How did we get here? What is the source of all things? What gives life meaning? Today, R.C. Sproul examines how the ancient Greek philosophers sought to answer these questions—and what truth they gleaned. With your donation of any amount, request R.C. Sproul’s book The Consequences of Ideas and his companion teaching series as a special edition DVD collection. You’ll also receive lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3876/donate Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Full Episode
What we're seeing in this quest for ultimate reality of the ancient pre-Socratics is really what we would call the pursuit of God. And in Greek philosophy, the idea of monotheism is a relatively late development, whereas to the Hebrew thinker, he starts with the infinite and the eternal. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
To study the history of human thought, the work of philosophers, is often to observe what R.C. Sproul just called the pursuit of God. It's to see people seeking to make sense of the world, and many times, sadly, doing it outside of a biblical worldview. But that's not something reserved for philosophers or ancient history. People do the very same thing today.
Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and you're listening to Renewing Your Mind. Ideas have consequences, and this week R.C. Sproul is tracing the history of philosophy and the consequences of those ideas. You can study this topic further when you request the Consequences of Ideas special edition DVD set and book with your donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.
I'll tell you more about those resources after today's message. Yesterday we met Thales and his idea that water was ultimate reality. While many others would follow him and disagree and come up with their own interesting answers to that question. Here's Dr. Sproul as he introduces us to these ancient philosophers.
In our first session, we took a brief overview of the first man who is usually considered to be the father of ancient Greek philosophy, namely Thales. And we saw that Thales had his quest for the arche or the ultimate reality that would explain everything else. And he found that in water. Now, between the work of Thales in the 6th century B.C.
and the appearance of Socrates a while later, there was a series of significant pre-Socratic philosophers. And we're not going to have time in this brief overview to look at each one of them in detail. But there was a progression of thinkers who built upon the preliminary work of those who went before them, and they had some strange names.
For example, we meet a man by the name of Anaximenes, and another one whose name is very similar, Anaximander. And we run into people like Empedocles and Athenagoras and Democritus, and there's a whole series of these people. And they debated among themselves what was ultimate reality. Anaximenes, for example, challenged the thesis of Thales that ultimate reality was water.
And he substituted for the concept of water the idea of air. He thought that that was a superior substance to explain ultimate reality from water. Now, remember how we looked at Thales and we saw that Thales was interested in questions of being, questions of life, questions of motion. And Anaximenes came on and said, well, if water can account for these things, what about air?
Because air is something that every living thing needs in order to survive. And if we think that water has the ability to propel itself, that is, is hylozoistic, it can move on its own initiative, what about the wind? What about the air currents that seem to be able to come up and move without anything pushing them or pulling them?
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