Philosophy Songs

Yeah... Milesian-born. Phoenician blood. Seven sages. I rise from the flood. All is water - I said that first! Mind is a storm... That's quenching my thirst! I'm the first with a thought - no gods on my tongue! Hold your myths, I talk with the sun! Talked with your sons, and I walked in the sun... All so I could get this measurement takin' done! Measured the pyramids, shadow and line. Reduced the Nile to numbers divine! Numbers to find, relations to mine. I predicted the day eclipses will rise. And I was proven RIGHT when the sky went blind! Walking at night with secrets I tell! Then while distracted, fell into a well! My mind wanted order and clarity too! But I just wasn't watching what was in front of my shoes! Thales - one day you're gonna find truth! Water flowing through your veins - it's inside you! All is water 'cause the land ends at the sea. Water's inside you, and it's inside me! I diverted rivers, lifted up an empire's weight! Used mathematics so I could intervene fate! I pray to Zeus, then I chart an inner space. Told Croesus, "Be patient my friend, and don't tempt fate." "Know thyself" - that statement is Thales' creed! Milesian knowledge, that right there is Thales' seed! They laughed the day that I fell in a well of clay! Didn't know I was charting a map of the Milky Way! Each mistake... Constructions laid... A way is paved... A new decade... So... Thales - one day you're gonna find truth! Water flowing through your veins - it's inside you! All is water 'cause the land ends at the sea. Water's inside you, and it's inside me!

Born of Syros, where winds and waves collide! The winds and waves taught me the way that the world divides. Chronos spins the loom, Zeus takes to the sky... And I'm left... wondering why... I'm in-between the bards and wise men! Still hearin' the gods, but their words I analyze them! Before Pythagoras measured the tones... I was engaged in a project of my own. Chronos carves from endless nights! Zas ignites those primal lights! Shining bright, raised so high! Look up - just look up and let it take your breath away! The majesty, the energy - listen to exactly what I say! Time is marching, time is circular! Time to chart the outer dark. Knowledge is worth the turn! Zeus in heaven, hear my plea: "Help me understand you, but help me understand me..." I wrote not in verse, but in line and clause. Myth and reason. Effect and cause. Some think the world an ocean. I call that a wash! And to think of their devotion... Listen: FLOOD'S NOT A GOD! TIME'S ALSO NOT A GOD - IT'S THE SEED OF IT ALL! PRIOR TO CREATION, WAY BEFORE THE FALL! From Chronos' skin the world will begin! Aether and fire - the world will transcend! The islands, they shimmer all under the moon. The passage of time - my time is up soon! Old tongues, in the end, they will all fade. Chronos is unfolding and he's counting all our days.

From the boundless I rise - the apeiron speaks. Neither god, nor sea... but something more deep. It's impossible to name but from it... All that was possible came. Milesian dawn, parchment and bronze. I traced the law where thunder belongs. With thunderous songs and thund'rous applause. Thales said it was water, but I had a pause. Because in my mind there was something more. The source has no shore, no form, no core. To define all things and be the ground - the source of all can have no sound! No sight, no smell, no property. The undefinable is the key. The bedrock of all philosophy. The pre-socratic, but he's not Thales. My name is Anaximander and I'm thinking on a scale that's grander! Justice of fire, payment of rain. Each gives back what it once gained. From the boundless womb they come and go. Time decrees - so the balance flows. I was gifted with a skill to observe. Observe. Just the way the world does work. I conceived a mechanical model with a twist: The ocean is endless and the Earth is a floating disk. Whence things have birth, to that they return. By need, by light - each payin' its turn! Whence things have birth, to that they return. By need, by light - each payin' its turn! Whence things have birth, to that they return. By need, by light - each payin' its turn! Whence things have birth, to that they return. By need, by light - each payin' its turn. Earth drifts free, no pillar below. Stars wheel round in a fiery show. Cylinder world in an infinite breath. Geometry conquers mythical death. Numerical nature, the thought process wide. I charted the shimmering stars in the sky! The cosmic map was unfurled... ...when I realized there were OTHER WORLDS.

