Originated somewhere in the 6th Century BC, the Milesian school of thought gave many fascinating observations on the existence of the world. The Milesians primarily consisted of Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes of Miletus. The main views put forward by them in search of Earth’s basic elements consisted of observable and methodological objects. Any new observation made by them led to the dismissal of preceding beliefs that were made up using faulty logic. This approach can be clearly seen as an influence in Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato. Pythagoras was a student of Thales of Miletus. His influence on Plato is very great. Pythagorean ideas such as the immortality of the soul, and the mathematical basis of the cosmos are some of the direct influences on the writings of Plato.
In terms of philosophy, the most important influence can be seen where Plato and Pythagoras both believed that the most fundamental explanations were not in terms of matter but rather in terms of abstract form. Heraclitus too had an influence on the writings of Plato. Heraclitus believed that, for example, a particular city, were not only knowable but also unreal. This can be linked to the physics we learn in college today, especially thermodynamics. Parmenides, from the Eleatic school, believed that the universe is infinite and indivisible. The metaphysical argument we can infer from here is that anything we can think of must exist, and all the objects in our ideas must be real. This leads to the belief that since we can think of an idea any time, they must always exist. As we can infer, Parmenides used logical reasoning to explain his beliefs that is still valid in metaphysics, i.e. the ultimate reality of nature. Zeno argued against pluralism and against motion that talk about the divisibility of objects and zero size of a divisible part and the argument against motion talks about the unchanging existence. Anaxagoras was against the argument proposed by Zeno.
Plato’s two worlds of Metaphysics and Epistemology have several views and beliefs proposed by the Pre-Socratics as we have talked about them above. Some examples can include the visible world and that physical objects are changing constantly as talked about by Heraclitus.
