DidimGuide Travel Tourism Guide

The City Of Thales Page 2

IONIAN THINKERS
In the 6th century B.C. Ionia produced a number of thinkers who devoted themselves to the study of the universe and the discovery of the laws of nature. In this way they broke the chains of religion and bigotry which had existed up to that time and showed that natural phenomena were governed, not by mysterious forces but by natural laws.
HERACLEITUS (540-480 B.C.)
Heracleitus was born and brought up in Ephesus. He concentrated on the problem of existence. He believed that fire was the essence of the universe, and also believed in the transitory nature of all things, the apparent permanence and stability of things within this actual transistorises being mere illusion. The appearance of permanency arises from the fact that change is governed not by chance but by certain laws and takes place in accordance with a certain order. Heracleitus named this order "LOGOS". The universe is governed by law and it is the task of reason to discover this law.
ANAXAGORAS
A native of Clazomenae (Guladasi), Anaxagoras was one of the most important of the 5th century thinkers. In 462 he went to Athens, where he spent the next thirty years of his life. He won fame as a mathematician, while at the same time making some very important discoveries in astronomy. He explained the problem of the light from the moon and of the eclipse of the sun and moon.
According to Anaxagoras there were many elements distinguished by different qualities produced not by the entry into the compound of new elements but by the separation of elements in the compounds.
He introduced the idea of the atom and its possible separation. He was sentenced to death in Athens for denying the divinity of the sun and moon and declaring that they consisted of masses of material.
XENOPHANES (569-477 B.C.)
A contemporary of Heracleitus, Xenophanes was a native of the city of Colophon. He might be regarded as a religious teacher rather than a philosopher.
He opposed the anthropomorphic approach to the gods. He believed in a single god of a wholly intellectual nature, a philosophical approach that constituted the first step on the road towards monotheism.
DEMOCRITUS (460-390 B.C.)
Democritus was a native of Teos. Only a few fragments of his works have survived. He declared that a single scientific discovery was worth more than being King of Persia. According to Democritus, nothing disappears or changes its form, it always remains the same. But besides being, there is also non-being, i.e. empty space. According to Democritus, matter is composed of indivisible, invisible particles distinguished in form, position in space, size and weight. These particles Democritus called "atoms".
Democritus thus laid the foundations of a mechanist approach to natural philosophy, but in ancient times his views were to remain undeveloped. His approach to natural philosophy was taken up again only at the beginning of the modern age. He was the first to discover the law of cause and effect.
THALES (625-545 B.C.)
Thales is recognised as the founder of Western philosophy. He believed that water formed the essence of matter, and is renowned for having forecast the eclipse of the sun that took place on the 28 May 585 B.C. None of his writings have survived. He advised sailors to take their bearings from the LITTLE DIPPER rather than the BIG DIPPER formed by the northern stars. He is said to have used geometry to calculate the height of the Egyptian pyramids and the distance of a ship from the shore. He is universally agreed to have foreseen the eclipse of the sun which brought the battle between the Lydian King Alyattes and Cyaxares, King of the Medes, to an end. He was the discoverer of a number of geometrical theorems. 1. The diameter divides the circumference into two equal sections, 2. The two angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal, 3. The opposite angles at the point of intersection of two straight lines are equal. 4. Two straight lines from a point on the circumference of a circle to the ends of the diameter form a right angle. Thales' material approach to the universe constituted a break with traditional mythological explanations. Both sides in the battle mentioned above broke off hostilities in the belief that this was a sign from the gods. Thales had calculated the time of the eclipse beforehand and informed the Lydian's accordingly.