Ancient Greek Philosophy: Metaphysics 'All is One'

[karene]

Ancient Greek Philosophy & Metaphysics of Space: 'All is One (Space) and Active / Flux (Wave-Motion)

Greek philosophy seems to begin with a preposterous fancy, with the proposition that water is the origin and mother-womb of all things. Is it really necessary to stop there and become serious? Yes, and for three reasons: firstly, because the preposition does enunciate something about the origin of things; secondly, because it does so without figure and fable; thirdly and lastly, because it contained, although only in the chrysalis state, the idea :everything is one. ..That which drove Thales to this generalization was a metaphysical dogma, which had its origin in a mystic intuition and which together with the ever renewed endeavors to express it better, we find in all philosophies- the proposition: everything is one! (Nietzsche, 1890)

All things come out of the one and the one out of all things. ... I see nothing but Becoming. Be not deceived! It is the fault of your limited outlook and not the fault of the essence of things if you believe that you see firm land anywhere in the ocean of Becoming and Passing. You need names for things, just as if they had a rigid permanence, but the river in which you bathe a second time is no longer the same one which you entered before. (Heraclitus, 500 B.C.)

The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of sensation, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge. ... When the mind's eye rests on objects illuminated by truth and reality, it understands and comprehends them, and functions intelligently; but when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems to lack intelligence. (Plato, 427 - 347 B.C.)

Introduction to Ancient Greek Philosophy

Ancient Greek Philosophy marked a fundamental turning point in the evolution of humanity and our ideas about our existence in the universe. Over the past 2,500 years their knowledge directly contributed to the evolution of our current science / reason based society.

It is therefore both interesting and important to consider the foundations which caused the blossoming of Ancient Greek Philosophy. First and foremost was the realisation that ALL IS ONE, as Nietzsche writes;

What gave these men the right to be considered philosophers, unlike the other astronomers, geographers and doctors who were active especially in the latter half of the period, was their common assumption that the world possessed some kind of integral unity and determinability which could be understood and explained in rational terms. A more important debt to myth appears in the central presupposition that the world is coherent and intelligible, is somehow a unity in spite of the diversity of its appearance. (Nietzsche, 1890)

Further, the Ancient Greeks realised that Motion (Flux / Activity / Change) was central to existence and reality, as Aristotle writes;

Metaphysics is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing that is, it has. (Aristotle, 340BC)
The entire preoccupation of the physicist is with things that contain within themselves a principle of movement and rest. And to seek for this is to seek for the second kind of principle, that from which comes the beginning of the change. (Aristotle, 340BC)

With the Metaphysics of Space and the Wave Structure of Matter (WSM), the philosophy / metaphysics of the ancient Greeks can be united with modern Physics. It is ironic to consider that the main problem for human knowledge also came from the Ancient Greeks, with their conception of matter as discrete Atoms (Democritus, Lucretius). Unfortunately, Physics took the path of the atomists (Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Lorentz) and this led to the creation of 'Force Fields' (generated by particles) to explain how matter interacted with other discrete matter at-a-distance in Space (but then how does the 'Particle generate the Force Field' - there is no necessary connection!)
It is obvious that One Thing must physically exist which necessarily connects the Many Things. If we discard the particle and consider Space as the One thing that exists (with the properties of a Wave Medium) which connects the many things (Matter as Spherical Wave Motions of Space), reality can be explained in a sensible and simple way.


This post is only a brief introduction to Ancient Greek Philosophy (one of my favourite subjects and I'd love to discuss it). For more information see our website page:
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Greek-Philosophy-Philosophers.htm

Please feel free to post any thoughts / comments.
Peace,
Karene

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Plato-Philosopher.htm
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Aristotle-Philosopher.htm
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Socrates-Philosopher.htm
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/pantheism.htm