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Thales -624 to -547 The father of Western Philosophy, or Science... Pythagoras -582 to -497 Almost all belief in the usefulness (or reality, for the extremists) of pure form and mathematics originates with Pythagoras and his followers. Heraclitus -540 to -480 Accommodates the sensory information that suggests that change is everywhere. See more in HW. Parmenides -510 to 0 One of those from Elea, in Italy (the "Eleatics"). Believed that any impression of change is illusory’Äîthat Reality is constant and eternal. See more in HW. Democritus -460 to -352 With his teacher, Leucippus, postulated the existence of a mechanical, atomistic explanation for the world. Crucial and controversial: his introduction of the "void" or "vacuum" as an essential feature. Plato -427 to -347 One of the most influential Greeks, influencing mathematics, educating Aristotle, and providing much of the formal dogma of the early Christian church. Aristotle -384 to -322 The greatest influence on physics before Copernicus and Galileo. Aristarchus -310 to -230 Mathematician and responsible for many calculations of distances...also an originator of a workable heliocentric model of the solar system. http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Aristarchus.html Claudius Ptolemy 87 to 150 The paradigm example of "saving appearances" is Ptolemy's epicycle model of the motions of the planets. It lasted in its original form for nearly 1500 years as described in his classic book. (He's also the first cast member to have a first and last name.)