Notes

> The Milesian School is an early Pre-Socratic school of philosophy founded in the 6th Century B.C. in the Ionian town of Miletus. The major philosophers included under this label are Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes.
> Thales of Miletus (c. 624 - 546 B.C.) was an early Pre-Socratic philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia (modern-day Turkey). He was one of the so-called Seven Sages of Greece, and many regard him as the first philosopher in the Western tradition.
He was the founder of the Milesian School of natural philosophy, and the teacher of Anaximander. He was perhaps the first subscriber to Materialist and Naturalism in trying to define the substance or substances of which all material objects were composed, which he identified as water.
> Anaximander (c. 610 - 546 B.C.) was an early Pre-Socratic philosopher from the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia (modern-day Turkey). He was a key figure in the Milesian School, as a student of Thales and teacher of Anaximenes and Pythagoras. He made important contributions to cosmology, physics, geometry, meteorology and geography as well as to Metaphysics.
> Anaximenes (c. 585 - 525 B.C.) was an early Pre-Socratic philosopher from the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia. Anaximenes was the first Greek to distinguish clearly between planets and stars, and he used his principles to account for various natural phenomena. Anaximenes wrote his philosophical views in a book.

> Pythagoras
He was the founder of the influential philosophical and religious movement or cult called Pythagoreanism, and he was probably the first man to actually call himself a philosopher (or lover of wisdom). He also discovered what is now know as the Pythagorean Theorem (or Pythagoras' Theorem).
> Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 - 475 B.C.) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Ephesus,the one who denied the law of non-contradiction . His idea of a universe in constant change but with an underlying order or reason which he called Logos, forms the essential foundation of the European worldview.
> Democritus (c. 460 - 370 B.C.), sometimes known as the "Laughing Philosopher" was also known as "The Mocker", was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Thrace in northern Greece. There a lists large number of works by Democritus, covering Ethics, physics, mathematics, music and cosmology, including two works called the "Great World System" and the "Little World System". His most famous idea was Atomism, which states that all things are made of basic parts that cannot be broken down any further.
> Diogenes of Sinope (aka Diogenes the Cynic) (c. 412 - 323 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher of the Socratic (or Classical) period. Diogenes is considered one of the founders of the school of Cynicism. The doctrine of Cynicism holds that the purpose of life is to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature, the Cynics valued three types of freedom, self-sufficiency, freedom of will, and freedom of speech.
> Epicurus (341 - 270 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher of the Hellenistic period. He was the founder ancient Greek philosophical school of Epicureanism, whose main goal was to attain a happy, tranquil life, characterized by the absence of pain and fear, through the cultivation of friendship, freedom and an analyzed life. His metaphysics was generally materialistic, his Epistemology was empiricist, and his Ethics was hedonistic. The philosophy of Epicureanism was based on the theory that the moral distinction between good and bad derives from the sensations of pleasure and pain and his Principle of Multiple Explanations is an early contribution to the philosophy of science.
> Archimedes the most-famous mathematician and inventor in ancient Greece. He was also physicist, astronomer, engineer, and weapons-designer. Archimedes was known for many of his inventions and his theories. One of his biggest contributions was Archimedes' Principle, which states that the volume of an object is the water that it displaces when it is submerged in water.
> Socrates (c. 469 - 399 B.C.) was a hugely important Greek philosopher from the Classical period. Socrates was more concerned with how people should behave, and so was perhaps the first major philosopher of Ethics. He is credited as one of the founders of Western Philosophy. He is considered by some as the very antithesis of the Sophists of his day, who claimed to have knowledge which they could transmit to others. Socrates' most important and enduring single contribution to Western thought is his dialectical method of inquiry, which he referred to as "elenchus" (roughly, "cross-examination") but which has become known as the Socratic Method or Socratic Debate. He made important and lasting contributions in the fields of Ethics, Epistemology and Logic, and particularly in the methodology of philosophy.
> Plato (c. 428 - 348 B.C.) was a hugely important Greek philosopher and mathematician from the Socratic (or Classical) period. He is perhaps the best known, most widely studied and most influential philosopher of all time. Plato was the founder of the famous Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world. In his works, especially his many dialogues, he blended Ethics, Political Philosophy, Epistemology, Metaphysics and moral psychology into an interconnected and systematic philosophy.

Plato discussed every kind of philosophical idea, including Ethics (with discussion of the nature of virtue), Metaphysics (where topics include immortality, man, mind, and Realism), Political Philosophy (where topics such as censorship and the ideal state are discussed), Philosophy of Religion (considering topics such as Atheism, Dualism and Pantheism), Epistemology (where he looked at ideas such as a priori knowledge and Rationalism), the Philosophy of Mathematics and the Theory of Art (especially dance, music, poetry, architecture and drama).
> Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) was an important Greek philosopher from the Socratic (or Classical) period, mainly based in Athens. He is one of the most important founding figures in Western Philosophy, and the first to create a comprehensive system of philosophy, encompassing Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics, Metaphysics, Logic and science. H made important contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre.