An Interactive Map
The Socratic Turn
Philosophy began by asking what the world is made of. Then one man asked how we should live. Trace the threads from the pre-Socratics into Socrates, and the schools that radiated from him — idealism, empiricism, cynicism, hedonism.
Pre-Socratic natural philosophers
The Socratic pivot
Direct successors
Hellenistic extensions
I · Pre-Socratic Natural Philosophers
Thales of Miletus
c. 624 – 546 BC
Natural Philosopher
First philosopher to ask "What is the world made of?" without invoking gods — sought natural rather than mythological explanations.
Key idea
"Water is the archē"
Pythagoras
c. 570 – 495 BC
Mathematician-Mystic
Fused mathematics with mysticism, created a philosophical community devoted to the harmony underlying reality.
Key idea
"All is number"
Heraclitus
c. 535 – 475 BC
Philosopher of Flux
The world is fire, eternally transforming through opposites — reality is constant change governed by Logos.
Key idea
"Everything flows" (panta rhei)
Parmenides
c. 515 – 450 BC
Philosopher of Being
Used pure logic to argue that motion and change are impossible — only unchanging Being is real.
Key idea
"What is, is"
Anaxagoras
c. 500 – 428 BC
Philosopher of Mind
First to propose Mind (Nous) as a cosmic principle — an ordering intelligence that separates the mixture. Pericles' teacher.
Key idea
Nous orders the cosmos
Democritus
c. 460 – 370 BC
Atomist
Proposed a fully materialist worldview with no purpose or design — reality is atoms and void, everything is matter in motion.
Key idea
Atoms and void
↓
From nature to the soul — Socrates redirects the question
II · The Pivot — Socrates
Socrates
Central node
c. 470 – 399 BC
The Examined Life
Redirected philosophy from cosmology to ethics and self-knowledge. Never wrote anything — we know him through Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes. Executed by Athens in 399 BC.
Key ideas
Socratic method (elenchus) · "I know that I know nothing" · Virtue is knowledge · The soul's care
↓
Four diverging schools from one teacher
III · Direct Successors — The Socratic Schools
Plato
c. 428 – 348 BC
Idealist — Extends Socrates
Socrates' most famous student; built an entire metaphysical system from Socratic ethics, extending into politics and epistemology.
Key idea
Theory of Forms — the visible world is a shadow of eternal Ideas
Aristotle
384 – 322 BC
Empiricist — Challenges Plato
Plato's student who rejected the separated Forms — "Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth." Knowledge begins with observation.
Key idea
Form is in matter, not separate
Antisthenes
c. 446 – 366 BC
Proto-Cynic
Socrates' devoted follower who radicalised his asceticism. Virtue alone suffices for happiness — reject convention, live simply.
Key idea
Virtue is sufficient for happiness
Aristippus
c. 435 – 356 BC
Founder of Cyrenaics
Another Socratic student who drew the opposite conclusion from Antisthenes — pleasure, especially bodily pleasure in the present, is the highest good.
Key idea
Pleasure is the highest good
IV · Legacy — Hellenistic Extensions
Diogenes of Sinope
c. 412 – 323 BC
The Cynic
Student of Antisthenes who radicalised Cynicism into public performance philosophy. "Socrates gone mad."
Key idea
"I am looking for an honest man"