or theological explanations and after all it is philosophical. So, these are some of the very important features to be noted when we try to understand Thales contributions. So, in this sense we can say that the birth of philosophy as a rational interval took place with Thales. Now, the next important philosopher whom we are going to discuss is Anaximander who again agreed a lot with his predecessor Thales, but the fundamental substance for him is not one of the material substances like water, but it must be an eternal infinite imperishable substance. It need not be any particular substance, but it should be an eternal infinite and imperishable substance all qualities are derived from this substance for him and again water itself as a material substance which we can observe comes out of such a primary substance according to Anaximander and he says all things in this world come from this great mass of undifferentiated matter. So, what is the substance for him it is a great mass of undifferentiated matter you cannot differentiate it you cannot determine what it is it is indeterminate it is imperishable it is infinite and it is eternal. Tendency towards an abstract mode of thinking this is something which is so striking about Anaximander. Thales was referring to a substance which is material which is concrete, but here we can see there is a tendency towards a more abstract mode of thinking which is very important for philosophical contemplations, because philosophy in a very important sense deals with abstract entities. The doctrine of the indestructibility of matter is again contained in Anaximander's view matter is indestructible which is a scientific principle which is also contained in Anaximander's view. Now, another philosopher who is a pupil of Anaximander is Anaximinus here we can come we can see a retreat he goes back the fundamental substance is infinite, but it is not indeterminate this is what Anaximinus says it is air or vapor or mist it is air for Anaximinus the fundamental substance is air, because there is reason for that, because air is a life giving element both in organisms as well as in the universe the principle of the universe without air nothing happens in this universe. So, he considered air as the most primitive substance and it is animate as well it extends infinitely through space something which extends infinitely in the infinite space is nothing but air. So, air must be the fundamental substance and now we come to one of the most important and interesting thinkers of entire human history Pythagoras I have already give a very brief introduction about him where the focus is on abstract form and relations the concrete entities like air or water cannot be the realities, but this entire universe which is perceived which is sensed through our sense organs cannot be ultimate reality. Then what is it Pythagoras found that everything in this world can be explained in terms of numbers abstract numbers everything concrete in this world can be explained explicated and described in terms of abstract numbers. So, numbers are more fundamental and real than concrete objects and entities in this world the measure order proportion and uniform recurrence in this world in this universe can be expressed in numbers and numbers are the only true realities and this conception this preoccupation with numbers has ultimately fostered the study of astronomy and various other disciplines associated with that. So, now we come to another important thinker Heraclitus. So, this is one important thing one interesting feature about Greek philosophy every generation you will find it innovative thinker and original thinker who comes up with something very substantially different from his predecessor. So, this is something which we can understand as a tradition of critical discourse a tradition of critical discourse is where that there is a continuity from tales to Anaximander there is a continuity, but at the same time Anaximander does in repeat what tales has said it is not just repeating what his predecessor has said it is contributing substantially by critically evaluating the contributions of your predecessors. So, this is what later on people particularly Karl Popper interestingly calls as the terms as the tradition of critical discourse which existed in the west each generation adds new things. So, Heraclitus another very important thinker will find a question a different question though he retain some of the important original issues he now raises a different question whether change or permanence is real because we see things changing in this world, but whether change or permanence is real because you on the one hand there is a condition that everything comes out of a primary substance. So, everything in this world is nothing but transformations of this primary substance. So, primary substance as such is only real then what about changes. So, this is the question and change constitutes the very life of the universe this is his contention he says that it is change not permanence whatever permanence we observe as an illusion it is change alone is real permanence is an illusion and he says that one cannot step into the same river twice the famous Heraclitian statement which in India we could see the Buddhist also have stated something very similar to this one cannot step into the same river twice because both oneself who is trying to step down into the river as well as the river will would have undergone change by the time because everything is momentary. The entire universe is the state of ceaseless change ceaseless flux and reality is an endless process of becoming there is no being as such which is static which is stagnant, but everything is in an endless process of becoming process change fire is the vital principle in the organism and the essence of the soul. Now, he comes back he returns to the question of the original substance which is predecessors have raised and he comes up with an answer fire is the most primary fundamental substance and it is the vital principle of the organism and also the universe fire is the symbol of the ceaseless activity for him. And one thing which is very interesting about Heraclitus is that as I have already mentioned he adds substantially new things new innovative ideas to his the thoughts of his predecessors everything is changed into its opposite. So, this is the dialectic aspect is introduced everything changes to its opposite this is something which will find in modern western philosophy as well nothing as permanent qualities every object is a union of opposite qualities otherwise the world would have stagnated this is a very interesting very innovative assumption that there is change in this universe the change is possible because every object is a union of opposite contradictory qualities otherwise the world would have stagnated and died of, but the world is vibrant that is because there is every object in this world is a union of opposite qualities everything is both is and is not harmony is the result of the union of opposites he says that harmony whatever harmony the universe exhibits is nothing but a result of union of opposites the change is not arbitrary, but is a law governed it is a rational process this is another very significant contribution by Heraclitus the change which we perceive which we experience is not a blind arbitrary change the universe is not ruled by chance, but it is law governed I have already mentioned it earlier there is a conception of law governed activity and what is this process it must be a law governed process it must be a rational process human mind is capable of finding out the law reason enables us to do that. So, philosophy becomes much more matured in Heraclitus the law goes or reason in things is permanent there is something which is permanent what is it the law goes or reason in things hence a life based on reason is superior than a sensuous life. So, you can see the ethical view as well here how do you live how should