About 25 centuries ago, the first Greek Philosopher Thales of Miletus (624-560 B.C.) replaced mythology with a set of theories that constituted a more systematic and realistic view of nature. Empirical propositions based to some extent on observations about the world were characteristic of Thales' "Ionic Natural Philosophy", and provided the first clues to how a physical system might be modeled. This genesis of scientific conjecture was for Thales the search for knowledge; the development of the scientific method; the adoption of practical methods, and their development into general utilitarian principles. Thales had a conjectural approach to defining the reality of natural phenomena. As such, he conceived the principle of explaining the multitude of phenomena by a small number of hypotheses for all manifestations of matter.
There was no distinction between the natural sciences and philosophy at Thales' Milesian school of thought. The man who sought the material principle of things would also hold tentative insights into the natural world. Thales introduced generalizations about a set of facts or principles (such as the connection between celestial movements with certain geometric laws), that formed the basis for future experiments to confirm their viability. Proclus proclaimed that "Thales first went to Egypt and thence introduced geometry into Greece. He discovered many propositions himself, and instructed his successors in the principles underlying many others, his method of attacking problems had greater generality in some cases and was more in the nature of simple inspection and observation in other cases."
This "deductive science", or the process of deriving suppositions and mathematical statements from observation b...
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...ales of Miletus, one of the seven wise men, was the first to undertake this study of physical philosophy. He said that the principle and the end of all things is water, and all things are movable and in a fluid state, the character of the compound being determined by the nature of the principle from which it springs". Nietzsche, in his publication "Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks", commented on this universality, where "Greek philosophy seems to begin with an absurd notion, with the proposition that water is the primal origin of all things. Is it really necessary for us to take serious notice of this proposition? It is for three reasons: first, because it tells us something about the primal origin of all things; second, because it does so in language devoid of fable, and finally, because contained in it is the primary thought that, 'all things are one.'"
Pythagoras was one of the first true mathematicians who was not only known for the famous Pythagorean theorem. His father was from Tyre while his mother was from Samos but when Pythagoras was born and growing up he spent most of his time in Samos but as he grew he began to spend a lot of time with his father. His father was a merchant and so Pythagoras travelled extensively with him to many places. He learned things as he went along with his father but the primary teacher known to be in his life was Pherekydes. Thales was also a teacher for himself and he learned some from him but he mainly inspired him. Thales was old when Pythagoras was 20 and so Thales told him to go to Egypt and learn more about the subjects he enjoyed which were cosmology and geometry. In Egypt most of the temples where the learning took place refused him entry and the only one that would was called Diospolis. He was then accepted into the priesthood and because of the discussions between the priests he learned more and more about geome...
The Archaic Greek philosophers created the concept of natural philosophy, which means practicing philosophy and science before the understanding of modern sc. In Classical Greece, philosophy focused on man’s position in society, instead of the natural world. Also Classical Grecians were devoted to epistemology (philosophy of knowledge and cognition), right conduct, and ethics. Although in the Archaic age, their philosophers questioned the power and presence of the gods. As well as a world, where natural processes operated and man’s mind was able to understand. While the Classical Greek age continued, Thales created the philosophy of materialism, and Pythagoras cultivated idealism.
ABSTRACT: Given the great historical distance between scientific explanation as Aristotle and Hempel saw it, I examine and appraise important similarities and differences between the two approaches, especially the inclination to take deduction itself as the very model of scientific knowledge. I argue that we have good reasons to reject this inclination.
