Episode notes
THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
Founders of Western Philosophy: Thales to Hume
Leonard Peikoff
Lecture 1. The First Problem: Are There Any Absolutes?
• The father of philosophy: Thales of Miletus.
• The philosophy of flux: Heraclitus—“You cannot step into the same river twice”—change as the only absolute—Realityasaseriesof contradictions.
• TheparadoxesofZeno. • The mind-body opposition begins: the mathematical mysticism of the Pythagoreans.