Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on The Pre-Socratic Philosophers and Their Search for Explanation
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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper explores the pre-Socratic philosophers and their search for explanations for the working of the Universe, and why they were important. It also briefly considers how their work led to that of the later thinkers, especially Plato and Socrates. Bibliography lists 1 source.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVB4Socr.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
question, "What exists?" (Kreis, 2006). These philosophers found various conflicting answers to that question: Thales argued that everything was made of water; Anaximander believed that the "Boundless," which was some
sort of indefinite substance, was the source of everything (Kreis, 2006). Pythagoras argued that the basic nature of the universe could be found in mathematical relationships while Parmenides argued that
it was impossible that everything that existed came from only one substance (Kreis, 2006). What all these philosophers have in common, despite their differing points of view, is that they
have left the idea of the gods out of their arguments, and instead have begun looking for natural, rather than supernatural, explanations for the way the universe works. This change
in thinking, according to Kreis, may well have been due to the fact that at the time these men lived, they had been subjected to a century or more of
continuous warfare, with the result that the gods were no longer held in great esteem (Kreis, 2006). Perhaps the philosophers felt that the gods should have intervened to stop the
bloodshed; or perhaps they began to wonder if they were providing some sort of amusement for the immortals; or perhaps they simply wondered why so many people had to suffer.
No matter the cause, the gods were not looked on with the reverence they had once enjoyed, and the pre-Socratics began to look elsewhere for explanations of the workings of
the universe. Parmenides is a forerunner of Platos thought, because he challenged the view that everything came from one substance, and applied logical to the mathematical arguments advanced by Pythagoras
(Kreis, 2006). He said that the reality is "one, eternal and unchanging" but that we do not know what is real or not by using our senses, since they can
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