How Do the Presocratic Thinkers Grapple with Issues of Materiality and Non-Materiality in Their Respective Solutions to the Problem of the One and the Many?
1. HOW DO THE PRESOCRATIC THINKERS GRAPPLE WITH ISSUES OF MATERIALITY AND NON-MATERIALITY IN THEIR RESPECTIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM OF THE ONE AND THE MANY?
The problem of the One and the Many, that is, explaining how one basic thing can be the source of many varied things. The world contains an enormous variety of objects, some living, others inanimate; some solid, others liquid. It seems reasonable to suppose that all things come from a common source or type of stuff. Identifying that common source, though, is the challenge. This was an issue the Presocratics thinkers grappled with. The theories of the Presocratic philosophers were very daring, sometimes to the point of being bizarre. Being the first ones to venture into the uncharted territories of both philosophy and science, they explored virtually any explanation of things that seemed reasonable. They grappled with issues of the materiality and the non-materiality and their respective solutions to the problem of the One and the many. The Unlimited (the many) and the Limited (the one). All entities can be thought to result from the Unlimited being limited or determined to some definite shape. This is best thought of mathematically. Unity limits plurality and gives it determinate shape. For instance, the soul is the harmony of the body. Since each number is associated with a determinate shape, we can think of things as being numerical and of mathematics as the key to understanding the world. The materiality was given the fundamental or primary qualities, which come in two pairs of opposites, hot/cold and moist/dry, there are four elements out of which all minerals are composed, each having its own set proportion of elements and from the minerals all other corporeal entities in general are formed fire= hot+dry; air= hot+moist; earth=cold+dry and water=cold+moist. The non-materiality was the changes in the world are produced by two active forces, an attractive force (such as Love or
The problem of the One and the Many, that is, explaining how one basic thing can be the source of many varied things. The world contains an enormous variety of objects, some living, others inanimate; some solid, others liquid. It seems reasonable to suppose that all things come from a common source or type of stuff. Identifying that common source, though, is the challenge. This was an issue the Presocratics thinkers grappled with. The theories of the Presocratic philosophers were very daring, sometimes to the point of being bizarre. Being the first ones to venture into the uncharted territories of both philosophy and science, they explored virtually any explanation of things that seemed reasonable. They grappled with issues of the materiality and the non-materiality and their respective solutions to the problem of the One and the many. The Unlimited (the many) and the Limited (the one). All entities can be thought to result from the Unlimited being limited or determined to some definite shape. This is best thought of mathematically. Unity limits plurality and gives it determinate shape. For instance, the soul is the harmony of the body. Since each number is associated with a determinate shape, we can think of things as being numerical and of mathematics as the key to understanding the world. The materiality was given the fundamental or primary qualities, which come in two pairs of opposites, hot/cold and moist/dry, there are four elements out of which all minerals are composed, each having its own set proportion of elements and from the minerals all other corporeal entities in general are formed fire= hot+dry; air= hot+moist; earth=cold+dry and water=cold+moist. The non-materiality was the changes in the world are produced by two active forces, an attractive force (such as Love or