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Thales of Miletus

(624-546BCE)

Prepared by:
Kristian Emil Sison (Copernicus)
Kristy Del Sicat (Kepler)
Nero Sindac (Galileo)
Thales of Miletus
• Referred as the “Father of Western
Philosophy”
• Pre-Socratic philosopher,
mathematician and astronomer
• Born in Miletus in Greek Ionia
(Turkey)
• 624-546 B.C.
Background
• Member of the Seven Sages of Greece
• Founder of the Milesian School of Natural Philosophy
• The teacher of Anaximander
• Also the first to define general principles and develop
hypotheses.
• Source: “Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers” by
Diogenes Laertius (c. 3rd century BCE)
Early Life
• According to the 3rd Century AD historian Diogenes Laërtius:
• Thales’ parents are Examyes and Cleobuline of the noble
Milesian family of Thelidae
• Some says he had a son named Cybisthus
Influence for his Philosophies
Materialism
Materialism holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is matter.
Thus, according to Materialism, all things are composed of material and all
phenomena are the result of material interactions, with no accounting
of spirit or consciousness.
Naturalism
Naturalism is the belief that nature is all that exists, and that all
things supernatural (including gods, spirits, souls and non-natural values) therefore
do not exist.
It holds that any mental properties that exist (and hence any mental powers or
beings) are causally derived from, and ontologically dependent on, systems of non-
mental properties, powers or things (i.e. all minds, and all the contents and powers
and effects of minds, are entirely constructed from or caused by natural
phenomena).
Types of Naturalism
Metaphysical Naturalism
-Is the belief that nature is all that exists, and all that thing
supernatural, therefore do not exist.

a. Physicalism
- the belief that everything which exists is no more
extensive than it’s physical properties and that the only existing
substance is physical.

b. Pluralism
- the belief that reality consists of many different
substances in additi those fundamentally mindless arrangements
or interactions of matter.
Types of Naturalism
Methodological Naturalism
-Is the assumption that observable events in nature are explains
only by natural causes. It hold that the scientific method and that
such empirical methods will only ascertain natural facts.

a. Absolute Methodological Naturalism


- the view that it is in some sense impossible for any empirical
method to discover supernatural facts, even if there are some.

b. Contingent Methodological Naturalism


- the view that empirical methods are likely to uncover natural facts
than supernatural.
Types of Naturalism
Humanistic Naturalism
-Holds that human beings are best to control and understand the world through use of the
scientific method, because concepts of spirituality, intuition and metaphysics can never
progress beyond personal opinion.

Ethical Naturalism
-is the meta-ethical doctrine that there are objective moral properties of which we have
empirical knowledge, but that these properties are reducible to entirely non-ethical
properties or natural properties.

Sociological Naturalism
-is the sociological theory that the natural world and the social world are roughly
identical and governed by similar principles.
Types of Materialism
Dialectical Materialism
-Philosophical basis of Marxism and Communism.
-Refers to the notion of synthesis in George Hegel’s theory of Dialectics
concept that any idea or event- the thesis
generates its opposite- the antitheses
leading to a reconciliation of opposites, new and more
advanced synthesis

Historical Materialism
-“materialist conception of history”
- the Marxist methodological approach to the study of society, economics
and history
Philosophical Works

• Some theories of his works :


• “On the Solstice” and ”On the Equinox” (according to Diogenes)
• Nautical Star-guide (according to Simplicius)
Philosophical Works

According to Aristotle, Thales believed that everything comes out


of water and that earth floats on water. According to Seneca, Thales
used the floating earth theory to explain earthquakes.
He rejected the supernatural and mystical theories that were used
to explain various phenomena by his predecessors which justifies his
fame as the first philosopher. He is the first to abandon the
supernatural beliefs and the also the first to explain the world by
unifying a hypothesis.
Philosophical Works
• His most famous belief was his cosmological doctrine that water was
the first principle (roughly equivalent to Anaximenes' later idea that
everything in the world was composed of air). He claimed that water
was the origin of all things, that from which all things emerge and to
which they return, and moreover that all things ultimately are water.
He probably drew this conclusion from seeing moist substances turn
into air, slime and earth, and he clearly viewed
the Earth as solidifying from the water on which it floated and which
surrounded it.
Philosophical Works
• While considering the effects of magnetism and static electricity, he
concluded that the power to move other things without the mover
itself changing was a characteristic of "life", so that a magnet and
amber must therefore be alive in some way (in that they
have animation or the power to act). If so, he argued, there is no
difference between the living and the dead. If all things were alive,
they must also have souls or divinities (a natural belief of his time),
and the end result of this argument was an almost total removal
of mind from substance, opening the door to an innovative non-divine
principle of action.
Philosophical Works
• He was known for predicting a solar eclipse, which impressed the later
Greek thinkers because in that time, no one knew how to predict a
solar eclipse.
• However this created a controversy because of the fact that his
method only worked once, because whatever method he used, was
never used again.
• Believes that the Earth is spherical
Philosophical Works
• First is the fact that during a solar eclipse, the shadow caused by the
interposition of the earth between the sun and the moon is always
convex; therefore the earth must be spherical. In other words, if the
earth were a flat disk, the shadow cast during an eclipse would be
elliptical.
• Second, Thales, who is acknowledged as an observer of the heavens,
would have observed that stars which are visible in a certain locality
may not be visible further to the north or south, a phenomena which
could be explained within the understanding of a spherical earth.
Philosophical Works
• Third, from mere observation the earth has the appearance of being
curved. From observation, it appears that the earth is covered by a
dome. When observed from an elevated site, the sky seems to
surround the earth, like a dome, to meet the apparently curved
horizon. If observed over the seasons, the dome would appear to
revolve, with many of the heavenly bodies changing their position in
varying degrees, but returning annually to a similar place in the
heavens.
Philosophical Works
• Thales recognized a single transcendental
God (Monotheism), who has neither beginning nor
end, but who expresses himself through other gods
(Polytheism).
• His idea of justice included both the letter of the
law and the spirit of the law (e.g. adultery and
perjury about it in court are equally bad).
Philosophical Works
• He had some common sense moral advice:
• that we should expect the same support from our children that we
give to our parents;
• that we should not let talk influence us against those we have come
to trust;
• and that we should not do ourselves that for which we blame others.
• He believed that a happy man was one who was "healthy in
body, resourceful in soul and of a readily teachable nature".
Philosophical Works

• His political views were generally in favor of a benign tyranny, rather


than democracy (which most thinkers of his time distrusted as an
inefficient and unreliable system). He believed that men were
naturally better than women, and that Greeks were better
than barbarians (non-Greeks).
Philosophical Works
Other works
Thales’ Theorem

In geometry, Thales's theorem states


that if A, B, and C are distinct
points on a circle where the
line AC is a diameter, then
the angle ∠ABC is a right angle.

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