It is no coincidence that the early Greek philosophers were called cosmologists by virtue of their interest in finding out the nature of the cosmos. This intentionality of the early Greek philosophers was undoubtedly a founding intention, genuine germ of the theoretical lines that could, over time, identify themselves in the development of Western philosophy.
When Parmenides postulates his doctrine of UNO, exalting the rational against the stimuli of sensitive perception that he will label as illusory, he will anticipate idealistic thinkers. For his part, Anaxagoras, introducing the “principle of movements”, Nous will anticipate philosophical theism. Similarly, Leucipus and Democritus, with atomic theory, would be laying the foundations for a mechanistic perspective in which the universe can be reduced to matter.
These observations show that philosophy before Socrates should not be considered a prephilosophical instance but a first moment in the history of Western philosophy in which the foundations of ideas that would inspire many thinkers over the centuries to come are already noticed.