Presocratic philosophy was born in the Greek cities of
Ionia at the end of the 7th century BCE The foundation of the Ionian school
in Miletos is the starting-point of the presocratic thought, namely the
first philosophical thought in the Ancient Greek world. The Presocratics
combined ancient Greek mythology with rational thinking and sought all
the forces which compose nature. The natural presocratic philosophers
explored the chief cause of the creation of the world, as well as all those
forces on which the universe and humanity itself are founded.
Presocratic philosophers lived and taught in Asia Minor, in Thrace,
in Sicily and in South Italy. 
The native city of Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes was Miletos,
that of Heraclitus was Ephesos. Samos was the birthplace of Pythagoras and Melissos,
and Abdera that of Democritos. Finally, Empedocles was born in Sicily,
and Zenon and Parmenides in Elea. The presocratic philosophers spread
with their thought, the wings of civilization and philosophy.
All the concepts and sciences, which have been rapidly developing up to this day,
are the spiritual issue of those philosophers. The concept of substance,
the concept of infinity, the concepts of power,numbers, motion, Being,
Atom and space-time are creations of this philosophical thought.
Socrates grew up in the atmosphere of the Presocratic philosophers and exploided
the knowledge and wisdom. His education was based on the Presocratic philosophy
and his figure changed the world. Socrates gave philosophy for the first time an anthropocentric,
or human-centered, character. 
The absence of this element in previous thought is the main reason why the
adjective 'Presocratic' is attributed to the philosophers before Socrates.
Socrates' moral philosophy sends the light of philosophy even further to
Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus. Thus, although the extend of the Presocratic philosophy
was initially, its subsequent influence of the whole Greek and western
civilization was enormous. The leap from the religious fear to the free
and clean spirit has been the most important in the history of science
and there is no precedent in any other civilization. People of today are
familiarized with the scientific thought. However, at that time the fact
that mythology and poetry gave birth to philosophy is very difficult to
explain, thus researches face it with admiration. " In all history, nothing
is so surpassing or so difficult to account for as the sudden rise of the
civilization in Greece. Much of what makes civilization had already existed
of thousand of years in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, and had spread thence
to neighboring countries. But certain elements had been lacking until
the Greeks supplied them. What they achieved in art and literature is familiar
to everybody, but what they did in the purely intellectual realm is even
more exceptional." (Bertrand Russel, History of the western philosophy)
Milesians |
Pythagoreans |
Eleatics |
Independent Physiologists |
Atomics |
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