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| Thales correctly predicted a solar eclipse that took place on 28th May, 585 BC. |
The
dawn of knowledge and truth originated in the ancient Greek
city-state of Miletus. The tiny city overlooking the Mediterranean
Sea was packed with a number of intellectual minds, who would prove
to shape the development of subsequent Western thought. One of the
city's most honorable citizen was certainly Thales – widely known
as the founder of Western Philosophy.
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| Thales of Miletus |
While
Thales was considered intelligent by his contemporaries, I suspect he
has ever intended to be a strict philosopher in the first place.
Thales was in no way an armchair philosopher, because he was famed
for many of the practical achievements he has made in Miletus. With a
concentration in astronomy and mathematics, our founder of philosophy
used his observations and rational understanding to solve problems of
engineering and logistics in ancient Greece. Given the prosperity
and efficient communication in Miletus and the other city-states
around the 6th century BC, Thales soon became well-known
and he was acclaimed as one of the 'Seven Wise Men of Ancient
Greece', presumably a significant recognition in his era.
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| If you want to place blame on the one who discovered this geometric theorem, go after Thales! |
Thales
and the Eclipse
The
legacy of Thales is forever entangled with a famous eclipse that has
likely taken place on 28th May, 585 BC. While there exists
a number of alternative theories regarding the authenticity of the
account, many historical documents have stated that Thales has
predicted correctly that a solar eclipse would take place on that
fateful day in 585 BC. The eclipse also led to a side-effect : it
interrupted a long battle between the Medes and Lydians, and
eventually they made peace with each other. While the ingenious
speculations by Thales raised a lot of awe, presumably the
peace-making effort by the Milesian thinker was unintentional.
While
meteorological phenomena are certainly viewed under science's lens,
how did people from the 'mythos'-oriented Greece make sense of these
natural phenomena? Archilochus, a renowned poet in ancient Greece,
made the comment that Zeus has darkened the sun at noon after
witnessing an eclipse himself. While the poet's statement sounds
corny by today's standard, we cannot blame him. The supernatural and
Homeric outlook governed the thinking framework of ancient Greece,
and it was up to someone likes Thales to demystify the universe for
everyone.
Thales'
prediction of the eclipse not only sounded cool to the fellow
citizens in Miletus , that feat also represented a turning point for
one to understand his world. Thales's achievement likely arose from
the fact that he attempted to look for the regular patterns in these
observable phenomena that was taking place around him. By discovering
the uniformity of nature, Thales tried to understand the events in
terms of natural cycles. No, Zeus did not tell Thales beforehand that
he planned to darken the sun again to prevent a big brawl on Earth,
it was that Thales tried hard to make sense of his world in a
naturalistic manner. Therefore Thales was some sort of
proto-scientist : his work could be seen as the precursor to
empirical science, and the dawn of natural philosophy in the West.
Thales
and Water
Thales
has also speculated a possible first cause for the universe. He
asserted that water was the origin for all things on Earth. This
proposal is really primitive and sounds rather outrageous for the
standard of today. It was likely that Thales has observed the
preponderance of water around Miletus and possibly drew up this
conclusion. No matter how ridiculous that might sound, his idea was
actually significant in a philosophical point-of-view. Thales’
standpoint represented an example of material monism, meaning that
the ultimate reality of the universe consisted of one single material
substance. His successors in the Milesian school, Anaximander and
Anaximenes, proposed other type of matter instead, and the search for
the metaphysical substance of the universe became the preoccupation
of many later philosophers, when they developed the First Philosophy
of their respective theories.
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| What did Thales see in these olives? Opportunity for business venture. |
Thales
and the Olive Press Venture
Some
skeptics might say, 'Well, it sounds great to guess an eclipse
correctly and have some great speculations, but there is one thing
Thales is out of reach – money. How can one admire a wise man who
cannot make a living?' Thales proved himself to be the Daniel 'I
Drink Your Milkshake' Plainview of his age – and for him the
'milkshake' was olive oil. From his astronomical observation and
understanding of the cosmological cycles, Thales hypothesized that
there would soon be a great harvest of olives in the coming year. So
in advance he rented all the olive presses – the machines required
for making olives into olive oil – from the other merchants. In a
sense he has got hold of some many of these tools that it could be
considered an ancient version of monopoly. There came a beautiful
year of olive production, and this precursor to venture capitalism
succeeded. All the farmers with the olive harvest had to come to
Thales for the olive press, and as a result he made a lot of money
from renting out the olive press. To Thales, knowledge led to power
indeed!
I
should end with a funny anecdote about Thales. When observing the
stars in the sky, Thales accidentally fell into a hole with a shallow
depth. A girl helped him out and laughed at his folly, stating that
he has seen things far away but not things in front of him. While the
young lady has certainly provided a worldly advice, she was oblivious
to the reason why certain people would eventually shape the history
of humanity. Those chosen ones were not acting in command of Zeus –
they were just the ones who were willing to look further.
by Ed Law
Conatus Classics
