Belief in myths, power, control, and jealousy
In Ancient Greece, the inhabitants grew up with stories of the origin of the world. These stories, or myths, are a lens the Greeks used to view the world and human society. A creation story. Hesiod’s Theogony was a compilation of all these myths of how the Gods came to be and a topography of the universe as it was known then.
With Gaia representing the Earth, and Ouranos the sky, life falls between the gap. Birthed inbetween were the Gods. Richard McKirahan describes their relationship to humans. “The anthropomorphic gods control the events in the world that fall into their various departments. Since the gods are competitive and jealous of their [rights], and since their departments are not wholly separate, the world does not have perfect order. The gods can be capricious, and phenomena occur through their arbitrary will. Further, gods can help and harm humans, so individuals and states must try to keep them favorably disposed by prayers and gifts, although even pious behavior does not guarantee the assistance of these notoriously fickle deities.”
For modern readers, these myths can appear as forms of projection describing the rulership and their entitlements. To defer our judgment to the Gods is to defer our power to them as well, and to the people who speak for them with divine authority. The value of the thinking of the Presocratics is precisely because rational thought requires natural explanations for events. It does not have to follow mythical dogma.
“Hesiod’s view of the gods and their relation to the world stemmed from tradition, which commanded belief. Theogony does not claim to contain either new ideas or Hesiod’s own ideas. Here too he differs from the Presocratics, whose accounts of the world were their own inventions and so were not isolated from criticism as well-entrenched traditional material can be.”
Why Miletus?
How these tendencies of rational questioning came about in ancient Greece, Richard cautiously explains that “the kind of inquiry that led to philosophy and science started in early sixth century Miletus is likely to remain without a definitive answer.” Nonetheless Richard provides some theories. “Several factors were doubtless relevant: the relative freedom of thought (including speculative thought) and expression possible in the absence of a monolithic centralized religion and political administration; a sufficient accumulation of wealth to provide to some the leisure for speculative thought; the fact that literacy was not restricted to a certain caste of the population and to bureaucratic purposes; the beginnings of the practice of reaching decisions through discussion (whether public debate or in discussions among closed groups of aristocrats) conducted according to rational principles; contact with several other cultures and openness to foreign ideas. Recently the advent of coinage has been proposed as an important influence.”
Second-hand sources
Researchers have another difficulty in that no complete works from Presocratic philosophers survived intact. Quotations and paraphrases in later works would include bias from the authors, and also transcription errors. Richard does offer some hope that it is “possible to sift through the information and develop interpretations which, though incomplete and not demonstrably correct, have a high degree of internal coherence, mutually reinforce one another, have some historical plausibility, and may be approximations to the original ideas and intentions of the thinkers in question.”
Thales
The earliest presocratic philosopher typically cited by researchers is the famed Thales of Miletus. Though, like the other Presocratics, none of his original works are intact. We have to rely on references from later authors, including Aristotle. When grouped together these references show that Thales made an impression throughout the Aegean.
For example, not to be outdone by the Gods, envy and jealousy follow advantages. Some of the ancient references to Thales document that “Pherecydes of Syros”, who was a mythological writer at the time, “was jealous of Thales’ reputation.” Another reference has that “Alcaeus” the poet from Lesbos, “sang of Thales.” As Thales reputation was handed down the generations, all sorts of achievements are attributed to him. Richard says, “There are three general approaches to interpreting Thales: the credulous, the skeptical, and the historically tempered. On the first, Thales is a genius who actually accomplished all that antiquity reports. On the second, he is truly a man of legend: a historical person to whom various exploits and accomplishments (some of them genuine, but achieved by others) have been falsely attributed. On the third, he is a gifted but historically plausible person whose actual accomplishments were transformed by tradition into works of genius.”
Geometry
In these early days, philosophy and mathematics had little specialization, and a philosopher could venture between these two disciplines. One of the early achievements attributed to Thales was bringing knowledge of geometry from Egypt to Greece, and discovering new mathematical proofs.
One of those alleged proofs was a distance measuring formula that could measure another distance that was normally hard to measure directly. The classic example was measuring the height of the Cheops pyramid. By using the sun’s shadow of the pyramid and measuring the shadow of a stick, Thales could, by measuring these facts, apply these insights to many different factual contexts, which included measuring the height of the pyramid.
Yet, because there are so many mathematical influences and possible people involved, it becomes difficult to assess Thales original contributions in this area. This holds true for his contributions to astronomy as well.
Astronomer
Stories of Thales’ ability for astronomy covered topics that resembled philosophy more than mathematics. One of those stories was Thales falling down a well because of his concentration on the sky during his many astronomical observations. A servant-girl made fun of him for his lack of grounded practicality. An insult pointing to the uselessness of philosophy. Another story was of Thales’ ability to use his knowledge to become wealthy to prove the value of philosophy to others. He purportedly used his astronomical knowledge to predict a large olive crop in the coming year. He bought rights for olive presses during the winter, and when harvest time came, he rented them out for a premium.
Early references to Thales’ astronomical knowledge came from Heraclitus who “testified to astronomy and his predictions of solar eclipses and solstices.” What is generally accepted is that the predicted eclipse happened on May 28, 585 BCE, based on following the stars backwards with computer technology. The other source is from the historian Herodotus who describes in his Histories, the battle between the Lydians and the Medes. On that fateful day, the day turned into night as “Thales the Milesian had foretold to the Ionians, fixing beforehand this year as the very period in which the change actually took place.” The combatants “desisted from fighting, and both showed a great anxiety to make peace.”
