THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Founders of Western Philosophy: Thales to Hume

Leonard Peikoff

Lecture 1. The First Problem: Are There Any Absolutes?

• The father of philosophy: Thales of Miletus.

• The philosophy of flux: Heraclitus—“You cannot step into the same river twice”—change as the only absolute—Realityasaseriesof contradictions.

• TheparadoxesofZeno. • The mind-body opposition begins: the mathematical mysticism of the Pythagoreans.