Question

Give a precise introduction to Pre-Socrates philosophers or philosophy in general and explain the concepts and theories of three of the followings Pre-Socrates philosophers in particular.

i. Thales 624 BCE

ii. Pythagoras 582-500 B.C.

iii. Hippocrates 460-377 B.C

iv. Democritus 460 - 360 B.C.

v. Archimedes 287 - 212 B.C.

Answer 1

Pythagoras 582-500 B.C.was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher,  He was born on the island of Samos, he was from an affluent family, Pythagoras was interested in music philosophy, he was impressed by Thales was mathematician, astronomer, and Anaximander was a philosopher and had interest in geometry.

Pythagoras migrated to Egypt for further studies where after ten years of his stay he was taken as prisoner by Persia and taken to Babylon under the guidance of priest Magoi, he learned arithmetic and music and perfected in both the arts. After his release, he returned to Samos and founded a school called The Semicircle.

There was pressure on him to join politics that he disliked and migrated to Crotona, There he founded his other school, he had many disciples both man and woman, there were two groups one was vegetarian group who were not allowed to have any personal possession and the other group was allowed to have possession and free to eat other than vegetarian food, there was complete secrecy kept within the students, they worked communally on discoveries and theories.

He is famous for his 1.Pythagoras theorem that is, in a right-angled triangle the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides, AC²(hyp)=two sides AB²+BC²

2. The sum of a triangle is equal to the sum of two right-angled triangles that is equal to 180 degrees

He believed that all things are numbers. Mathematics is the basis for everything, and geometry is the highest form, he believed that the brain in immortal and moves from one person to another, the numerology that the numbers have strength, weakness and it affects personalities and characters is widely used.

The Pythagorean Theorem is the most widely used theorem and taken as a cornerstone in mathematics, there many other discoveries and theories attributed to him, but the Pythagoras theorem is the base of geometry.

2. Hippocrates 460-377 B.C, he is regarded as the father of medicines, there is not much information available with respect to his life, as per Plato he was from the family of noble physicians, his seventy theories regarding diagnosis and treatment were accepted during his lifetime, now only sixty pieces are available and these are called Hippocratic Collection, he had influenced the western medicine and philosophy that made westerners to discard ,supernatural explanation to sickness, but to look at it from the intellectual angle of human behavior to solve the problems. He is the first to take the entire body as an organism; he suggested that it is impossible to understand the organs separately unless we take the whole body into consideration.

His assumption that the digestion is an important part of human health, poor diet produces harmful vapors in the digestive system, that affect the other organs of the body, this is still valid and doctors always look into diet of his patients

The new physicians have to take Hippocratic Oath.

3. Archimedes 287 - 212 B.C. was born in Syracuse, he studied mathematics, he invented the simple machine and its function, he invented pulley and lever, that is still being used in the machine that allows moving heavy objects with smaller force because of the rotation of pulleys.

His great contribution is towards geometry and integral calculus, the gravitational force was discovered by him, his principle of buoyancy is used in making ships. His law states that any object completely or partially submerged in the liquid, there is an upthrust force acting on the body at the center that he called buoyant force and that is equal to the weight of the fluid dispersed. The weight of the dispersed liquid, in turn, will be equal to the object. This principle is the base of shipbuilding.