Again, the reader is aware that modern astronomical techniques were not available then. So how could have Thales realistically made this prediction? One theory was that Babylonian astronomers may have visited and influenced people in Miletus. Another theory was that if Thales visited Egypt he could have also visited Babylonia and learned their astronomical knowledge. The accuracy of their knowledge would be based on the year of the eclipse, and not as accurate as modern predictions. This matches Herodotus’ description.
Like in the situation of how legends are developed, it’s conceivable that other individuals could have made the same prediction, and their contributions were absorbed into the Thales legend. It becomes hard to convince the skeptical camp of his originality.
Water
The philosophical theory that Richard believes is more closely related to the real Thales, was the theory of water being the “material cause” of the world. Aristotle said of Thales, that he was “the founder of this kind of philosophy, states it [the origin] to be water. (This is why he also declared that the earth rests on water.) He may have got this idea from seeing that the nourishment of all things is moist, and that even the hot itself comes to be from this [the moist] and lives on this (the origin of all things is that from which they come to be) – getting this idea from this consideration and also because the seeds of all things have a moist nature; and water is the [origin] of the nature of moist things.”
Other sources attribute water as the source of earthquakes to Thales, which would have been more of a natural explanation than the typical mythical account of the god Poseidon causing the earthquakes.
All things are full of Gods
Some of the sources state that Thales believed that magnets possess a soul because they can move iron, and this he also attributed to the magnetic properties of amber, when rubbed or heated. Movement here is being singled out as a sign of life. Since life comes from the planet and water is a “material cause” for everything, and it moves, it becomes impossible to resist interpretations on what life is for Thales. Richard admits that this is speculation, and that connections between his beliefs in water and soul may in fact be separate, but he still ventures forth a theory. He quotes Aristotle who appears to be trying to make this water-soul connection early on. “Some declare that it [the soul] is mixed in the whole [the universe], and this may be why Thales thought all things are full of gods.”
Richard says, “Thales conceives of water not as a chemically pure substance but as moisture quite generally—in the sea, in rain, in sperm. Water’s unceasing mobility, seen especially in the continuous movement of the sea, rivers, and rain, reveals it to be living and so possessing a soul. Since everything is made of water or ultimately arises from water, the life-force of water pervades the whole world, showing up in some things more than others (just as some things are wetter than others). Moreover, as a living thing with no beginning in time (everything else owes its beginning to it) and apparently no end in time either, water is divine (since for the Greeks the primary characteristics of the divine are immortality and power independent of human will). Hence all things, being composed of or arising from water, are full of the divine. (This is not to say that they have any relation to the Olympian gods; in fact, the claim that all things are full of gods is to be understood in the context of Thales’ demythologized world view.)”
Legacy
Thales’ legacy was posthumously attributed to the seven sages (582 – 580 BCE), when they were first named, and was the only Presocratic to be included. These sages were listed similarly like the seven wonders of the world. Maxims and quotes of wisdom were attributed to them, but as before, they must be taken with a grain of salt since they match a lot of views that existed at that time. Just like popular quotes can be misattributed to people, when they are anonymous, the same holds true of these quotes.
Because of how important role-models are to all societies, a lot of this adulation represents the symbol that Thales is to be for future generations. An example of genius and intelligence for that age. As Georg Wöhrle says “every age creates its own Thales.” No matter how much history we accumulate, it can never replace the actual experience of knowing someone for a long period of time when they were alive.
The following quotes are a little jumbled so I chose to group some of these maxims together for my own interpretation. This is partially because these two sources I’m using have different translations. Readers can make their own interpretation in both Philosophy before Socrates, and The Milesians: Thales by Richard McKirahan. These maxims relate to partnerships, friendships, family, evil, happiness, self-development, and self-regulation:
Friends and partnerships
“Give a pledge and disaster is at hand. Remember friends both present and absent. Let no word accuse you in regard to those who have shared in your trust. Do not beautify your face but be beautiful in your practices. Do not get wealth in a bad way,” but also “do not trust everyone.”
Family
“Do not be reluctant to flatter your parents. Expect to receive from your children in your old age the same services you give to your parents.”
Evil
“Do not accept evil,” and I guess if that’s not possible then “hide evil at home.”
Happiness
“The most delightful thing is to get what you desire,” but “the good is hard to know.”
Self-development
“Lack of education is a burden. Teach and learn what is better. It is better to be envied than pitied.”
Self-regulation
“Laziness is incurable. Do not be lazy, not even if you are rich. Lack of self-control is harmful. Be moderate. Ruler, rule thyself.”
Theogony – Hesiod: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780199538317/
The Milesians: Thales – Georg Wöhrle, Richard Mckirahan, Gotthard Strohmaier, Ahmed Alwishah: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9783110315103/
Philosophy Before Socrates – McKirahan, Richard D.: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781603841825/
Histories – Herodotus: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780143107545/
Photos:
Measuring Pieces – by Fred the Oyster, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35157931
Philosophy: https://psychreviews.org/category/philosophy03/