Presocratics

            Early Greek societies held a mythological view of their world. The religious ideas held by the ancient Greeks prior to the Presocratics sought explanations of the natural world as the results of the acts of some forces beyond their immediate experience. Greek understanding of reality was based on earth and sky religions. The sky religions attributed the state of nature to the gods who resided atop Mount Olympus. These gods were imagined as having human traits, but with power over the human world. Because the sky provided light and rain and the earth provided food, the Greeks regarded the earth and sky as the ultimate sources of providence. This view places such an importance on the earth and sky that it automatically meant that man would be insignificant and powerless. However, rather than attaching that significance to nature, itself, the early Greeks conceived of the potency of the gods. The earth, as well, held much power for them; as did the rhythms of temporal cycles such as life and death, the seasons, and night and day. The earth represented the force that provides food for human beings and takes our bodies back at death. The sky became viewed as the paternal force, and the earth as the maternal force. This type of religious view brought about the normative principles such as balance and moderation in Greek thinking. .
             Beginning with Xenophanes, the Presocratics attempted to define their experience of the world in terms of nature, itself. Rather than imagining that there were supernatural beings driving the natural world, the Presocratics searched for the forces of nature within nature. They challenged the traditionally held religious ideas by asking what exactly is the one thing that the world comes from. This is the concept of "first principles". The inquiry into the single source of nature was based on the belief the Presocratics held that knowledge is not the result of revelation, but is available to anyone who looks to their perceptions of the world around them.