Pre-Socratic philosophers are often very hard to pin down, and it is sometimes very difficult to determine the actual line of argument they used in supporting their particular views. While most of these thinkers produced significant texts, we have no complete versions of any of those texts. All we have are quotations by later philosophers, historians, and the occasional textual fragment.

The pre-Socratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations for the phenomena they saw around them in favor of more rational explanations. They asked:

• Where does everything come from?
• What is it really made out of?
• How do we explain the plurality of things found in nature?
• Why are we able to describe them with a singular mathematics?

Nearly all of the various cosmologies proposed by the early Greek philosophers are demonstrably false. Later philosophers rejected the answers they provided, but continued to place importance on their questions.

List of Philosophers

This article is a part of the History of Philosophy series.

History of Western philosophy

Pre-Socratic philosophy

Ancient philosophy

Medieval philosophy

Renaissance philosophy

17th-century philosophy

18th-century philosophy

19th-century philosophy

20th-century philosophy

Postmodern philosophy

Contemporary philosophy

Eastern philosophy

• Periander (7th century BC, dates unknown)
• Solon (638-558)
• Thales (635-543)
• Anaximander (610-547)
• Anaximenes of Miletus (585-525)
• Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BC, dates unknown)
• Chilon of Sparta (6th century BC, dates unknown)
• Bias of Priene (6th century BC, dates unknown)
• Cleobulus of Lindos (6th century BC, dates unknown)
• Anacharsis (6th century BC, dates unknown)
• Pittacus of Mitylene (Unknown - 3rd Year of 52nd Olympiad)
• Pythagoras (582-496)
• Theano (mathematician)
• Xenophanes (570-470)
• Heraclitus (535-475)
• Parmenides (510-440)
• Leucippus (5th century BC, dates unknown)
• Anaxagoras (500-428)
• Empedocles (490-430)
• Zeno of Elea (490-430)
• Hippias (485-415)
• Gorgias (483-375)
• Protagoras (481-420)
• Philolaus (480-405)
• Antiphon (person) (480-411)
• Melissus of Samos (C.470-Unknown)
• Prodicus (465-390?)
• Diogenes Apolloniates (C.460-Unknown)
• Democritus (460-370)
• Archytas (428-347)
• Herodotus (5th century BC, dates unknown)

Notable Movements

• Sophism
• Atomism
• Eleatics
• Philodorian
• Seven Sages of Greece

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