What is the nature of reality?
-
Thales: Everything came from and was in some sense made of water. The Earth rests on Water
-
Anaximander: The fundamental principle of things must be boundless (apeiron or translated in English as “Infinite”). It is not defined with some elements
- The universe is a field with competing opposites. The interactions between opposites is governed by reciprocity.
-
Anaximenes: Air is the fundamental cause of things
- The Earth is flat and so are the heavenly bodies Everything rests on the Air.
- Condensed air becomes water. Water condensed further becomes Stone. Rarefied air becomes fire.
-
Pythagoras: The book of the universe is written in numbers.
-
Aristotle: Aristotelianism There are four different kinds of cause (“Why’s”) needed to understand the world
We think we do not have knowledge of a thing until we have grasped its why, that is to say, its cause (Physics II 3,194 b 17-20)
- Material - the aspect determined by the object’s composition.
- Formal - the form of the object that governs its dynamics.
- Efficient - the external thing that causes something to be changed or move.
- Final - the cause related to the sake of which something is done.