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I can't speak about Buddha or Confucius. Greek legacy was build in ~100-150 years, which is more like a flash in human history than an era. I'm talking about 5

by atmosx 8y ago

I can't speak about Buddha or Confucius. Greek legacy was build in ~100-150 years, which is more like a flash in human history than an era. I'm talking about 5th century BC specifically. Walking to the streets of the Athenian city state you could come across: - philosophers: Socrates, Isocrates, Protagoras, Parmenides - historians: Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon - authors: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes - scientists(?): Democritus (the atom guy), Phidias (greatest sculptor in Ancient Greece), Hippocrates (father of modern Medicine) - politicians: Pericles and Demosthenes - military minds: Miltiades, Themistocles I think the fact that democracy was established the century before, had a lot to do with this concentration of minds. That said, of course, slavery was a thing, women were more like objects and only a few had voting rights.

gnulinux 8y ago
In which sense Democritus is a scientist? He never emprically observed atoms or used scientific method in any meaningful sense. He was a natural philosopher, and a very crucial figure in his school too. The basic idea is that natural philosophy was heavily challenged by Parmenides who made some really good points about how everything should be one and unitary and thus nothing exists in the sense we see and observe ("everything is an illusion"). Then later philosophers tried to circumvent Parmenides while maintaining some bit of realism and common sense. Democritus is one such philosopher, who tried to agree realism with Parmenides by suggesting that everything may be composed of a single type of objects called atoms and their composition gives us the illusion of "differences" such as color, taste etc and thus everything like feelings, colors, tastes are "by convention" when in reality it is atoms all the way down. This argument is more important in the context of post-Parmenidean Greek Natural Philosophy rather than scientific context. EDIT Fun fact: Democritus -- also known as the founder of materialism -- is highly influential in modern enlightenment too. Most famously, Karl Marx was heavily influenced by his ideas so much so that his Doctoral thesis was on him. If you read Marx's writings chronologically, you'll see that he started his philosophical career as an idealist, and then (possibly with Democritus influence) turned 180 degrees and became a materialist and dedicated his life to argue against idealism.
- atmosx 8y ago
  Since the scientific method wasn’t known at the time, it’s hard to argue that indeed, he was more of a philosopher. That said the quote: “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.” spelled more than 2k years before J. Dalton, is enough to call him a scientist IMHO. After, the only way one can progress and see the future, is by standing at the shoulders of giants.
mcguire 8y ago
Weirdly, in China the major schools of philosophy appeared at roughly the same time. Confucianism, Daoism, legalism, and a stack of others.

by atmosx 8y ago

gnulinux 8y ago

In which sense Democritus is a scientist? He never emprically observed atoms or used scientific method in any meaningful sense. He was a natural philosopher, and a very crucial figure in his school too. The basic idea is that natural philosophy was heavily challenged by Parmenides who made some really good points about how everything should be one and unitary and thus nothing exists in the sense we see and observe ("everything is an illusion"). Then later philosophers tried to circumvent Parmenides while maintaining some bit of realism and common sense. Democritus is one such philosopher, who tried to agree realism with Parmenides by suggesting that everything may be composed of a single type of objects called atoms and their composition gives us the illusion of "differences" such as color, taste etc and thus everything like feelings, colors, tastes are "by convention" when in reality it is atoms all the way down. This argument is more important in the context of post-Parmenidean Greek Natural Philosophy rather than scientific context. EDIT Fun fact: Democritus -- also known as the founder of materialism -- is highly influential in modern enlightenment too. Most famously, Karl Marx was heavily influenced by his ideas so much so that his Doctoral thesis was on him. If you read Marx's writings chronologically, you'll see that he started his philosophical career as an idealist, and then (possibly with Democritus influence) turned 180 degrees and became a materialist and dedicated his life to argue against idealism.

atmosx 8y ago
Since the scientific method wasn’t known at the time, it’s hard to argue that indeed, he was more of a philosopher. That said the quote: “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.” spelled more than 2k years before J. Dalton, is enough to call him a scientist IMHO. After, the only way one can progress and see the future, is by standing at the shoulders of giants.

mcguire 8y ago

Weirdly, in China the major schools of philosophy appeared at roughly the same time. Confucianism, Daoism, legalism, and a stack of others.