From the breath came the fire. From the fire came the stone. I will take us higher... And I will understand our home. For this Earth is... (trails off) I learned from the hand that measured the waves. And I think I found the way that the world behaves. So now I speak of what moves between: The rustle in your hair - the air unseen. You thought the world was water? Bitch, you should save your breath! Literally, save your breath... In fact, 'cause nothing's left... Stretch it thin, wait and then... Then the air grows bright! Condensin', compressin' 'til it hardens right. From breath to flame, from mist to stone... ...air is the seed from which all things must grow. Now: Now breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out. Uh-huh-huh-huh! Breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out - uh-huh-huh! Now breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out. Uh-huh-huh-huh! Breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out - uh-huh-huh! I was a pupil of the great Anaximander. He was cunning, he was sly - he was a great commander. But in fact he was just a bit demandin'. And his ideas I wasn't understandin'. He said the fundamental principle is undefined. So how do you think it can ground everything if it's unrefined? No properties, no way to describe it. Seems to me like no noun can survive it. The hotter, the rarer, the lighter it flies. The colder, the thicker, the Earth shall rise! Now breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out. Uh-huh-huh-huh! Breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out - uh-huh-huh! Now breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out. Uh-huh-huh-huh! Breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out - uh-huh-huh! Our soul is air - it binds our will! The world is air - it pulses still! What breath sustains the body's scheme? Moves also through this cosmic dream... Pneuma, psyche! Pneuma, psyche! Now breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out. Uh-huh-huh-huh! Breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out - uh-huh-huh! Now breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out. Uh-huh-huh-huh! Breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out - uh-huh-huh! Flat disk drifting on a sea, unseen. Stars like nails in the firmament gleam! Sun swings 'round like a hat in flight. Burning by motion, not by light. Thunder speaks where the cold winds clash. Earthquakes stir where the dry lands crack. All changes breathe, none truly die. From air to fire, from sea to sky. When worlds collapse and stars are curled, the breath remains - and it is world! Now breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out. Uh-huh-huh-huh! Breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out - uh-huh-huh! Now breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out. Uh-huh-huh-huh! Breathe it out, breathe it out, breathe it out - uh-huh-huh!

All is number! (What's the sum?) Harmony is number one! Strings and stars, they sing as brothers! All I see around are... numbers! I heard that hammer ring. And I saw math in sound. The ratio of string length is where truth has been found. I crossed from Samos seas, to Egyptian schools. I've measured land with geometrical tools. I've seen these truths before my eyes. And what I have discovered was a huge surprise. I was credited with this math discovery: A-squared plus B-squared is the square of C! In antiquity my name carried wide! Larger than the hypotenuse to any other side! Don't call me a genius! I'm just a lover of wisdom. Seein' hidden order and constructin' the system! All is number! (Hear his thunder!) All of mathematics is made of wonder! Every soul and every line is number. I wonder... I wonder! Perfect fifths through space and time. Order emerges from number, divine! 'cause every event is made with measure. This theorem I treasure. I'm an Ionian scholar, a polymath, a doctor. Propagandizin' to all of your sons and daughters! Listen to me: I need you to heed my words! In your next life, you may become a frightened bird! The natural order keeps good souls in flight! Bad souls live low, while good souls' burdens are light! The planets move in an orderly way. A musical symphony in the cosmic play! Every single form is simply rhythm reborn! Flesh, fire, every ligament torn! From string to string, I have measured the sound and discovered the heavenly laws that are bound! All is number! (Hear his thunder!) All of mathematics is made of wonder! Every soul and every line is number. I wonder... I wonder! Perfect fifths through space and time. Order emerges from number, divine! 'cause every event is made with measure. This theorem I treasure. I heard sounds of the angelic choir! The world is a flame that keeps growing higher! According to laws which all men can see... Mathematical consistency.

All flows, all flames... The same soul burns again. What dies? What grows? Only the river knows... Yeah... My name is Heraclitus, fire-born speaker! There was a time when I was much weaker... Then I fell into a river and began to see: The fundamental principle of philosophy! The river, it changes all of the time Lending support that change is divine! A thing can be different and also the same. Contradiction is essence and Heraclitus, the name! Step in the river, it ain't the same twice. Flow through order, chaos and vice. Truth's not still, it twists and bends. Don't go drownin' where the current ends. Opposites clash - life's alight. So war is father of all, by right. Don't ask for peace if you can't take the strife. Harmony's forged in the fight for life. Fire becomes rain. Fire becomes light. Right becomes wrong. Wrong becomes right. Every single season, every single day. For every single reason, everything's change. Everything's change. And that is just how the world is arranged! Everything's change. I walk alone at night with just my thoughts. So much pain, so much loss. People sleep in peace while the cosmos burns... The world only exists when the wheels turn! Don't worship gold, don't trust the crowd, don't be morose, don't be deaf but loud. Logos speaks, but none can hear! Truth's right here, obscured by fear! Every tear, every blade of grass Is fire in motion - it comes to pass! Death feeds birth, decay feeds bloom: I dance on the edge of my own tomb! The way up and down, same road. The heart of man is such a heavy load. Immortals die to be reborn. The fire consumes and yet it keeps us wa-arm! Fire becomes rain! Fire becomes light! Right becomes wrong! Wrong becomes right! Every single season, every single day. For every single reason, everything's change. Everything's change. And that is just how the world is arranged! Everything's change. I'm not your prophet, I'm a contradiction! Think I can stop it? I'm a part of the system! You call it paradox but I call it decay because life is always coming and passing away - hey! Look: life is such a divine tragedy. Because in the end nothing lasts, you see? Take solace in the transient rain. Death robs life, but it also robs pain. Fire becomes rain! Fire becomes light! Right becomes wrong! Wrong becomes right! Every single season, every single day. For every single reason, everything's change. Everything's change. And that is just how the world is arranged! Everything's change.

