Interesting! Bizarre, flamboyant personalities: extravagantly dressed; or - living in a barrel (~Oscar the Grouch type); village fools and hifh-rank military officers; professional dancers; manual laborers and slow learners; preachers of unrestrained physical pleasures, slaves, women, beggars as well as an emperor, etc. excentric folks.

* PHILOSOPHIA = love of wisdom. (Pythagoras credited with the word. =NOT wisdom, but love of...= lack of! - Socrates.) Philosophy is the most pragmatic thing... We are sentient creatures, capable of distinguishing between pleasure and pain. What is it that sustains us from day to day? We eat... consume calories; we touch each other... We see various things: some beautiful; other - ugly... we let those impressions pass through our system... So, WHAT makes this metabolism our life?  There is a quest for something, that makes all our days add to each other to form a cohesive life-story... What is it, that holds our life together?  - MAKING SENSE! >> What is our part in all of it?  - SOCRATES: central figure to philosophy, although never wrote a word. All philosophy is divided into Pre-Socratic, Socratic, and after Socrates...
* Pre-Socratic philosophy:  Ionian (physics; nature; world = plurality)
    and Eleatic (logic; mathematics; world = singularity).

* IONIAN PHILOSOPHY: The urge to make sense out of things and events around us first took shape, as a special pursuit, in Ionia - wealthy colonies of Asia Minor. Ionic philosophy = Speculative science. ?=: What does the world consist of and how it changes around us?

* 1st philosopher: Thales of Miletus ~580 BC. One of the "7 Wise Men" of the ancient world.
World: <= WATER (<Semitic myth). ...Watching the skies, fell in the well!
- But: bought all oil-presses. Predicted solar eclipses.
"KNOW THYSELF' -> Delphic oracle.
* Anaximander ~570 BC. On Nature. Dressed up! (- cf. Empedocles of Acragas.)
- Infinite (Apeiron) ->(Primordial transgression: Adikia = Fall: Separation. = Conflict of elements.
In time, will return back to the Infinite through mutual vendetta (retribution & punishment). Countless other worlds. Geo-centric system; levels of the universe. < Iranian dualism.
* Anaximenes ~560 BC. On Nature - Air.

* Heraclitus of Ephesus ~540 BC. King - abdicated "out of pride" ->Priest of Artemis of Ephesus, whose temple - one of the 7 Wonders of the world.
Weeping philosopher. On Nature = Muses.  Haughty, iconoclastic, mystical.
"Extensive knowledge does not breed wisdom: otherwise it would teach Hesiod, and Pythagoras, and Xenophanes, and Hecataeus...'
Principle of understanding is universal.
(- Single formula of the universe... understand one = understand all.) All are one...
Nothing is self-same: "Everything flows."
CHANGE: "ARES: father of all, king of all... Death of one thing is the life of another."
Hierarchy of elements: dark/wet - bright/dry. (Dry = good: Dry soul is wisest and best...)
Yet: behind the opposites hides the sameness: in their strife, elements are transformed into each other. The Big Year - 360 human generations (~1,000 years?): cycle of the opposition: wet / dry. Plurality of nature: "Everything is full of gods."
- Dialectics: balance of the opposites: "Harmony of the bow and lyre..."

* Leucippus of Miletus ~490 BC. - Atoms & void.
* Democritus of Abdera ~420 BC. - Laughing philosopher: ATOMS. (Fire = soul.)
 - Moderation...

* ELEATIC PHILOSOPHY  --> Western Greek colonies: Sicily; Magna Graecia
Change and our sensations are illusion: real being is solid 7 immovable.
* Pythagoras of Samos ~570 BC.  - Mystic sect:
 metempsychosis; numbers: bad & good; male & female...

* Parmenides of Elea ~540 BC. (Talked to young Socrates in Athens; -> Plato!)
  True being is immovable. Change = non-being.  (+Love = Light+Dark.)
* Melissus of Samos 500 BC. - Admiral. On Existence, or Non-Being.
* Zeno of Elea ~500 BC. (Died under torture in failed revolt against a tyrant.)
 Paradoxes: Achilles & Turtle; Arrow; Grains...
* Mystic/ thaumaturgist: Empedocles of Acragas ~460 BC. - God in exile. Jumped into the crater of Aetna. Drained marshes. Conspicuous, dressy. Dogmatic: "Good things must be said twice and thrice.' Therapeutic concerns: Iatricos logos; Catharmoi.
Love = synthesis / Strife = analysis. 4 elements: fire - air - water - earth. Wandering of souls... >Plato.

* SOPHISTS: Charged fee for teaching persuasive (sophistic) arguments.
"Is it true that you have stopped beating your father?..' -  (Before formal logic!)
 Protagoras of Abdera ~450 BC. - "Man is the measure of all things'
 Prodicus of Ceos ~450 BC.
 Hippias of Elis ~430 BC.
 Gorgias of Leontini, Sicily  ~400 BC. On Nature, or on That Which Is Not:  "Nothing exists. If it does, it cannot be known. If it can, it cannot be expressed.' Also, Praise to Helen (Paradoxical defence of the much-blamed beauty.)

