PP111 Lecture Notes - Melissus Of Samos, Atomism, Materialism
Document Summary
Materialists" and idealists": they disagree over the nature of change and identity. (13, the central problem that we will focus on is this: how can we understand two apparently opposite aspects of the world we live in: the world and the things in it, appear to persist or last for a time and yet during that time they regularly undergo change. (13, a metaphysical puzzle. Thales: widely considered the first philosopher and the first scientist, he took water to be the most fundamental element because, it can freeze, can become air, can be condense and become water, it can melt and return to water. The idealists: constancy: everything is matter (four elements), matter is in flux (forever transforming from one form to another), one form of matter is primary or basic; others are secondary or derivative, there is an order or rational pattern (logos) in the transformations of matter, pythagoras (580 496 bce, parmenides, zeno (489 430 bce)
