Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes believed that the Earth and, therefore, the universe (as far as they had a concept of it) had started from something: some fundamental force. They called this source of everything “arche,” which we could loosely translate as “first principle”.
As it’s a first principle, the arche must have been something big, something so overarching and great that everything could be derived from it. And with everything I mean everything: the trees, the oceans, the mountains, people, animals, your noisy neighbor, and so forth.
The arche had to be credible (at least, for that period). It had to be rationally sound and consistent with what we can observe in nature, instead of being based on the ancient Greek version of… “trust me, bro”. So, appealing to the conventional gods was not sufficient. Saying that Poseidon was the cause of earthquakes or Zeus the cause of lightning was inadequate.
Even though Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes agreed on the first principle underlying everything, they didn’t agree on what it actually was. All three of them had their own speculations and unique explanations for what they came up with.
Their theories were pretty interesting. Sure, most of it is clearly incorrect. But it’s important to remember that they were pioneers whose efforts profoundly influenced the course of human thought in the West. And therefore, they deserve our attention.
This week's episode explores the first Western philosophers: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes.
Einzelgänger
Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes believed that the Earth and, therefore, the universe (as far as they had a concept of it) had started from something: some fundamental force. They called this source of everything “arche,” which we could loosely translate as “first principle”.
As it’s a first principle, the arche must have been something big, something so overarching and great that everything could be derived from it. And with everything I mean everything: the trees, the oceans, the mountains, people, animals, your noisy neighbor, and so forth.
The arche had to be credible (at least, for that period). It had to be rationally sound and consistent with what we can observe in nature, instead of being based on the ancient Greek version of… “trust me, bro”. So, appealing to the conventional gods was not sufficient. Saying that Poseidon was the cause of earthquakes or Zeus the cause of lightning was inadequate.
Even though Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes agreed on the first principle underlying everything, they didn’t agree on what it actually was. All three of them had their own speculations and unique explanations for what they came up with.
Their theories were pretty interesting. Sure, most of it is clearly incorrect. But it’s important to remember that they were pioneers whose efforts profoundly influenced the course of human thought in the West. And therefore, they deserve our attention.
This week's episode explores the first Western philosophers: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes.
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