Saying those two words make me feel highly intellectual, but I have to start this entry by admitting that I do not read that much. It's an unfortunate neglect that I have not addressed well since seventh or eighth grade.
I haven't even gotten through the introduction yet, but I feel compelled to write about the introductory materials listed here. Giving a brief introduction to Greek philosophy preceding Aristotle is difficult, so I'm just going to point out this one cycle that I have not read about in my other research relating to the mater philosophers. Empedocles of Acragas (5th century BC) stated that the world was composed of four elements, Earth, Air, Water and Fire, but found it illogical that these alone explained the world's composition. To Explain the fact that the world changed, he came up with two forces: Love and Strife. These forces (Not absolute forces, so not like the Logos that came about later) allowed material to interact in cycles . As I'm reading this introduction, Love separated what was similar and brought together what was dissimilar. Strife, by separating the dissimilar brought together what is similar.
So this pre-atomic theory might not be the most useful in today's science or philosophy, but it is important to understand how we came up with our rational thought. History happened. People made choices, whether based on what they believed to be true or to further themselves. These choices affect how we ourselves came to be, even if our history extends no further than a few generations. However there is great weakness in never looking past a few generations, and that is our perspective does not see past the strengths and weaknesses of our parents and grandparents. You think we have life the best in all of history? How much is really that different? Without studying history, we have no way of knowing.
