The three
known Ionian or Milesian philosophers – Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes –
are the earliest thinkers in this Greek period. They all belong to Milesian
School in Miletus, and they were the first to take stride in providing
unfamiliar answers to the primary question about the basic stuff of the world.
It is unfamiliar answers considering that the influence of religion at that
time prevails.
In
reading some books on these three philosophers pre-Socratic philosophers, one
may discover that the authors quote different historians of the field to put
forward a wholesome presentation as towhat makes them worthy to be called
‘philosophers’ including how their thoughts were shaped and other attributes
about their achievements. That’s the first thing I will do before presentingthose
simple ideas whichare indisputably theirs.
A. Thales
He is
known in the ancient period as the first Greek philosopher who tries to
formulate an answer to his basic question about the basic stuff of the world (urstoff). Herodotus claims that Thales
had predicted a solar eclipse, while Laertius Diogenes also claims that Thales
once fell into a well because of star gazing. And lastly Aristotle, one of the
great thinkers of the west, attributes to Thales two things, which are his main
ideas.
First,
Thales answers water as the basic stuff of all things. And second, he conceived
that there lies a soul in the magnet, for the reason that magnet has the
capacity to move iron.
B. Anaximander
Our
source on Anaximander is Theoprastus. Here are the accounts of Theoprastus
regarding Anaximander.
First,
Anaximander constructed a map for the sailors. Second, his answer on the basic
stuff of the world is the indeterminate. What does it mean by it? This indeterminate
is to be describing as a never ending movement which consists of different
elements, including water of Thales, consuming each other in forming the world.
It is a substance without limits, or in Greek it is called ‘to apeiron,’ and this is the material
cause.
In such a
movement, the interpretation of the concept of justice and injustice is found
here. When one element encroach another element, this is an instance called
injustice. And the only means for that element to pay its debt is by letting
itself be encroached by other elements.
C. Anaximenes
A little
fraction is left from Anaximenes’ work where we could draw his ideas.
According
to that fraction, he abandons the idea of ‘to apeiron’ or substance without
limits, and assigns a determinate element as the basic stuff of the world. It
is somehow a backward movement rather than advancing as what Anaximander did.
And what
is his answer to the ‘urstoff?’ It is
air. Air is the principle of life, and without it we will die. It is air that
holds all things together like our soul and the world.
How did
he explain further about his air, which is considered as invisible? It is only
through the notion of condensation and rarefaction. Air becomes fire through
rarefaction and solid like stone by condensation.
Other
things attributed to him were his idea of the earth as flat that floats on air
like a leaf, and the existence of rainbow as due to the sun’s ray falling on
the thick cloud. Since the ray could not penetrate the thick cloud, it produces
rainbow on the other side of the cloud.
A little
note on Theoprastus
Theoprastus was mentioned under the subjects
Anaximander and Anaximenes. He knows the age gap of these three philosophers as
he says that Anaximenes is younger than Anaximander, and Anaximander is younger
than Thales because of the word ‘associate.’
Anaximenes is an associate of Anaximander,
and Anaximander is an associate too
of Thales. Thus Thales is the eldest of them all, and Anaximenes is the
youngest.