Born in Colophon, Ionia's son. Philosophical poet. I'm all in one. Left home at 25. I was on the run. With a lyre on my back and many miles to come. I saw the many cities of Greece and so I'm told: That to be virtuous you gotta be bold! And then I'm seein' how these people chase gold. Because success is just a story that is bein' sold! But the road we must walk is fraught with discomfort... ... and all our faults of reason simply need to be unlearned! Everywhere I walk! Everywhere I go! Everyone I talk to is ALWAYS claiming to know! How many gods there are or what they're up to! Their pretensions are what I'm hoping to cut through! Because there is one god, not many! Trust me - one god is plenty! You praise Homer? I'll call your bluff. His gods are weak, and drunk and stuff... They cheat, they steal, they fight, they fall - but divinity simply doesn't crawl! If oxen had hands, then they could draw. Their gods would have horns and all... Humans project what they wish to see. But the cosmos laughs at all our vanity! I mocked their myths, but honored still. The sacred power beyond the will. My piety is not in tales of birth. It's all before a boundless Earth! Agitations of droplets of water, skylight pyre! No omens, no curses, no Zeus - it's Saint Elmo's Fire! The boundary of the Earth is the limit we tread. But the Earth beneath our feet stretches down without end. We search for first principles. We don't have to depend on miracles. We just run through an argument like intervals. Spell it out one at a time like syllables. So we grasp the invisible... I said, "One god - supreme and whole! No flesh, no death, no mortal soul!" He occupies no part of space, for you see he fills this cosmic space! No hierarchy of divine degree! Just theological geometry. Spherical, perfect, and beyond rebirth. Eternal purpose - transcending Earth. So if truth exists, it conceals its face. Prompting seeds of future mental disgrace. Humans speak in shades and signs. But information is lost in a web of minds... Everywhere I walk! Everywhere I go! Everyone I talk to is ALWAYS claiming to know! How many gods there are or what they're up to! Their pretensions are what I'm hoping to cut through! Because there is one god, not many! Trust me - one god is plenty!

Come now, traveler, on the steeds of dawn. Beyond the gates where night's come to a drawn. I'm rollin' through Elea - visions in my head. I followed the Mortal Road to where the visions led. Until divine inspiration caught me in its snare. A goddess whispered, "Logic" through the cosmic air. Said, "There are two paths - choose the one that's true. The fools see change, but the wise see through." She told me, "Boy, two ways divide your sight. One leads to Being, the other leads to Night." Now they talk about change, they talk about birth. But I see one truth that underlies the earth: You cannot speak of that which simply isn't there. No-thing is a void, nothing's anywhere. You think that fire becomes the clay? That night turns light? That's child's play. Since there is no void, there is no change too. Nothing can break through, nothing can save you. On the subject of change, I was on the fence. 'cause the logic speaks of permanence. So I ride this thought to its final end. Where reason breaks and gods descend. "Follow not the way of Seeming, Nor the fickle eyes deceiving. For only thought reveals the way: All change is mere believing. Follow not the way of Seeming, Nor the fickle eyes deceiving. For only thought reveals the way: All change is mere believing." I separate sense from sense, I cut the line Between the shadows and the mind, the divide You call it motion? I call it fraud Change is illusion - there's only God! No birth, no death, no coming-to-be. No sea that shifts, no mortal decrees. It's all one realm, a perfect sphere. Where being holds and never disappears. You talk of Zeus? I talk of law! That logic's edge that cuts through all! (That cuts through all!) "You've come to the gate between Truth and Deceit. The mortals believe what their senses repeat. Then I'll seal my heart from the world's disguise. And live where Being never dies!" Being reveals the truth at last! There is no future and no past! No parts, not change, no stars, no sun. The universe and everything is One. "One path alone the wise may tread. Where every change and birth is erased instead. Yet all that is forever burns... The still-point where all reason turns." "Seek... what is... ...and then you'll find the One. The thought. The truth. The timeless sun!" "Follow not the way of Seeming, Nor the fickle eyes deceiving. For only thought reveals the way: All change is mere believing. Follow not the way of Seeming, Nor the fickle eyes deceiving. For only thought reveals the way: All change is mere believing."

