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ancient philosophy
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In 585 BCE philosophy begins off the coast of Asia Minor, and the search for “first causes” begun. The first philosophers were called the natural philosophers because they asked questions that could be answered in nature itself. It was curiosity that forced them to figure out the underlining source of all things. Wanting to understand how the universe came into existence by staying in the natural world not incorporating God into the process. They were intellectuals seeking ultimate knowledge about nature and the universe. The universe is alive to them because it is capable of self-motion and it is always evolving. The natural philosophers would explain the world order from within the world order itself while using reason as part of the process. They were material monists that believed that the source of all things was one. Aristotle is virtually the sole source to most of the fragments that are presented on Thales philosophy. There is very little information of Thales cosmological ideas, but enough to understand his first causes. Thales (585 B.C.E) was the first natural philosopher who was the first philosopher to ask the question “What is the basic stuff of the universe?” He believed that the basic stuff was water, and the earth rested in it. There are three basic principles that underlie this assumption, that water is the single source of the universe. The first principle is there is only one explanation of the universe; the second is this explanation must be a thing, and the third is this thing must have the ability to move and change. This was a new idea for Greek culture, but it was not for the Near Eastern culture. Thales brought this idea into Greek culture to answer two other questions. “Thales held that the earth stays in place through floating like a log.” It is an explanation for how the earth is supported in space and how to account for earthquakes. Thales probable derived his assumption of the earth resting in water from the Near East. “Those Near Eastern mythologies also told that in the beginning the universe was nothing but an expanse of water, a watery chaos.” He based all of his reasoning on this assumption. He noticed that the development of other objects from water could be a transformation.
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Paper Information
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Title: ancient philosophy
Words: 1908
Rating: None
Pages: 7.6
submitted by: anandaboo
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