← Back
Ancient Philosophy
The Milesian School
Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes
| Bertrand Russell | Frederick Copleston A History of Philosophy | Anthony Kenny A New History of Western Philosophy |
|---|---|---|
1Thales - The First Philosopher Philosophy begins with Thales, who flourished in the early sixth century B.C. The advantage of this view is that everybody agrees in attributing to him the position of first philosopher. He was a native of Miletus, in Asia Minor, a commercial city which had important trade relations with Egypt. He is said to have traveled in Egypt, and to have thence brought to the Greeks the science of geometry. He was also an astronomer; he is said to have predicted an eclipse in the year 585 B.C. According to tradition, he held that everything is made of water. This opinion, though mistaken, is immensely important as the first recorded attempt to explain the world in terms of a single fundamental substance. | Thales' importance lies not in his specific doctrine that water is the fundamental substance, but in his assumption that there is a fundamental substance that can be discovered by rational inquiry. This marks the beginning of philosophy as the search for natural explanations of natural phenomena. However, we must remember that our knowledge of Thales comes entirely from later sources, and we cannot be certain how much of the doctrine attributed to him is authentic. | Russell is right to emphasize Thales' importance as the first to seek a single principle underlying all phenomena. The choice of water as this principle was not arbitrary - water can exist in solid, liquid, and gaseous forms, and is essential for life. More importantly, Thales' method of seeking natural rather than supernatural explanations was revolutionary. However, we should be cautious about attributing too sophisticated a theory to him based on fragmentary evidence. |
2Anaximander's Infinite Anaximander, the second philosopher of the Milesian school, is much more interesting than Thales. His dates are uncertain, but he was active around 560 B.C. He held that the primary substance is not water or any other of the substances that we know, but something infinite and eternal, which he called 'the Boundless' or 'the Infinite.' This infinite substance is in continual motion, and out of it all things arise and into it all things return. He conceived of the world as formed by a process of separating out from the infinite - first hot and cold, then wet and dry, and so on. This theory is remarkable for its generality and for its attempt to explain change and diversity in terms of a single underlying reality. | Anaximander represents a significant advance over Thales. By positing an indefinite or boundless substance rather than a determinate element like water, he showed greater philosophical sophistication. His notion of opposites separating out from an original unity anticipates later dialectical thinking. The idea of the 'apeiron' (infinite/boundless) is also significant theologically, as it suggests a principle that transcends the material world. | Anaximander's concept of the 'apeiron' is indeed more abstract and philosophical than Thales' water. It represents a move toward metaphysical thinking about substance and change. His cosmology, with its notion of innumerable worlds arising from and returning to the infinite, is remarkably sophisticated. Russell is right to see this as an important step in the development of abstract thought. However, Anaximander's theory also retained mythological elements, describing the Boundless as 'divine' and 'immortal.' |