Empirical thought was prevalent during both Greek and Roman dominance, where scientists were more commonly referred to as ‘natural philosophers’ as they were practitioners of skilled professions such as medicine, or followers of religious theory such as temple healers. A pre-Socratic philosopher named Thales (640-546BCE) has been dubbed the ‘father of science’ due to being the first to postulate that there was a natural answer to otherwise supernatural phenomena such as land floating on water and that earthquakes were caused by the agitation of that water by underwater movement or currents rather than the religious view that earthquakes were caused by the god, Poseidon (Arieti, 2005). Further advances of scientific thought and procedure were made over those years by Anaximander (610-546BCE), Pythagoras (570-500BCE), Xenophanes (570-478BCE) and Heraclitus (535-475BCE). While each man had a different interest in science, and the areas they studied include mathematics, astronomy, geometry, theology and metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and cosmology; they all had an important impact on modern science. The advance of Aristotelian science was halted by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus who ruled from 1081 until his death in 1118 due to
The fourth Meditations of Descartes show that God cannot be a deceiver at all, as God is infinitely good. To judge something it is required to have understanding and will and we should know that the understanding is infinite or in other words it is the faculty, which brings us very close to God. Errors occur when will assents though it does not understand or perceive distinctly. So from this fact we can understand that error is ours and it is not committed by God. He also cannot be blamed for giving us an infinite will, as the will is nothing but a simple infinite entity. How can we perceive something distinctly and clearly? According to Descartes it was possible for God to create him with an insurmountable inclination to assent only to those things, which were distinctly and clearly perceived by him, but God is infinite and His ways are inscrutable. Descartes writes in his Meditation IV that when he tries to find out about God, he feels that in reality a positive idea of God is already present in his mind and it is a supremely perfect being. But at the same time he encounters with a negative idea which gives him a since of nothingness. This image is infinitely removed from perfection of all kinds. Then Descartes disclosed his feelings and said that due to his own experience he knew that he has some ability to judge and this ability came from God. There is no doubt that all the qualities have come from God and this quality was also from God. He was certain that God would never deceive him and thus no such ability was given to him, which may ever put him in the wrong direction. So after all these experiences he evidently concluded that there existed a God and his existence depended entirely on Him. In fact every moment of his lif...
Cohen, S. M., Curd, P., & Reeve, C. D. (2000). Readings in ancient Greek philosophy: from Thales to Aristotle (2nd ed.). Indianapolis: Hackett.
Plato was born in Athens, Greece around 427 B.C. He was always interested in politics, until he witnessed his mentor and teacher, Socrates, death. After learning of the callousness of politics, Plato changed his mind and eventually opened up The Academy, which is considered if not the first, one of the first Universities. Students at the Academy studied many different fields of science, including biological and astronomical. The students also studied many other fields, such as math. Plato developed many views that were mathematical in nature. He expressed these views through his writings. According to Dr. Calkins of Andrew University, "Timaeus is probably the most renowned of Plato's thirty-five dialogues. [In it] Plato expresses that he believes that the heavenly bodies are arranged in perfect geometric form. He said that because the heavens are perfect, the various heavenly bodies move in exact circles." (Calkins 1). Of course that is a much summarized view of what Plato discusses in Timaeus, but still a solid view on Plato's beliefs about cosmology. Cosmology can be loosely defined as everything being explained and in its place or beautiful. The cosmos is beautiful because everything is perfect. Plato understood that when he defined the most perfect geometric design as the circle. In a circle one line is always equidistance from one point. In Plato's universe there are two realms, eternity and time. The factor that creates "time" out of the chaos of "eternity" is the Demiurge. Plato's Demiurge can be defined as an architect creator theological entity. The importance of the Demiurge in this paper is to compare and contrast him with Boethius's God in The Consolation of Philosophy.
Now disregard for a moment that you don’t think it’s an element, he wasn’t to know that. It still sounds as rather a wild hypothesis. But water is a remarkably adaptable kind of thing. It comes in liquid, solid and vapour, it is essential to life, to vegetation, it is fundamental to everything that goes on, that necessity. Then understandably Thales conjectured that this is the basic stuff. But he wasn’t the only person. This fluidity is best represented by tragedy.
Aristotle believes that before the concept of time there were three kinds of substances, two of them being physical and one being the unmovable. The three substances can be described as one being the “sensible eternal”, the second being the “sensible perishable” and the third substance being the immovable. To further this theory the sensible perishable can be seen as matter, the sensible eternal as potential, and the immovable can be seen as that which is Metaphysical and belongs to another science. According to Aristotle, the immovable is God. It is the immovable that sets the sensible perishable into motion and therefore turns the potential into the actual.
