School · 21 thinkers
Ancient Greek
21 thinkers of Ancient Greek on the Agora star map, from Thales of Miletus to Hipparchia of Maroneia, in chronological order.
- c. 624–546 BCEThales of Miletus
Nature can be explained from nature itself rather than by myths – and water is the basic stuff everything comes from.
- c. 610–546 BCEAnaximander
The source of everything is not a familiar stuff like water but something boundless and undefined, from which all things arise and return.
- c. 586–526 BCEAnaximenes
Everything is made of air: thinned out it becomes fire, pressed together it becomes wind, water, earth and stone.
- traditionally c. 570–495 BCEPythagoras
The teaching attributed to him holds that numbers and their ratios order the whole world – and that the soul is reborn in new bodies.
- c. 570–478 BCEXenophanes
The gods of the poets are human inventions; there is one god unlike us, and human knowledge about such things is only opinion.
- c. 535–475 BCEHeraclitus
Everything is constantly changing, like a flowing river, yet a hidden order holds the world together through the tension of opposites.
- c. 515–450 BCEParmenides
Change and multiplicity are illusions of the senses; reason shows that what truly exists is one, unchanging and eternal.
- c. 500–428 BCEAnaxagoras
Everything contains a share of everything, and a cosmic Mind set the original mixture in motion and ordered it.
- c. 494–434 BCEEmpedocles
Everything is made of four elements – earth, water, air and fire – which two forces, Love and Strife, keep mixing and separating.
- c. 490–420 BCEProtagoras
On the usual reading (Plato’s Theaetetus): there is no truth beyond human perspectives – each person is the measure of what is true for them.
- c. 490–430 BCEZeno of Elea
His paradoxes, like Achilles never catching the tortoise, were meant to show that motion and plurality lead to contradictions.
- c. 483–376 BCEGorgias
Nothing can be proven to exist, be known or be communicated – which makes persuasive speech, not truth, the real power over people.
- 470–399 BCESocrates
Admitting what you do not know is the start of wisdom, and asking persistent questions is how you find out how to live well.
- c. 460–370 BCEDemocritus
The world consists of nothing but tiny indivisible particles moving in empty space – and a calm, cheerful mind is the best life.
- c. 445–365 BCEAntisthenes
Virtue is all you need to be happy; wealth, pleasure and reputation are worthless, and hard work is itself a good.
- c. 435–356 BCEAristippus of Cyrene
The good is the pleasure we feel now – so enjoy it, but stay its master rather than its slave.
- 428–348 BCEPlato
For Plato, the visible world is only a copy of eternal, perfect Forms that reason alone can grasp – and knowing them makes people and states just.
- c. 412–323 BCEDiogenes of Sinope
Live simply according to nature and ignore wealth, status and social conventions – true freedom is needing almost nothing.
- 384–322 BCEAristotle
For Aristotle, knowledge begins with careful observation of the world, everything strives toward a purpose, and a good life means exercising the virtues – each a middle path between too much and too little, like courage between cowardice and recklessness.
- c. 365–285 BCECrates of Thebes
Possessions and conventions make us dependent; a person who needs almost nothing is free – and can live, love and speak openly without shame.
- c. 350–280 BCEHipparchia of Maroneia
A woman can live the same free, simple life and speak her mind as openly as any man – which she did, against all convention.