Why do people say Socrates was the first philosopher when there were plenty of pre-socratic philosophers. Both in Greece and abroad.
>>1280471
He was the first philosopher to define Western philosophy.
Who are "people"?
Because I have never heard anyone call Socrates the first philosopher.
>>1280471
Pre-Socratic philosophers weren't really philosophers because they didn't think about things in a systematic and cohesive way that we would recognise as philosophy. They were 'thinkers'.
Socrates was the first philosopher because he established the foundations of the discipline by pointing out how flimsy the intellectual foundations of the pre-Socratics were, and in doing so asked the fundamental questions that form the basis of philosophy.
>>1280480
>implying Anaximander and Parmenides weren't philosophers
>>1280480
You don't have to have a wide variety of systems to be a philosopher.
>>1280471
Socrates is popular mainly because he's referenced a lot by the ancients themselves. He himself was also famous during his time due to him being polymath. Many of the genuises during Enlightenment were polymath too. A wise man never restricts himself to one thing only.
>>1280471
A hold over from middle age Christian thinking that saw Plato and Aristotle as the only real philosophers, Socrates gets thrown in because it's impossible to discuss Plato without him. Apart from the fact that Platonic philosophy (and thus Socratic) appeals to a ton of their ideas about absolute morality, an after-life, and the immaterial being divine his death and trial with a claim to be innocent was taken as a Christ analogy.
>>1280480
Parmenedes and Heraclitus were highly systemtic. While Socrates himself was not systemetic. What the hell are you talking about?
>by pointing out how flimsy the intellectual foundations of the pre-Socratics
He never addressed any of the foundations of the pre-socratics other than the Sophists and frankly the Sophists theories about the relativity of virtues made a heel of a lot more sense than the pile of false equivalencies and other logical fallacies Socrates used. Seriously, does anyone actually think Apology had any good arguments or that his insane theory in Parmenedes about reincarnation and pseudo-karma had any real arguments behind it?
>>1280645
>Socrates is popular mainly because he's referenced a lot by the ancients themselves
So are all the other Pre-Socratics.
>He himself was also famous during his time due to him being polymath.
WHAT? How the hell was Socrates a polymath? He never did any sort of science or math, when the subjects do come up he tells people that he tried do these things had found he had no talent.
>>1280480
What?
