Presocratics Part 1: Early Greek Philosophy

When people think of philosophy, they often transport themselves to Ancient Greece. This era was a hotbed of intellectual activity, and it produced some of the most influential minds in human history. But before we get to the most famous ones, Socrates and his lineage, we have to discuss those who came before, the Presocratics. These were the first in this region to seriously probe the nature of reality and knowledge, and they were able to make some stunning realizations, despite having no real empirical knowledge of the physical world. What were these early schools of thought, and who were the figures that championed them? Let's find out!
Script by Luca Igansi
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[@samuelbehrendt6291]

Professor Dave's content is like a box of chocolates, "You never know what you're gonna get!" I love the broad spectrum of topics that you cover! ❤

[@dross4207]

That’s kind of a bad analogy, because on Prof Dave you never get one of those weird chocolate covered jelly things that no one likes.

[@samuelbehrendt6291]

@@dross4207 lmao true true

[@seanh4841]

Me too, I love the variety of subjects, some I don't understand well, however I find them interesting

[@MrGustavier]

So happy to see you get interested in philosophy !

[@seclilc]

Oh this is cool! I feel so ignorant I didn’t realize Socrates wasn’t the first Greek philosopher

[@DemeterTelphousia-Erinyes]

Don’t feel that way! I’ve read a fair bit about philosophy and still can’t remember it! ❤

[@irish_deconstruction]

Loving this so far!👍

[@skepticalCoder]

Just added to my watch later list. Can't wait to see this one!

[@silvaskiproductions3937]

you obviously can wait if you put it on your "watch later" playlist

[@thomasprendergast6315]

Prof, you da best. So simply broken down, so easy to digest for us ADHD kinda people. Thanks!

[@jdm5570]

Thanks Dave!

[@sideeggunnecessary]

When neo visited the oracle in the mateix the latin for "know thyself" was inscribed on a board above the doorway

[@irrelevant_noob]

Probably because more people would be able to read Latin than they would Greek. ;-)

[@jigsaw2253]

Thanks

[@journey578]

Amazing song choice at the end Dave !

[@irrelevant_noob]

8:27

[@ericmishima]

Thanks! Please teach me more philosophy.

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

This will be a long series!

[@ericmishima]

​@@ProfessorDaveExplains I'm having trouble with sentence one. But I'll keep trying.

[@pauldow1648]

Thank you

[@amitsinghbhadoriya6318]

Useful

[@mayusolanki3121]

If possible then try to launch your engineering series soon, we would love to learn engineering through your videos.

[@palaksanwal4258]

He literally knows everything ❤

[@health_is_wealth333]

Well,I can understand why the old guys were so bent on water being the end all be all. Water is needed for our bodies to perform metabolic functions. Aqueous solution. So the old guys had good ideas based on what information they had! They were brave enough to speak up with new theories! I understand how they came to their conclusions based on their observations at that time. I just finished Gen Chem, Advanced Chem, organic chem 1 and 2! My brain is mush 😂 thanks for your videos they really helped, I posted one as a reference for a class discussion, and my professor loved it! Thank you for using your brain to be a superhero and not a villain! ❤

[@manikandan-ve6dm]

Just started physics it was really helpful for a jee aspirany

[@TupacMakaveli1996]

Crazy progress, from myth to reason, from religion to philosophy

[@I1p]

First!!! Always wanted to know more about Early Greek Philosophy!

[@gillesdeleuze6083]

Valeu professor!

[@karlosfandango4622]

Thanks for you videos, I;ve only watched this one (twice) so far but will surely watch more, and hopefully fulfil my ambition to get more than 3 answers correct on University Challenge

[@theVisibleburner]

Yes

[@justinhoward6384]

Oh yes more philosophy please

[@lostfan5054]

YESSSSS PROF DAVE

[@jeffbarnard3050]

I love Philosophy! Love is my Philosophy.

[@HystericalSej]

8:46

[@irrelevant_noob]

8:03

[@odysseusrex5908]

Very, very interesting. I knew that Thales had proposed water as being the fundamental substance, but I don't recall ever reading or being told that he reached that conclusion by contemplating the difference between living and nonliving things. Is that a fairly recent discovery? How sure is it that that was his thinking?

[@mikotagayuna8494]

Much of his theories were transmitted through oral tradition by his students much like Plato and Aristotle did with Socrates.

[@joet.6019]

Dave + philosophy = my dream PS I want another debate! I have rewatched them all ten times

[@PoseidonDiver]

[@Rico-Suave_]

Watched all of it 8:35

[@Kinetic-Energy117]

Curious why you started at Greece..African Egyptians were ahead of Greek thought by thousands of years Every Greek philosopher who lived made it a pilgrimage to go to Egypt to honor their source of religion & philosophy.. I'll wait for your answer, as I am a subscriber & attain & subscription monthly

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

I talked about Egypt in an earlier tutorial.

[@vibhutisrivastava2789]

Really?

