Greek Philosopher-Scientists

The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers (the philosopher-scientists who lived before or contemporaneously to Socrates) were the first men in the Western world to establish a line of inquiry regarding the natural phenomena that rejected the traditional religious explanations and searched for rational explanations.

Even though they do not form a school of thought, they can be considered the fathers of philosophy and many other sciences as we have them now.

None of their works is extant, so, in this collection, we present the textual fragments, when existing, of ten Pre-Socratic philosopher-scientists, and quotations and testimonials about them left by later authors.

Philosophers included are:

Anaxagoras of Klazomenai
Anaximander of Miletos
Anaximenes of Miletos
Empedocles of Agrigentum
Heraclitus
Parmenides of Elea
Pythagoras of Samos and the pythagoreans
Thales of Miletos
Xenophanes of Kolophon
Zeno of Elea by Various authors