presocratic

noun

1. Any Ancient Greek philosopher who preceded or was roughly contemporaneous with Socrates and whose methods and views were influenced neither directly nor indirectly by Socrates or his primary student, Plato.

   “The Great Mother is no simple notion from primitive religion, but an idea in a complex mythology that became demythologized and secularized by the Presocratics, but not changed.”

adj

1. of, or characteristic of, such a philosopher (or these philosophers) as a whole.