Thales of Miletus (circa 640-546 B.C.

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Reputedly of Phoenician parentage, Thales was the founder of the Ionian school of philosophy, and is regarded as the Father of Greek Science and Philosophy. He was also numbered among the Seven Wise Men of Greece, and was the first man known to have correctly predicted a solar eclipse (specifically, the solar eclipse of 28 May 585 B.C.) The sage gave his life to study, with the absorbed devotion suggested by the well-known tale of his falling into a ditch while engaging in ambulatory star-gazing. Having studied in Mesopotamia and Egypt, he is said to have calculated the height of the pyramids by measuring their shadows when a mans shadow equaled his height. To him tradition unanimously ascribed the introduction of mathematical and astronomical science into Greece, and in his spare time, he established the field of abstract geometry. Even today, the Theorem of Thales still bears his name. The theorem states that If the vertex of an angle moves on a semi-circle, and the end-points of its arms remain at the end-points of the diameter, then the angle remains unaltered as a right angle. The semi-circle (or also the complete circle) of this construction is referred to as the Circle of Thales. Thales was also the one who discovered that: 1) when two straight lines intersect one another the opposite angles are equal, and 2) that two triangles having two angles and one side respectively equal are themselves equal, and 3) that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles, and 4) that a circle is bisected by its diameter, and 5) that the angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal. As these theorems founded Greek geometry, so his studies of astronomy established that science for Western Civilization, and disentangled it from its oriental associations with sideromancy (astrology). In his old age Thales received by common consent the title of sophos, or sage, and on the subject of death his views were remarkably placid in fact, he maintained that Life and Death are all one. When he was asked why he chooses to go on living if he believes that there is no difference between life and death, he is said to have replied, Because there is no difference. We have another quote from Thales one that bears direct reference to one of the Two Greek Commandments inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi:
The most difficult thing in life is to know thyself. Thales

When he was asked what, then, is easy, he replied, To give advice. And when he was asked how men might live most virtuously and justly, he answered By never doing ourselves what we blame in others. This last quote reveals the profound insight which the wisest of the Seven Wise Men of Greece had into the nature of justice: Peace cannot coexist with injustice, and injustice is the result of hypocrisy the result of a double standard wherein we condemn others for doing or wanting the same things that we do or

Highlights of Ancient Greek Philosophy THALES 1

want ourselves. In other words, when its all right for me to do something, but its not all right for you to do it that will be perceived by you as an injustice, and will naturally engender animosity, and possibly violence. Thales resolution to the problem of justice was simple: His advice was to try not to judge or blame others for things that you forgive in yourself; but if you are unable to accept certain behavior in others, then that behavior is wrong for you as well, and it behooves you not to partake of such behavior yourself. Only in this way can we avoid contributing to violence-engendering injustice in the world. Only in this way can a man be virtuous and just. According to Thales, the original principle of all things is water, from which everything proceeds and into which everything is again resolved. This water of which everything was taken to be made was to Thales way of thinking a mobile essence, changing, flowing, without distinctive color or shape in itself, yet presenting a cycle of existence passing from sky and air to earth, thence to plants and to the bodies of animals, and back to air and sky again. Whatever we may think of this theory today, it was a significant breakthrough in human thought that he resisted the temptation to resort to the time-worn explanation of all things, that Things are the way they are because a God beyond our comprehension made them so. Preferring to search for natural laws instead of mindlessly accepting the mythological explanations of Religion, Thales was the first Greek to have attempted to find rational, natural explanations to natural phenomena, and in so doing, founded the fields of Science and Philosophy, and set the course of Western thought.

Highlights of Ancient Greek Philosophy THALES 2