330 DIRECTORY hough the ideas already presented in this book show the broad range of philosophical thought expressed by some of history’s T best minds, there are many more people who have helped to shape the story of philosophy. Some of these thinkers—such as Empedocles, Plotinus, or William of Ockham—have had ideas that form the starting point for other, more well-known theories, and their influence on later philosophers is clear. Some, such as Friedrich Schelling or Gilles Deleuze, have taken the works of previous philosophers and added an interesting twist that sheds new light on the subject. Whatever their relationship is to the history of philosophy, the people discussed below have all helped to broaden the boundaries of philosophical thought. the universe was made. He opted otherwise it could not have come ANAXIMANDER for air, pointing out that just as air into being. Sentenced to death for c.610–546 BCE gives life to the human body, so impiety after insisting that the sun a universal kind of air gives life was a fiery rock, he fled Athens and Born in Miletus, in what is now to the cosmos. He was the first spent his final years in exile. southwest Turkey, Anaximander thinker on record to use observed See also: Thales of Miletus 22–23 was a pupil of Thales, the “father” evidence to support his ideas. of Western philosophy. Like Thales, Blowing with pursed lips produced he thought there was a single basic cold air; with relaxed lips, warm EMPEDOCLES substance from which everything air. He argued, therefore, that c.490–430 BCE had evolved. He decided it must be when something condenses, it infinite and eternal and called it cools; when it expands it heats up. Empedocles was a member of a apeiron (“indefinite”). Anaximander Likewise, when air condenses, it high-ranking political family in also challenged Thales’ suggestion becomes visible; first as mist, then the then-Greek colony of Sicily. that Earth was supported by a sea as rain, and ultimately, he believed, His knowledge of the natural world of water, reasoning that this sea as rock, thus giving birth to Earth. led to him being credited with would have to be supported by See also: Thales of Miletus 22–23 miraculous powers, such as the something else. Lacking evidence ability to cure diseases and control for this supporting structure, he the weather. He reasserted the declared that Earth was an object ANAXAGORAS notion of Heraclitus that we live hanging in space. He went on to c.500–428 BCE in an ever-changing world, as publish what is believed to be opposed to Parmenides’ theory the first map of the world. Born in Ionia, off the southern coast that everything is ultimately one See also: Thales of Miletus 22–23 of present-day Turkey, Anaxagoras fixed entity. He believed that four played a key role in making Athens elements—fire, water, earth, and the world center of philosophy and air—continually combine, move ANAXIMENES OF MILETUS scientific enquiry. Central to his apart, and recombine in a finite c.585–528 BCE thinking were his views on the number of ways. This idea remained material world and cosmology. He part of Western thinking up until Like other Milesian philosophers, reasoned that everything in the the Renaissance period. Anaximenes searched for the material world was made up of a See also: Thales of Miletus 22–23 ■ fundamental material from which small part of everything else, Heraclitus 40 ■ Parmenides 41 DIRECTORY 331 ZENO OF ELEA PLOTINUS IAMBLICHUS c.490–430 BCE c.205–270 CE c.245–325 CE Little is known about Zeno of Elea, Born in Egypt, Plotinus studied A Syrian Neo-Platonist philosopher, other than his paradoxes of motion, in Alexandria, then considered Iamblichus was reputedly born into which are mentioned by Aristotle. the intellectual hub of the world. an influential aristocratic family. Zeno is thought to have produced He later moved to Rome, where he He founded a school near modern- more than 40 of these, although only taught his own brand of Platonism, day Antioch, where he taught a a few survive. In them, he defended known as Neo-Platonism. Plotinus curriculum based mainly on the claim of his teacher Parmenides divided the cosmos into layers, with the ideas of Plato and Aristotle, that the changing and varied the indefinable source of all being although he is best known for world we perceive around us is not —the “One”—at the top, followed his expansion of the theories of reality—which is in fact motionless, by Mind, Soul, Nature, and finally Pythagoras, which he recorded uniform, and simple. Movement, the Material World. He believed in in his Collection of Pythagorean Zeno believed, is an illusion of the reincarnation and the immortality Doctrines. Iamblichus introduced senses. Each of his