*  Sophists   >> SOCRATES: fed up with the relativism of sophistry.
Ironic diatribe; street philosopher; profoundly influenced Athens; ethical concerns -- education and democracy --> was condemned to death for impiety and spoiling Athenian youth... (His private divine guidance: Daemon).
Chaerephon - to Delphi: Is there anyone wiser than Socrates? - None! - ??...
> Socratic irony. Obstetrician of wisdom. Never wrote.
* Socratic inquiry >> Academics: PLATO  >> ARISTOTLE.

* ACADEMICS > PERIPATETICS > SKEPTICS:

* Plato ~427-347 BC. Disciple of Socrates; also influenced by the Pythagoreans.
Theory of ideas -- FORM: changing world is not real; eternal forms are.
True light outside of the cave... We are shadows -- Arts & poetry: shadows of the shadows.
Souls - follow gods; fall back and end up on earth (~The Fall); cycle of reincarnations (<Pythagoras<Buddha) till the purified soul lives her last as a philosopher, and then is free to return to her god.
Opened a school at the grove of Academus: Academia.

* Aristotle of Stagira (384-322 BC.: "Plato with his ideal forms, rather than explaining things, doubled the things which need to be explained...' -- Theory of formal argument: Aristotelean logic. Peripatetic school (Lyceum). >>Scientific research of all disciplines!
Tutor of Alexander the Great... Politics - 158 constitutions:
Good:  Monarchy  Aristocracy  Constitutional government
Bad:  Tyranny  Oligarchy  Democracy (>Ochlocracy)

* > SCEPTICISM:
* Pyrrho of Elis ~310 - Alexander's soldier. What is happiness? - unattainable.
- suspended judgement! Duty of philosopher is to refrain from opinion.  Never wrote.
* >> Timon of Phlius ~260 BC - Dancer. Wrote prose & verses.
Silli or Satires (fr. preserved) - ridiculed philosophical systems; explained doctrines through the farces of of philosophers debating.
* Carneades  Sent in 156 BC. as an ambassador to Rome, to argue the terms of peace treaty before the Senate: shocked Romans by his ability to prove or disprove anything and argue any political point...

* CYNICS: introspective trend of post-Socratic attitudes: away from political life, or knowledge, or society... FREEDOM! -- need for nobody & nothing. (Ex-slaves...)
* Antisthenes ~400 B.C. - student of Socrates: "I would rather go mad than enjoy myself!..."
* Diogenes of Sinope ~340 BC. - Possessed only a cup, which he threw away  seeing a boy drinking with the palm. Lived in a barrel. Rolled his barrel up & down at the approach of Alexander's army... Alexander: "What can I do for you?'... - "Do not screen away the sunlight!.."
Once he walked through the city with a lantern in full daylight; when asked why, he answered: "I am searching for man..."
* (!) Crates of Thebes ~315 BC., & wife Hipparchia, a rich beauty, chose to live beggar's life!
* Menippus of Gadara ~280 BC. (born slave) Menippean Satires (>> Roman satire: Varro; Lucian.)

* EPICUREANS, on the contrary, saw freedom as all the comforts of life. Quiet comfort and withdrawn refinement = ultimate goal. ~Ethical reflections of the Academy?
* Epicurus of Samos ~300 BC. Taught in the Garden. Canon.
"Hide, having lived for a moment."
No Ananke - no universal rule. Gods are pure, aetherial creatures, withdrawn from mortal life and far remote in the intermundia. Hedonistic bent of Epicureans is widely misunderstood: Pure happiness = harmony of senses, contemplation and moderation. (Cyrenaic sect of Aristippus, ~390 BC., is of radical hedonism: bodily pleasure = supreme good.) Epicurus > Lucretius; Horace. Celsus, AD.150: True Argument - Against Christianity. In general, - non-compelling, non-prolific trend.

* STOIC: Quite the opposite doctrine, prolific and invasive. -- Stoa Poikile  - Colored Portico in Athens.
Hard work ideology; equanimity: ataraxia. Man is no toy of gods, emotions or circumstances. There is a universal plan - divine Providence, or necessity - Ananke; we did not make this world, and we will not change it. Our task as humans is to cooperate with divine providence. Stoic logic: ~ Language: systematic study of language < Stoics. Cultivation of virtues.
Extremely popular with the Romans; precursory to Christianity.
* Cleanthes of Assos, Mysia ~260 BC. Professional athlete. At the age of 44, started to study and earned by manual labor. Lived to 99 and starved himself to die. Hymn to Zeus.
* Chrysippus of Soli, Cilicia ~240 BC. 750 works (All lost.)
* Rome: >> Seneca; Cicero.  Epictetus, ~AD. 90 - a slave. Natural = Good: = Providence.
* Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor. ~AD. 160. Moral Reflections. -Duty; humility, true to nature. Christian spirit.

* PYTHAGOREAN REVIVAL > GNOSTICS:
Stoicism is not the only operating philosophy of transitional period between the pagan and Christian world. -- Mystical dimension: 1st-5th century: Religious syncretism: Egypt: Gk.+ Hebrew + etc.
* Philo of Alexandria, ~AD.30: Bible = allegory: = Plato: mysticism.

 AD. 529: Justinian closed schools in Athens...