Encyclopedia of world history (facts on file library of world history) 7 volume set ( PDFDrive ) 403

pre-Socratic philosophy
Milesian school. His polis (city-state), Miletus, was
located on the southwestern coast of what is now Turkey. Thales is noted for predicting an eclipse of the Sun
in 585 b.c.e. More important, he explained why the
eclipse would occur, saying that it would occur when
the Moon passed between the Sun and the Earth. The
Moon would consequently block the rays of the Sun
and would cast its shadow on the Earth until it moved
on in its orbit around the Earth. This explanation was a
naturalistic explanation. It did not rely on the religious
mythopoeic explanations of gods, demons, or other
spiritual forces that abounded in the beliefs of that time.
This explanation is counted as the beginning of Western
philosophy. It served as a corrective to the poetic views
of Homer, Hesiod, and other Greek poets.
Thales, in a search for the ultimate unity of the cosmos, pondered the question What is everything made
of? His answer was water. This seemed to be a plausible answer because much of the surface of the Earth
is covered with water; water comes in solid, liquid, and
gaseous states, and water is the basis of life on Earth.
However, the answer, while wrong, is valuable because
it can be “falsified.” Answers to questions that can neither be proven as true or false have little value. Those
that can be falsified shut the door to further research in
that area and direct inquiry to other areas.
Thales’s immediate follower was Anaximander (c.
610–545 b.c.e.), the second member of the Milesian
school. Anaximander speculated that the basic “stuff”
of the cosmos was not water. Instead, he reasoned it
was an odorless, colorless, weightless substance that
he called “the boundless” (aperion). His thought was
that aperion was the arche, or source of all things,
and it was infinite in supply. His answer also initiated

“philosophical criticism” because it was a reasoned
analysis of the speculations of Thales. For Anaximander all particular things such as earth, air, fire, and
water had been spun out of the whirling mass of the
boundless. These particulars were in constant warfare
with each other. This viewpoint presented a primitive
form of the idea of evolution.
However, his view of “evolution” was cyclical. He
argued that the continual change in the cosmos was part
of a cycle of creation and destruction. By adding time
to his speculative ideas he was able to express a cyclical
view of history. In addition, by using reasoning about
the unseen ultimate nature of the cosmos he introduced
a primitive rationalist method.
Anaximenes (c. 560–28 b.c.e.) was the third member
of the Milesian school. He was a younger contemporary
of Anaximander. He rejected the speculation of Anaxi-

365

mander that aperion is the basic stuff of the universe.
He reasoned that the answer is of limited use because
there is too little that can be known about a stuff that
is “unbounded.” Agreeing with Anaximander that the
basic stuff should be eternal, unlimited, and at the same
time a singular “stuff,” and using the criterion of clarity,
Anaximenes declared that all thing are derived from air.
When this assertion is compared to the gaseous state of
the universe immediately after the “big bang,” when all
matter everywhere was stripped to protons, his answer
can be viewed as surprisingly modern.

INDEPENDENT IONIAN PHILOSOPHERS
The first of the independent Ionian philosophers was
Heraclitus of Ephesus (fl. c. 500 b.c.e.). He is known
as the philosopher of flux because he asserted that everything is changing and that the only thing that does
not change is change itself. He is famous for the saying
“I can step into a river once, but I cannot step into the
same river twice.” This means that the basic characteristic of the cosmos is “becoming.” Everything is constantly
becoming something else. Heraclitus taught that the basic “stuff” is fire. He went beyond physical fire to argue
that the fire was a divine reason, or logos, that was constantly in motion. He used the metaphor of law courts
to include a moral vision to his philosophy. The cosmos
is constantly changing, but there is a pattern such that
“justice” (dike) seeks to establish a balance. Constantly,
if there is an “offense” it must be balanced. This vision of
the world was to greatly influence adam smith’s vision
of the “harmony” (harmonia or concordia) of the marketplace that is controlled by an “invisible hand.”
Xenophanes (c. 560–470 b.c.e.) of Colophon (located 40 miles north of Miletus) is included among the
Ionians, but Aristotle placed him among the Eleatics.
He lived for a time in Sicily and at Elea, where he may
have founded Eleatic philosophy. Xenophanes’ contribution to philosophy was a radical critique of popular
Greek religion, specifically the works of Homer (Iliad
and Odyssey) and Hesiod (Theogony). The Greeks
were polytheists with the Olympian gods serving as
the public state gods. For Xenophanes the Olympian
gods lacked moral inspiration and were shameful. His
critique began the philosophy of religion. Xenophanes
was neither an atheist nor an agnostic but believed in
one god that was greater than any other and who was
utterly different. He also accepted the common ancient
belief that order was the sign of intelligence that ultimately was divine.
All of the Ionian pre-Socratic philosophers were

materialistic monists. As metaphysical monists their