[@helmaschine1885]

Early philosophical thought: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIq0qIiKn7-XaK8

[@Kinetic-Energy117]

​@Rusty Shackleford Sumer is a bible story. If Sumer was so great, where are their great megalithic structures? Sumer has been certified by local government, who are all Abraham bumpers, who doesn't exist in the archeological records & Diop's work shows Sumer was staged by Schmidt over 70 years ago Brain surgery & birth control-Ed Smith pap Mathematics & geometry-Moscow pap 364 & 1/4th calender in 4000bc, Sumer couldn't produce that ever I can keep going... Sumer is only a bible story in Iraq. Egypt did it 1st!" In my, Professor Mark Burnell of Cornell University voice

[@wordcel]

Egyptians were not African in the racial sense of the word (i.e. Sub-Saharan).

[@nirmalmishra6404]

Sometimes you're a badass sometimes Dick, you're none other but professor David.

[@reysolo3672]

THALES He is often referred to as the Father of Science. Thales is recognized for breaking from the use of mythology to explain the world and the universe, instead explaining natural objects and phenomena by offering naturalistic theories and hypotheses. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

[@mikotagayuna8494]

That is quite a stretch as he predated the scientific method by nearly a thousand years.

[@_fedmar_]

Part 4 of asking you to react to the Troll Physics videos. C'mon, it would be great for April 1st...

[@EDDIELANE]

I have a Classics 270 midterm tomorrow

[@Ratciclefan]

"they might have killed the discoverer of irrational numbers" is fun even if not real 😂

[@excelacademy7752]

👍

[@ranbummerz729]

A true Renaissance man

[@TheMilitantMazdakite]

Can you make a historical anylisis of the Bible's historical claims?

[@mikotagayuna8494]

There is no debate about this. The Bible has great historical significance but does not purport to present historical fact. No serious religion takes the Bible as literal truth except for fundamentalists and cults.

[@FlatEarthKiller]

No he won’t. He avoids religion ask much as he can, unless hes dunking on Kent Hovind level religious type of charlatan.

[@TheMilitantMazdakite]

@@mikotagayuna8494 I agree, but even the wildest claims, like the great flood, are often based on reality. In my estimation, said great flood is based on the thawing of the ice age.

[@mikotagayuna8494]

@@TheMilitantMazdakite It may be based on a real life event but it is also an allegory - a literary instrument about hubris and depravity. The message of the Bible can be true without needing to be historically accurate. Unfortunately, that's beyond the scope of Dave's work as a self-identified atheist.

[@Guyfromfuture-vq2td]

after 800 bc the details seems to be accurate

[@AstroRamiEmad]

I love Thales, but 4000 years before Thales, ancient Syrians and Iraqis wrote books and poems about the birth of all Universe from Water. As well as the birth of order from chios!

[@KaterinaStamatelos]

I hope you meant CHAOS, because Chios is a...Greek island. LOL

[@soyokou.2810]

it's thee-rum, not "theh-rum"! appreciate your tutorials and debunks!!

[@User-qi5ef]

What did socrates have against writing?

[@michaelhoward3048]

Socrates believed the act of conducting philosophy itself was through dialogue and argumentation, and that philosophy was a living, breathing art form subject to natural selection. But to capture philosophy in writing commits it to dogma, unable to be corrected or revised. It's words etched in stone unable to answer for themselves any questions or refutations. They become like statues without change, standing permanent in place without life. And worse, Socrates believed that referring to "ink marks" instead of relying on memory dulled the mind and made it dependent on static ideas rather than the dynamic process of debate and dialogue. He felt writing would give rise to lazy minds content with the thoughts of others rather than formulating their own thoughts.

[@wordcel]

@@michaelhoward3048 Did he really believe this? How do you know that if he didn't write anything? If he did, then I have a newfound respect for him

[@michaelhoward3048]

@Zarathustra In Plato's "Phaedra" Socrates explains the very views I described, using even some of the same analogies I did. You could search the phrase "Socrates on writing" and find many articles discussing his views on writing and their corresponding sections found in Plato's "Phaedra".

[@wordcel]

@@michaelhoward3048 Thank you!

[@TheseNuts2]

Interesting. Or was it? I don't know :(

[@Valdagast]

No love for Parmenides?

[@codatheseus5060]

The picture for this video looked like fried chicken when I wasn't looking directly at it

[@EricPham-gr8pg]

The phygoretherean theorem seems to works only in linited case just like the number π is changing with radius if circle grow larger Pi change too

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Wow absolutely none of that is even remotely accurate.