For the Greeks philosophy wasn’t restricted to the abstract it was also their natural science. In this way their philosophers were also their scientist. Questions such as what is the nature of reality and how do we know what is real are two of the fundamental questions they sought to answer. Pythagoras and Plato were two of the natural philosophers who sought to explain these universal principles. Pythagoras felt that all things could be explained and represented by mathematical formulae. Plato, Socrate’s most important disciple, believed that the world was divided into two realms, the visible and the intelligible. Part of the world, the visible, we could grasp with the five senses, but the intelligible we could only grasp with our minds. In their own way they both sought to explain the nature of reality and how we could know what is real.
The creation of rational thought began in the Greek city of Ionia. The citizens there were open to new ideas and influenced by traders from around the world. Laws were invented by these Ionians and written down to express the will of their society. The greatest and most recognized Ionian thinker was a man named Thales of Miletues. Considered one of the seven ""wises men" of the day, Thales contemplated water and its connection with the universe. Blackburn remarks that Thales ideas: "mark[ed] an important change in western scientific thought" (68). Thales also used I statements when he philosophized marking for the first time in history a human used reason and the rational mind. Other philosophers surfaced in Ionia during this period creating the study of the "cosmos," or universe. They also founded the study of past human affairs or history.
He has a student who shared most of his beliefs, his name was Anaximander. While Anaximander shared Thales belief of material monism, he belied the material to be something different. He thought water to be too finite, and that even though there was a possibility that water could form everything, there had to be another substance instead. The substance Anaximander believed to be the one that made everything up was Apeiron which is the Greek word for boundless. He believed if everything was going to be made up of something the material had to be boundless and indefinite yet malleable. This material had to lend itself to be shaped or put in a boundary but not permanently, at one point it had to break to break down to become something else. Anaximander never really chose a specific material and left it as a "something" however, he was the first man to describe an early theory of evolution and gravity. Anaximander's early theory of evolution, was that he believed that humans came from a fish. He believed that the early humans had to have had a thorny skin as a way to hold water in. Furthermore, he believed that humans came from fish. As a way of explaining how humans survived the first ears of lives he suggested that they grew in the bellies of fish until puberty and then came out able to sustain themselves. Still, life began in the water. Anaximander, also showed early notions of gravity and though he thought that the earth was shaped like a column, he understood that something was evenly pulling the earth in place. Anaximander became a teacher as well and down his to his student Anaximenes.
Each person needs to learn to respect, have integrity and be unique in their own way. One will learn that through struggle and a lot of effort to overcome different situations. I think that like me the world needs a balance where some need to be more than others, for example some people need to be kinder in contrast to cruelty to learn from each other to either be a better person or stay the same. This world needs people who are open to accept changes to change themselves and how they live, because for this world to be a more healthy and happy place we need to start changes within our own.
immortality, death, and the difference between the psyche (soul) and the soma (body) are just a few of the
Physics began when man first started to study his surroundings. Early applications of physics include the invention of the wheel and of primitive weapons. The people who built Stone Henge had knowledge of physical mechanics in order to move the rocks and place them on top of each other. It was not until during the period of Greek culture that the first systematic treatment of physics started with the use of mechanics. Thales is often said to have been the first scientist, and the first Greek philosopher. He was an astronomer, merchant and mathematician, and after visiting Egypt he is said to have originated the science of deductive geometry. He also discovered theorems of elementary geometry and is said to have correctly predicted an eclipse of the sun. Many of his studies were in astronomy but he also observed static electricity. Phythogoras was a Greek philosopher. He discovered simple numerical ratios relating the musical tones of major consonances, to the length of the strings used in sounding them. The Pythagorean theorem was named after him, although this fundamental statements of deductive geometry was most likely first an idea from Egyptian methods of measurements. With the help of his followers he discovered that the earth was a sphere, but he did not believe it revolved around the sun.