Pre-Socratics or pre-Socratic philosophers were the earliest Western philosophers, active during the fifth and sixth centuries B.C.E. in ancient Greece. These philosophers tried to discover principles that could uniformly, consistently, and comprehensively explain all natural phenomena and the events in human life without resorting to mythology. They initiated a new method of explanation known as philosophy which has continued in use until the present day, and developed their thoughts primarily within the framework of cosmology and cosmogony. Socrates was a pivotal philosopher who shifted the central focus of philosophy from cosmology to ethics and morality. Prompt: Read the article on the Pre-Socratic Philosophers.  How do some of the theories ("Immutable One", "Constant Flux", and "Atomism") of philosophers such as Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Leucippus respectively still have relevance in contemporary understandings of physics and our universe.  Approx. 500 words Reading on Pre-Socratic Philosophers (Links to an external site.)

This week’s readings examined the range of threats the nation must prepare for in providing for homeland security. Applying and analyzing the information you gathered from those readings, please respond to the following, using the readings to support your response as needed.1. Identify the top three threats to homeland security and why you chose those as the the primary threats.2. Considering individual tactics, which one do you consider to be the most intimidating and which do you see as the most likely to be used to carry out the next attack on U.S. soil?Forum Rubric: Answers the forum question(s) with a relevant, coherent and scholarly initial forum response (>250 words) 20/20; demonstrates lesson comprehension in forums with no more than 10% of content as direct quotes 15/15; employs complete and proper APA in-text parenthetical citations of the required readings for this week 10/10; responses to two classmates initial forum answers (>100 words each) 20/20; quality answer to professor follow-up question 20/20, main forum has APA reference list at end of forum (including the required readings) 5/5; reads and acknowledges professors end of week wrap up forum 10/10.Note: your primary forum post answering the assigned question for the week is due on Thursday by 1155PM EST, and per the syllabus you can lose up to 5 points per day for late work.Instructions: Craft your main forum answer is like a short paper directly answering the topic of the week with a well written response that fully utilizes the required readings for the week with at least 250 words. Focus only on the assigned question(s) in a scholarly manner using in-text citations from the required readings (save your personal experiences and opinions for your four forum replies in any given week). Each sentence quoting or paraphrasing any ideas or information from any source must be cited properly including the author and year of publication. Do not cite the APUS lessons -- they are just basic information to start the week off and is not meant to be a primary source for you to reference in your reply (to receive full credit you must utilize and cite the listed required readings for that week). If directly quoting from the readings (or other scholarly sources), you must also include the page or paragraph number that you are quoting from like (Hoffman, 2006, p.7) or for articles and sources without pages (Renner, 2016, para.15). If you are directly quoting and there is no page number to cite, then you manually count the paragraphs and cite that number. You also need to have an APA style reference list at the end of your post listing the sources employed. For more on APA citations and reference lists see the APUS Style Guide for APA. You must first provide your own initial forum answer before replying to any classmates or the professor. The four replies of the week are more of a free flowing classroom discussion which offers you an opportunity to leverage your relevant personal experiences and express your thoughts and opinions. Respond to at least two other students initial forum answers with a minimum of 100 words each. In your replies to classmates you may offer your opinion on the topic of the week, substantially support or supplement another student’s answer, or even politely disagree with or challenge their forum answer (but do not ask your classmates questions, or do so only as a last resort per the forum philosophy). You will also reply to my follow up question in your own forum string, and also read and acknowledge the Professor wrap up forum I post toward the end of the week. Also, do not be afraid to respectfully disagree with the readings or a classmate where you feel appropriate; as this should be part of your analysis process and employing critical thinking and academic freedom. Forum posts are graded based on demonstrated knowledge of the lesson and weekly readings, relevance, timeliness, as well as clarity and quality of analysis and synthesis. Sources utilized to support answers are to come from the weekly readings, but other credible and scholarly sources may be used to supplement (but not replace) the assigned readings. However, dictionaries, encyclopedias and Wikipedia are not scholarly and are not acceptable sources in college level work. Do not use non-scholarly open websites as sources for your reply to the main forum answer. All forum work must be completed within the academic week. When replying to the main forum answer make sure to include your name in the "topic title" of your initial forum answer/response.