Pre-Socratic Philosophy

Abstract

Pre-Socratic philosophy is Greek philosophy before Socrates (and includes schools contemporary with Socrates that were not influenced by him[1]). In Classical antiquity, the Presocratic philosophers were called physiologoi (Greek: φυσιόλογοι; in English, physical or natural philosophers).[2] Aristotle called them physikoi ("physicists", after physis, "nature") because they sought natural explanations for phenomena, as opposed to the earlier theologoi (theologians), whose philosophical basis was supernatural.[3] Diogenes Laërtius divides the physiologoi into two groups, Ionian and Italiote, led by Anaximander and Pythagoras, respectively.[4]