[@angusyang5917]

Question: Let's say hypothetically one day, a facet of creationism or intelligent design was proven reliably and undeniably correct, by a scientific source, using the correct methods. Say an artifact was discovered on a distant world, which details how an alien race created the first humans out of non-human apes, kind of like what the monolith does in 2001: A Space Odyssey, with radiocarbon dating corroborating with the rise of the first humans. Or say Dr. James Tour was proven correct when a record is recovered from the ground underneath an ocean, that explains how an intelligent designer was able to create the first living cells, with radiouranium dating matching. How would you and other science communicators address this? How do you think we should address Dr. Tour and other DI members if this happened, should we hail them as "ahead of their time" for guessing a hypothesis proven true, like Ernest Haeckel with his anatomical fetal drawings, or should we criticize them for not using scientific methods in the first place? How do you think the public would react? Would this increase support for other conspiracy theories or "hypotheses" thrown out there. This has happened before to a limited extent when German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann began the first archaeological exploration (or rather, looting) of the site of Hisarlik, which lent some historical basis to the Trojan War, once seen as a complete fabrication. Please note that all of this is conjecture, there's very little chance of this happening, but it's just a thought experiment, to make one think.

[@glennpearson9348]

Just guessing here, but Professor Dave has always advocated that we go to where the science leads us. I suspect any scientist worth his or her salt would do the same. Here's one counter-consideration for your hypothesis. Christianity would have us believe that their god created us in his image, right? Your hypothesis begins with the notion that this isn't, in fact, true. Instead, that we humans descended from some other extra-terrestrial race. Extending that hypothesis, what if that non-Earth race also believed in a god that made them in their god's image? Now we get to watch as the ages-long battle of "whose god is the 'real' god?" plays out. The truth is, god didn't create us in his image. We created him in ours.

[@angusyang5917]

​@@glennpearson9348 Good point, I suppose it is a scientist's best interest to not concern themselves with hypotheticals like this that have little to no chance of happening, and instead focus their attention on things we can figure out and we can do. I just wanted to propose a hypothetical (not theoretical) scenario where somehow ID fits, impossible as that may be. One thing that should be noted is that religious texts like the Bible, Quran, and others were never meant to be taken literally. The writers of these books were not trying to record down an accurate history of what happened, they were writing down these stories as allegory and metaphor to teach lessons. Biblical literalists like Hovind are clinging on to a reality that was never meant to be. Professor Dave actually addresses your point in his reaction video to iamlucid, where he simply says in response to any argument about god creating the universe, "who made god"?

[@glennpearson9348]

@@angusyang5917 Well said. I enjoy hypotheticals as well, but scientists will agree that hypotheticals should begin as a "best guess." I would offer that, given the amount of evidence produced to date, our current "best guess" for the origins of the universe and the origins of life does not involve the existence of an all-powerful, supernatural being having created everything, everywhere, all at once (sorry, couldn't resist the movie reference).

[@angusyang5917]

@@glennpearson9348 Don't worry about it, you're not the only one. I reference 2001 in my comment, which is an awesome movie. Any story about an intelligent creator creating mankind or life should be treated as science fiction at best, not to be taken seriously, but merely for storytelling and worldbuilding purposes.

[@glennpearson9348]

@@angusyang5917 Loved 2001. Did you ever see the sequel, 2020? I thought that was pretty done, too.

[@analternatemultiverse2063]

Why are these videos called tutorials? Isn't that learning *how* to do something, not what it is?

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

tu·to·ri·al noun 1. a period of instruction given by a university or college tutor to an individual or very small group.

[@FlatEarthKiller]

I think its how to think?

[@naturallypurple]

Professor Dave, please roast Christians against Dinosaurs. I want you to roast the hell out of these liars and possibly get gullible people to stop believing in these unhealthy lies.

[@vanceamazing9745]

I have noted a youtuber making anti-woke videos, gabe poirot. While the man himself concerns me, I was wondering more about the "modern Christian revival" taking place. I haven't gotten many details from it.

[@brucecook502]

It makes me laugh when theists of certain religions points to their holy books to point out things that sound scientifically accurate including things like the Earth hanging on nothing, and the stars were put in the expanse of the Skies to bolster their claims that their holy books where indeed inspired by their one true God of their religion, when here we have a culture that produced people who worshiped other gods who were the first to accurately identify the shape of our planet, and even suggested that the celestial objects in the night sky are positioned far from the Earth whereas in the abrahamic holy books,, the Earth and everything we see in the sky is all contained in what is described as a snow globe on a flat world. Kind of ironic wouldn't you say?

[@KaterinaStamatelos]

"ΚΟΣΜΟΝΤΟΝΔΕΤΟΝΑΥΤΟΝΑΠΑΝΤΩΝΟΥΤΕΤΙΣΘΕΩΝΟΥΤΕ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΩΝΕΠΟΙΗΣΕΑΛΛΗΝ ΑΕΙΚΑΙΕΣΤΙΝΚΑΙΕΣΤΑΙΠΥΡΑΕΙΖΩΟΝΑΠΤΟΜΕΝΟΝΜΕΤΡΑΚΑΙ ΑΠΟΣΒΕΝΝΥΜΕΝΟΝΜΕΤΡΑ" ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΤΟΣ "This world, which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made. But it always was, is, and will be: an ever-living Fire, with measures of it kindling, and measures going out." HERACLITUS