What Philosophical problem was the primary concern of the Pre-Socratics?
The pre-Socratics were primarily focused on exploring the main cause of the creation of the world and the basic substance of everything around us. They questioned the one and the many. Instead of acknowledging many of the more traditional mythological explanations of the time for the natural phenomena they saw in the world such as solar eclipses, they searched for rational and logical explanations. Their primary concern was the search of the most basic substance that everything around them was made of. Thales was the first of these philosophers to try to answer this fundamental problem. He saw that water could be turned into air when it is heated and into ice when frozen so he hypothesized that the most basic substance from which everything arose from was water. He seemed to view the earth as solidifying from the water on which it floated and surrounded the ocean. Anaximander, which was a student of Thales, claimed that the substance wasn't water or any of the other elements. It was actually something that was infinite and indefinite, calling it "Apeiron". Apeiron was a substance that lacked qualities but was unlimited. It differentiated primary opposites such as the cold and fire, and the wet and dry. It is basically a higher, living force that guides the natural process, allowing it to create everything around us. His student, Anaximinies also believed that the substance was infinite however; he thought it was also something definite. He reasoned that since humans and animals needed air to survive, air turned into our flesh and blood and therefore it could also become the earth, wind and everything around us. Heraclities, unlike the other philosophers, focused on the force that ...