Class Objective: To familiarize ourselves with the Ionian challenge

The very first philosophers in Greece were primarily interested in understanding the world--how it came about and what it was fundamentally constituted of. In one conception, they were cosmologists. Their basic question was, What one substance accounts for all the other things in the world? Their answers were rash and quickly dismissed, but they were the foundation of Western science in at least two ways: having rational bases, they were open to rational critique. Their basic premise was that the world was rationally comprehensible, and that discourse was the best way to understand it.

Ionian Exercise: Match the following philosophers with the arche(s) they proposed:

Thales













Anaximander















Anaximenes













Xenophanes













Air
Apeiron
Earth and Water
God
Water