The Ionian and
Pythagorean views of the world and the resultant philosophies that sprung from
it have shaped and lent themselves to the scientific understanding that we have
of the world today. The beginnings of
the Ionian and Pythagorean thought processes that developed later into the
Socratic method and then to our current scientific method of understanding the
world, started from the belief that a world independent of the mind exists, and
that we mentally grasp qualities and objects that are a part of that world[1].
The Ionians believed
that all matter was able to change from one type to another; however they did
not know how this was possible. Rather
than experimenting to discover the reasons that matter behaved the way that it
did, the Ionians employed abstract reasoning.
This was a different way of thinking, as up to this point most people explained
away these phenomena by use of mythology.
The Ionians and the Pythagoreans shared the belief that for matter to be
able to change as it does, there must be a shared common base starting point
that everything came from.
The Ionian way of
thought on this matter of the makeup of the universe was taken from a more
scientific approach than had previously been used in history. This is the beginnings of the natural
sciences such as physics that we have today.
In fact, physics still concerns itself primarily with trying to find and
identify the smallest building-blocks of the universe and everything contained
therein. For the Ionians, such as
Thales, water was the believed element from whence all matter sprang, but the
Pythagoreans believed in a link between the divine and the mortal, and found
that link in numbers[2].
Pythagorean science on the other hand possessed a
sacred dimension. Pythagoras was a very
deeply religious man and as such approached his search to the answer of why we
are here from that perspective.
Pythagoras was also a scientist and a great mathematician. Due to this, Pythagorean philosophy searched
for meaning in numbers, and they referred to it simply as Number. Number is seen not only as a universal
principle, it is a divine principle as well.
Hence the aim of Pythagorean and later Platonic science is different
from that of modern “Aristotelian” science: it is not so much involved with the
investigation of things, as the investigation of principles[3]. This line of thinking allowed the
Pythagoreans to postulate and theorise on things beyond just the mundane
observable world and look to the sky in things such as astronomy and there use
the mathematical skills that they had developed to make discoveries and pose
scenarios regarding the nature of the universe and of life itself.
The
Pythagoreans employ abstruser principles and elements than the physicists[4]
because they did not draw them from the sensible world, because mathematical
objects are devoid of motion. However,
all of their discussions were concerned with the physical world[5]. Using the numbers that the Pythagoreans held
sacred, they began to develop comparative analysis of the world. They saw in the number one perfection, unity,
and a universal constant. Increasing this
number to two, they introduced duplicity and multiplicity; the opposite of
one. From here, the ideas of One and
Many, Limit and Unlimited (order and chaos), and of all things having an
opposite came. Plato talked about this
idea when he said “…and the ancients, who were superior to us and dwelt nearer
to the Gods, have handed down a tradition that all things that are said to
exist consist of a One and a Many and contain in themselves the connate
principles of Limit and Unlimitedness.”[6]
Using these two views
that have been outlined, it is possible to show that both the Ionian and the
Pythagorean philosophies have contributed and shaped the way we perceive and
use modern science today in the viewing and understanding of the universe. Despite the fact that Pythagoreans viewed
more on a principle and overarching theory, and the Ionians focused more on the
physical example and actual empirical data able to be gathered through
observation and rational deduction, they both shared a common footing in
mathematics. It was by using mathematics
and the newfound way of looking at and asking questions about the world that
Thales was able to predict the eclipse that happened in 585BC[7]. Further to this, Pythagoras is known probably
most widely as a mathematician to the general public due to his contribution by
way of the Pythagorean Theorem. Indeed,
this shows that both the Ionian and Pythagorean philosophers had a keen
understanding of mathematics and how they functioned, as well as that they were
an important part of gaining insight into the natural world.
These two different
philosophies, through the use of mathematics, deductive reasoning, observation,
and interest in the natural and supernatural world around them, can be seen as
being the preview or template of modern scientific process. The philosophers believing that there are
things that are both observable and unobservable, or independent of the
observer, is a direct foreshadowing of scientists and their respective work to
come. An example of a modern scientist
who took the idea something observed and unobserved to a new level and applied
it to quantum physics and temporal mechanics, is Erwin Schrodinger. In 1935 he postulated that a cat locked in a
box with a radioactive isotope that would release a poison from a vial upon its
decay, would both be alive and dead at the same time because it was unobserved,
and that it was the act of observation itself that determined the outcome of
the cat’s life or demise[8]. This theory can be viewed as a result of the Ionian
and Pythagorean philosophies after thousands of years of development,
culminating in current scientific processes which were started and foreshadowed
by these philosophers. Schrodinger’s Cat
displays both the aspects of monism and dualism, limit and unlimitedness, at
the same time. It is also a highly advanced
theory in the field of physics and requires a keen grasp of mathematics to
understand fully. This would probably
not have been possible without the work of both the Ionians and Pythagoreans and
the ways that they influenced philosophy and began leading the way into our
modern understanding of science.
Bibliography
Allen,
R. E. (1985). Greek
Philosophy: Thales to Aristotle, 2nd Ed. The Free Press, New York, NY.
Fidler,
D., Guthrie, K., Taylor, T., & Fairbanks,
A. (1987). The
Pythagorean Sourcebook An Anthology of Ancient Writings Which Relate to
Pythagoras and Pythagorean Philosophy.
Phanes Press.
Mautner, T. (1997).
Dictionary of Philosophy. Penguin Books. London.
Physicsworld. (2000).
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2815 Accessed 20 Sept, 2011.
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