Thales

  • Born around 625 BCE
  • Also astronomer, mathematician, and engineer
  • Fell into a well sue to gazing stars
    • If you descend to the bottom of a well you can see stars in the daylight
  • Criticized for being poor
    • Studied weather to predict olives, rented all olive presses in Miletus and then rented them back later at a premium: proving that philosophers can easily be wealthy if they want to, but just not interested
  • hired by king Croesus of Lydia to find a way for armies to cross the river without building a bridge: digging a ditch and diverting the rivers flow to make it shallower
  • arche (principle): of which all things come from and perish into. Thales’ prediction of arche: water
    • Ubiquitous
    • Essential for life
    • Productive flood producing soil)
    • Only substances that can be in 3 material states known at that time
  • Relied on observation and reason instead of myths
  • Anima (soul) causes motion. Magnet has a soul.
  • 2 theories of death: (1) dehydration while watching gymnastic contest on a hot day, (2) fell off a steep slope while watching stars
 
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Anaximander