Thales of Miletus (~624–548 BC) is usually cited as one of many first philosophers, though his contributions prolonged to many sciences and even to enterprise endeavors. He taught that the primary component, out of which all the pieces else is made, is water, and that all the pieces round us is full of souls.
Welcome to a brand new sequence of posts, the place we’ll leisurely stroll down the historical past of philosophy (largely Western philosophy), having one fast take a look at every of the key thinkers of the previous three thousand years or so. Come alongside, benefit from the views, and meet the best minds of human historical past!
First, along side the trail we’re following, sits outdated Thales of Miletus. Miletus was an important metropolis, dwelling of many a well-known man, lengthy earlier than Athens turned the centre of the Greek world. Virtually the entire early Greek philosophers got here from right here. Not solely Thales (~624–548), but additionally Anaximander, Anaximenes, Leucippos (who began the traditional concept of atoms), Hippodamos, who’s the daddy of city planning, and the primary to say that streets needs to be constructed straight and cross one another at proper angles; and, lastly Aspasia, the mistress of Perikles and first woman of Athens at its most wonderful second in historical past. All of them got here from this little city on what’s now the coast of Turkey.
There’s a Greek analysis website that has created a 3D mannequin of historical Miletus and has some stunning maps and footage of what it could have seemed like. Right here is one:
Screenshot of Historical Miletus mannequin. Head over to fhw.gr for extra pictures and maps.
Thales of Miletus himself appears to have been extra of a general-purpose scientist, slightly than a typical thinker. Wikipedia calls him a mathematician as a result of a lot of what we all know of him has to do ultimately with geometry. He calculated the gap of ships and the peak of pyramids by measuring triangles.
Sooner or later, someone requested Thales (or so a narrative goes), if he was so intelligent, why wasn’t he wealthy? Thales, after all, being a thinker, wasn’t interested by cash; however the query irritated him, and as a way to present his critics {that a} thinker might get wealthy if he needed, he used his expertise in predicting the climate to find out that the approaching olive harvest can be extra bountiful than ever. With out telling anybody, he rented all of the olive presses round Miletus for the time of the harvest, and when individuals needed to press their olives into oil, he made a wholesome revenue, proving to his doubters {that a} thinker might, certainly, get wealthy if he needed.
His philosophy itself has at all times puzzled extra conventional thinkers, beginning with Aristotle, who didn’t perceive it both (and mentioned so).
For one, Thales mentioned that all the pieces comes from water, or that water is firstly of all the pieces.
That is unusual, for in our expertise fairly plenty of issues are bone dry and appear to exist even with out water. Bertrand Russell, in his Historical past of Western Philosophy, tried to take Thales’ aspect on this matter by mentioning that hydrogen atoms comprise an enormous a part of the universe, and what’s water if not, primarily, hydrogen? For those who’re shaking your head now, properly, sure. Poor Thales absolutely hadn’t considered the abundance of hydrogen within the universe.
Thales of Miletus: all the pieces is product of water. Picture by YUCAR FotoGrafik on Unsplash
What then? In what sense is all the pieces product of water?
Now we have to note right here that every one the examples that Thales of Miletus offers (as reported by others, as a result of we don’t even have something written by Thales himself), are examples of life: seeds, vegetation, dwelling nature. And, clearly, right here it does make sense to talk of water because the essence of life on Earth.
Additional, Thales appeared to suppose that the soil of the Earth itself originates in water. This turns into extra comprehensible if we realise that by the fifteenth century, the river supplying Miletus with water had deposited a lot silt that the as soon as coastal metropolis needed to be deserted. At present, Miletus lies 10km away from the seashore. So, in a way, it was the water that introduced with it the soil. Or, with just a bit little bit of a perspective shift: it’s the water that incorporates the soil, carries it alongside, after which evaporates or flows away, creating the Earth. Whoever doubts that water is the origin of soil wants solely to have a look at the 10km of barren land that now lies between the busy harbour of historical Miletus and right this moment’s Aegean Sea.
Picture by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash
Thales of Miletus additionally held the assumption that all the pieces was full of souls. This sounds crazier than it was meant to, and the important thing right here is to do not forget that for the traditional Greeks, the “soul” usually meant only a power of transferring. Aristotle speaks of the “vegetative” souls of vegetation, the “delicate” souls of animals and the “rational” souls of males. Thales even mentioned {that a} magnet had a soul as a result of it might entice filings of iron that might transfer in the direction of it. So “soul” actually means nothing greater than “the origin of autonomous movement,” and on this sense, many issues certainly have “souls.“That’s all for Thales. For those who’re interested by extra, Wikipedia has quite a good overview. The primary fragments about Thales of Miletus can be found in an English translation here.
Thanks for studying, and I hope you had enjoyable! Stick with me, subsequent time we’ll stroll alongside to the opposite Presocratic philosophers! Subscribe so that you don’t miss any posts!
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