We can be together as one! Together as one... We can mix together! Together we spun! Until the Mind arose and lit the spark! We needed that light so we could see in the dark... Anaxagoras, the O.G. from Clazomenae. If you're looking for thoughts, well, I've got plenty. I came from a real aristocratic family. But soon I was exiled for impiety. That's because- I said the sun's no god, it's fire in the sky. It burns by reason, and that is not a fuckin' lie! They call it blasphemy - yeah, they ran me outta town. But it was in Lampsacus, that's where I found... I saw the order inside the storm. Where mind shapes chaos, and worlds are born! From every seed, a fragment's spun. Each thing in each - yet all as one. Infinite parts, but a single design. All is the work of the architect - the Mind! Mind awakens, breaks the chain! Sets the stars and the sea in flame. Thought is power, thought is king. For Mind - Mind rules everything! Mind awakens, breaks the chain! Sets the stars and the sea in flame. Thought is power, thought is king. For Mind - Mind rules everything! When I was in the war, it must've been fate. I taught Pericles how to make a state. Told him: "Wisdom's rule, not blood nor crown. Let thought lift men, not drag them down!" I studied the moon, saw shadows dance. Knew that truth ain't luck - it's circumstance. They feared the spark, but the spark survives. In every wonderous questioning eye! All things mix, yet minds unmixed. Unmoved, it moves - the laws are fixed. From dust to dawn, the pattern rings! For Mind - Mind rules everything! Mind awakens, breaks the chain! Sets the stars and the sea in flames. Thought is power, thought is king! For Mind - Mind rules everything! At least, my love, I'll never be empty! For I'm with you and you are in me! Everything together as one in the end... So maybe I'll see you again? All matter moves where reason sings. Mind divides and yet it brings. All life, all form, all cosmic strings! For Mind - Mind rules all things!

Four roles rise when the world was young. Earth, air, water, and fire from the sun. All bound by love and undone by strife... Fate spun the wheel of death and life... Yo. I'm Empedocles. This town will never settle me. I'm the Greek with mettle, G. And I'm from Sicily! Look. The world is not Earth - there's too much sea! The world is not water - there's too much heat! The world is not air when my feet's on the ground. The world is not fire for cold's still around. So how are we to account for this? These contradictions are anomalous! They're all first principles, four truths that we can't forsake. Because it all depends on the assumptions you make! These four pieces compose this plane. Controlled by forces we must name! All is a mixture of Earth, Water, Fire and Air. With Love and Strife moving pieces everywhere! That's right! Love and Strife! These are the forces that make matter collide. And when matter collides that's when matter ignites! Explains all the stars you see in the sky! Listen! When Strife divides, the world's at war! But Love reunites what came before! For there's no birth, no death - just transformation. A cosmic remix called reincarnation. Love unites, Strife tears apart. The cosmos beats like a living heart. Every flame, every drop, every life begun. Every single thing is made four parts in one. Empedocles you've got more to do! Mt. Etna is calling you! You rise above and become king! Keep suffering until you understand ever-y-thing, yeah! They call me Doctor, Miracle Man. Spoke so many truths they couldn't understand. Said, "Stop the killing, the blood, the feast - your dinner plate's a murdered priest." Souls recycle you see? Beast to man? Plant to God? Again and again! Thirty-thousand lives until the circle's done. A lesson of mercy for everyone! I walked with Pythagoras in whispered dreams! Saw life flow back through endless streams! From the lion's eye, to the olive's leaf! Every single death is just a borrowed grief! I saw! the! sphere! where! all! was! still! pure! love! held! sway! no! hate! could! fell! Then strife crept in with a whisper, then! Split the One, that's where we begin! I cannot stop, I've got more work to do. What can you do when Etna's calling you? Love unites, Strife tears apart! The cosmos beats like a living heart! Every flame, every drop, every life begun! Every single thing is made four parts in one! Empedocles you've got more to do! Mt. Etna is calling you! You rise above and become king! Keep suffering until you understand ever-y-thing! As my skin hardened up and my hair went gray. I was faced with a task which was my destiny. I would climb to the top of the mountain at last! I would plunge to the bottom of the lava with a splash! I would rise up! From the volcanic mists! And raise my still-living, victorious fist! Because... I'm a GOD! I'M NOT A MAN! I'LL FINALLY MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND! I climb to the top, I dare not stop! I look down below: I'm trembling. They can't know. Deep down I'm scared. But my fangs are bared! I've always had to trust my fate... So I'll trust my fate... And I'll meet the grave...