paradoxes of the soul; by striving for the concept of the soul being began from the position that he enlightenment individuals could embodied in matter, both of which wished to refute—that movement, achieve mystical union with the he believed to be divine. Salvation, and hence change, is real—then “One”, and so escape the cycle of or the return of the soul to its pure continued by revealing the rebirth. His ideas, presented in the immortal form, he stated, was contradictory consequences that Enneads, were widely influential, achieved through the performance lead to the rejection of this notion. particularly those that supported of specific religious rituals, and not See also: Heraclitus 40 ■ Christianity, which was taking root just the contemplation of abstract Parmenides 41 ■ Aristotle 56–63 in the Roman Empire at the time. ideas alone. See also: Siddhartha Gautama See also: Pythagoras 26–29 ■ PYRRHO 30–33 ■ Plato 50–55 Plato 50–55 ■ Plotinus 331 c.360–272 BCE WANG BI HYPATIA OF ALEXANDRIA Pyrrho was born on the Ionian 226–249 CE c.370–415 CE island of Elis. He was exposed to Asian culture while serving on In 220 CE, the ruling Chinese Han Hypatia taught mathematics, Alexander the Great’s military Dynasty collapsed, heralding an astronomy, and philosophy at the campaigns, and was also the first era of moral confusion. Philosopher Museum of Alexandria, eventually noted philosopher to place doubt Wang Bi helped to bring order to succeeding her father as its head. at the center of to his thinking. this chaos by reconciling two Although she was an esteemed Pyrrho treated the suspension of dominant schools of thought. He Neo-Platonist intellectual and the judgment about beliefs as the only argued that Daoist texts should first notable female mathematician, reasonable reaction to the fallibility not be read literally, but more it was her martyrdom that ensured of the senses, and to the fact that like works of poetry, thus making her fame. She was murdered by a both sides of any argument can them compatible with the highly Christian mob, who blamed her for seem to be equally valid. Pyrrho left practical Confucian ideals of the religious turmoil resulting from no writings, but he did inspire the political and moral wisdom. His conflict between her friend, the Skeptical school in ancient Greek fresh appraisals of Daoism and Roman prefect Orestos, and Cyril, philosophy, which developed the Confucianism ensured the survival Bishop of Alexandria. No works of idea that the suspension of belief of both, and paved the way for the hers survive, but she is credited leads to a tranquil mind. spread of Buddhism across China. with inventing a graduated brass See also: Socrates 46–49 ■ See also: Laozi 24–25 ■ Siddhartha hydrometer and the plane astrolabe. Al-Ghazâlî 332 Gautama 30–33 ■ Confucius 34–39 See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Plotinus 331 332 DIRECTORY PROCLUS AL-KINDI AL-FARABI c.412–485 CE 801-873 CE c.872–950 CE Born in Constantinople, Proclus The Iraqi polymath Al-Kindî was It is disputed whether Al-Fârâbî succeeded his Platonist teacher one of the first Islamic scholars to was born in what is now Iran or in Syrianus as head of the Academy introduce ancient Greek ideas to Kazakhstan, but it is certain that at Athens. His Commentary on the Islamic world. He worked at he arrived in Baghdad in 901, Euclid is the main account of Baghdad’s House of Wisdom, where where he spent much of his life. the early development of Greek he supervised the translation of the Although a Neo-Platonist, he was geometry, and his Commentary on great Classical texts into Arabic. also highly influenced by Aristotle Plato’s Timaeus has been described He wrote extensively on a variety of and wrote commentaries on his as the most important ancient subjects, most notably psychology work, as well as on other subjects, Neo-Platonist text. A scientist, and cosmology, mixing his own including medicine, science, and mathematician, lawyer, and Neo-Platonist approach with the music. He regarded philosophy as poet, with a deep interest in authority of Aristotelian argument. a calling conferred by Allah and as religion, he was to become an He had a special interest in the the only route to true knowledge. influence on many thinkers in compatibility of philosophy and In this life, he said, philosophers both the medieval Islamic and the Islamic theology, and many of his have a duty to guide people in all Christian schools of philosophy. works are concerned with the matters of daily life; his book The See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Boethius nature of God and the human soul, Ideas of the Citizens of the Virtuous 74–75 ■ Thomas Aquinas 88–95 as well as prophetic knowledge.