one live in this world one should not base one's life on emotions or sensuous life it should be based on reason. Now, another important thinker who comes with an entirely different perspective view is Parmenides how can I think both be and not be this is a question to Heraclitus in one sense Heraclitus advocated change here Parmenides raises some very significant objections to this Heraclitian conception. How can I think both be and not be how can I think possess contradictory qualities how can one quality become another quality something cannot come out of nothing and something cannot become nothing these are all contradictions Parmenides reminds us an object cannot possess contradictory qualities. So, he refutes change the conception of the philosophy of change advocated by Heraclitus and his followers are vehemently opposed by Parmenides by saying that this is the interesting argument if being is a process of becoming this is what Heraclitus said then it must either have come out of not being or being if from not being then it has come from nothing which is impossible something cannot come out of nothing that is a contradiction that is impossible then it should come from something if from being then it has come from itself and hence is identically itself which means that there is no change. So, change is refuted philosophically and theoretically from being only being can come out nothing or nothing can become anything else there is only one eternal undirived unchangeable being. So, the concept of being which has become very important in later philosophy later western philosophy is introduced by Parmenides here later on we can find that in 20th century many philosophers including some of the leading thinkers like Heidegger Gadamer all these people were tremendously influenced by Parmenides Heidegger even has written a book titled Parmenides because he was also preoccupied with the concept of being the question of being which was introduced by Parmenides. It is immovable and is identical with thought what cannot be thought cannot be and what cannot be not being cannot be thought this is the interesting statement by Parmenides. Now, we come to another important group of thinkers the atomist the natural scientific views of the universe developed by Ampetochlus and Anaxagoras found their culmination in atomic theory. I am not going to explain here because of positive of time the contributions of thinkers like Ampetochlus and Anaxagoras, but in a sense we can say that they are thinking their philosophical perspectives culminated in atomism what is termed as atomism atomic theory. Atomism is one of the most influential theories in western intellectual history even today it is very interestingly significant can see the universe as constituted of fundamental changeless eternal substances called atoms. Atoms are simple indivisible impenetrable spatial entities. So, they are in that sense simple they cannot be separated into two entities they differ from each other only in form weight and science are and are separated from one another by empty space. In atomism also we will find the materialistic reductionism of their predecessors. So, they would, but the question here is how do you account for motion because we change we find or we experience change we experience motion here the atomists say that motion is inherent in atoms they do not come from outside. So, there is no external agency required to for the atoms to move it is inherent hence no need for an external mythical entity in order to explain change and absolute change is impossible as atoms do not change. So, that is another thing though the universe exhibits motion there is motion there is change in the universe there is no absolute change because atoms themselves the primary constituent of the universe would not change things in the world are in motion and plurality is real. These are some of the condensions of the atomist atom has extension and is physically indivisible they are compact physical units they are not mathematical entities they are not metaphysical entities they are physical units and they are qualitatively alike, but as I mentioned earlier they differ from each other in terms of size weight and so on and so that atoms and the world they say that they are the building stones of reality everything in this world every object in this world is made up of atoms everything in this world is a combination of atoms and spaces motion is inherent as I have already mentioned in atoms and they are always in motion everything is explained in terms of atoms their motions and their combination. So, you can see that the scientific attempt to explain the world is substantiated by the atomist with a theory of atomism which is very interesting. Now, we will wind up this lecture on pre-socceric philosophy very important phase in the history of western philosophy with a brief summary the general features once again of pre-socceric philosophy with Socrates dialectical and ethical enquiries began and physical enquiries were discontinued this is what Aristotle says it is Socrates who has introduced a new era in philosophy the hall of pre-socceric philosophy according to Zeller is in its aim and content a philosophy of nature these thinkers the pre-socceric thinkers whom we have already examined confined this enquiry to the problem of the origin and laws of the physical universe and they were was physical in nature focus was on the material world and look for the first constituent of things these are the things which we have already examined and Aristotle as I already mentioned earlier called them the first physiologist or students of nature that and now we have seen that there are older early Ionians and later Ionians the three oldest schools of Ionian Pythagorean and Iliatic schools though differs significantly in their approach do agree with each other a lot because some of the fundamental questions are the same though each generation added new dimensions to the philosophical approach they are much alike in scientific character again there is an attempt to explain everything with the help of rational principles I have already mentioned attempt to provide a unified view of the universe this is again a scientific philosophical approach fascination for abstract thinking we can we could see that from Anaxim and Rohnmerz it begins and then reluctance in accepting a commonsensical outlook which is so characteristic of philosophical enquiry philosophy in one sense is a denial of commonsence so in that sense we can see that the introduction of this approach in this early Greek period suspecting the sensible world so that introducing the problem of appearance and reality which is so central to philosophical enquiry so these are in nutshell this is what is happened the sensible natural philosophical world is problematized in the initial period here and when we come further we can see the abstract mathematical issues becoming central like people like Pythagoras were so seminal contributions here and together this give birth to what we can call as a rationally speculative and contemplative world so this is scientific rationality this is deductive reasoning the initial period has contributed to scientific rationality and later on deductive reasoning by mathematical abstractions which together led to the birth of philosophy. Let us now wind up our discussion and have a look at the summary of the topics which we have discussed we had an overview of Greek civilization and history an overview of pre-socatic philosophy the nature of philosophical approach in the early period is examined the birth of philosophy and science as rational intervals is also examined in this lecture in the following lectures we will have a more interesting discussions about the initial philosophical issues discussed by early Greek thinkers particularly sophist socrates and other Greek philosophers so these are the references used for preparing this lecture we will wind up this lecture thank you.