Early Greek Philosophers

Thales
o Searched only for natural explanations.
o Physis is water.
o Introduced geometry to Greeks.
o Began the Critical Tradition (open disagreement & debate).

Anaximander
o Physis is the "Boundless/Indefinite."
o Geography - 1st world map.
o Astronomy - invented sundial.
o Primitive theory of evolution.

Heraclitus
o Physis is fire (changes things, can become anything else).
o Everything constantly changes/is in flux.
o "Man never steps in the same river twice."

Parmenides
o One reality/truth exists, & it is unchanging.
o Therefore, all change must be an illusion.
o This world & our senses seem to change, so must not be real.

Zeno of Elea
o Zeno's Paradox (argues that motion is an illusion).
o Infinite number of points between any two positions (A……………………………B).
o Moving from A to B you are proposing/claiming to pass through an infinite number of points in a finite period of time.
o This is impossible, therefore, motion is an illusion.

Pythagoras
o The true nature of the universe is numerical/matematifl.
o Discovered 1st documented psychophysiological law - octave equivalence.
o Health is related to blending of bodily elements.
o His teachings influenced Plato.

Greek Medicine

Alcmaeon
o Dissected human bodies.
o Health required a balance.
o Symptoms were an indication of imbalance, so treatment sought to restore the balance (and so health).

Hippocrates
o Detailed records of disorders.
o Assumed all illnesses have natural causes.
o Attacked temple medicine.
o Proposed four elements were associated with the four humors of the body: earth/black bile, air/yellow bile, fire/blood, and water/phlegm.

Galen
o Proposed theory of personality based on the four humors of the body: black bile/sad, yellow bile/fiery, blood/cheerful, phlegm/sluggish.