Aristotle explains that Thales' objective in doing this was not to enrich himself but to prove his fellow Milesians that philosophy could be useful, contrary to what they thought. In another version of the same story, Aristotle explains that Thales reserved presses ahead of time at a discount only to rent them out at a high price when demand peaked, following his predictions of a particular good harvest. One story recounts that he bought all the olive presses in Miletus after predicting the weather and a good harvest for a particular year. Several anecdotes suggest that Thales was not solely a thinker but was also involved in business and politics. Business Īn olive mill and an olive press dating from Roman times in Capernaum, Israel. Thales identifies the Milesians as Athenians. Diogenes Laërtius quotes letters of Thales to Pherecydes and Solon, offering to review the book of the former on religion, and offering to keep company with the latter on his sojourn from Athens. Some say that he left no writings, others that he wrote "On the Solstice" and "On the Equinox". Thales involved himself in many activities, taking the role of an innovator. Nevertheless, several years later Thales, anxious for family, adopted his nephew Cybisthus. Thales answered that he did not like the idea of having to worry about children. A much earlier source - Plutarch - tells the following story: Solon who visited Thales asked him the reason which kept him single. The second is that he never married, telling his mother as a young man that it was too early to marry, and as an older man that it was too late. Diogenes also reports two other stories, one that he married and had a son, Cybisthus or Cybisthon, or adopted his nephew of the same name. Giving another opinion, he ultimately connects Thales' family line back to Phoenician prince Cadmus. Diogenes Laërtius quotes the chronicle of Apollodorus of Athens as saying that Thales died at 78 in the 58th Olympiad (548–545), and Sosicrates as reporting that he was 90 at his death.ĭiogenes Laertius states that ("according to Herodotus and Douris and Democritus") Thales' parents were Examyes and Cleobuline, both Phoenician nobles. According to Herodotus, Thales once predicted a solar eclipse which has been determined by modern methods to have been on May 28, 585 BC. However, the time of his life is roughly established by a few dateable events mentioned in the sources and an estimate of his length of life. Miletus was an ancient Greek Ionian city on the western coast of Asia Minor (in what is today Aydin Province of Turkey), near the mouth of the Maeander River. Thales was born in the city of Miletus around the mid 620s BC. Also, Thales was the first person known to have studied electricity. As a result, he has been hailed as the first true mathematician and is the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed. He is credited with the first use of deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales' Theorem. In mathematics, Thales used geometry to solve problems such as calculating the height of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore. He was also the first to define general principles and set forth hypotheses, and as a result has been dubbed the "Father of Science", though it is argued that Democritus is actually more deserving of this title. Those philosophers were also influential, and eventually Thales' rejection of mythological explanations became an essential idea for the scientific revolution. Almost all of the other pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world-without reference to mythology. According to Bertrand Russell, "Western philosophy begins with Thales." Thales attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology and was tremendously influential in this respect. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Thales of Miletus ( / ˈ θ eɪ l iː z / Greek: Θαλῆς, Thalēs c.
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