The second chapter of Archetypes of Wisdom by D. J. Soccio (2015) was dedicated to the Presocratic period in the development of philosophy. In general, it introduces the term Sophos, which referred to wise men or first philosophers who aimed to understand natural processes and the essence of life (Soccio, 2015). The chapter provides an insight into the doctrines of early Western philosophers, including Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, and others, and philosophical schools. It introduces the concepts of monism, pluralism, cosmology, the plenum, an atom, a reductio ad absurdum, and the void.
The chapter explains how the earliest Western philosophers perceived appearance and reality, God, the contrast between being and not-being, nature and convention, necessity and reason, and the war. In general, they aim to search for rational explanations of natural processes challenging the mythological worldview. The main principles established by the earliest philosophers included the reason of events and the difference between reality and its perception.
Reference
Soccio, D. J. (2015). Archetypes of Wisdom (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.