Pre-Socratic Philosophers Timeline

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  • c. 610 BCE - c. 546 BCE
    Dates of Anaximander who develops the cosmic theory of the apeiron as the First Cause of existence.
  • c. 585 BCE
    Time in which Thales of Miletus lived.
  • c. 571 BCE - c. 497 BCE
    Life of Pythagoras of Samos; claim that "number" is the First Cause of existence and the soul is immortal.
  • c. 570 BCE - c. 478 BCE
    Life of Xenophanes of Colophon; claim of One God as the First Cause of existence.
  • c. 546 BCE
    Date of Anaximenes' work; air is claimed as the First Cause of existence.
  • c. 500 BCE
    Heraclitus of Ephesus lives; claims that change is the essence of life and First Cause.
  • c. 500 BCE - c. 428 BCE
    Life of Anaxagoras; claim that gods are irrelevant and all phenomena caused by natural forces.
  • c. 485 BCE
    Parmenides flourishes; claims universe is One and pluralism is an illusion.
  • c. 485 BCE - c. 415 BCE
    Life of the Sophist Protagoras of Abdera; claim that "man is the measure of all things".
  • c. 484 BCE - c. 424 BCE
    Life of Empedocles who claims that Strife and Love are the two constants in life.
  • c. 465 BCE
    Zeno of Elea flourishes; writes 40 logical paradoxes to support Parmenides' Monist view.
  • c. 460 BCE - 403 BCE
    Life of the tyrant and Sophist Critias; claim that gods do not exist and religion is the invention of the clever to control others.
  • c. 460 BCE - c. 370 BCE
    Life of Democritus, pupil of Leucippus; development of the concept of the atomic universe.
  • c. 427 BCE
    Sophist Gorgias flourishes; claim that knowledge is unknowable.
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