THALES, ANAXIMANDER, ANAXIMENES,

THALES

Thales is considered by many authorities to be the first western philosopher and he was the Greek sage who predicted the 585 B.C solar eclipse. Thales lived around 624 and 545 B.C. a native of ‘Miletus’ in the seaport of ‘Ionia’ in the western coast of Asian Minor. Due to the geographical location of Miletus, it excelled in commerce, wealth and cosmopolitan ideas. Apart from predicting the 6^th century eclipse, Thales was believed to have a practical mind and an engineer who repairs things for military and invented navigational instruments and technique.

Thales embarked on finding out the basic stuff that unifies the multiplicity of our sense experience; this quest can be rephrased to be a problem of ‘one and the many’. There were four basic elements testified that time, namely; water, earth, air and fire. In answering this question, Thales named water to be that fundamental element that unifies the world. He reasoned that water is that element that brings life, all life, both plant and animal is dependent on water to survive. He also reasoned that everything is transformed into water, for example, liquid water can be transformed into gas (steam) or could be made solid (ice) and water comes from air inform of rain and returns to it inform of mist, when it evaporates from a dish, it leaves a sediment (earth) and when one digs deep inside the earth, he will definitely reach to water. Furthermore, owing to his native town (Miletus) which is surrounded by water, he probable thinks everything to be from water. Thales also believed that everything is full of gods and therefore possess an animate power in them.

Thales played a significant role in the development of western philosophy, his answer to the basic stuff underscores a metaphysical monism, in the sense that he proposed that there is only one principle in explaining reality, this was upheld by most of his successor only that some made recourse to an immaterial entity. He also deposited that this monist principle is a material one and lastly, he asked questions that has no immediate practical payoff but which demanded for a theoretical understanding for its own sake and he made contributions to answer the questions he asked. The turning point in the development of human thought is to be found in original question as much as in insightful answers. He made no appeal to gods or tradition and his opinion developed a ground for rational speculation and debate.

ANAXIMANDER

Anaximander is a younger contemporary of Thales, he lived around 610 to 545 B.C. in same locality with Thales (Miletus in Ionia) and some sources acclaimed him to be a student of Thales. Anaximander asked the same question like Thales did about the fundamental stuff and the process of change. Notably, Anaximander held the same monist view about this stuff like Thales but was dissatisfied with it being water. Anaximander stated that water is just one of the basic elements and it would fail to account for such element like fire. In answering the question, he stated that this element must be eternal, imperishable and prior to every other thing, thus it must be able to account for them. This stuff was termed ‘apeiron’by Anaximander and it connotes the stuff to mean the boundless, and the indefinite. Anaximander made no effort to identify the nature of this element because it is prior and the cause of every other visible thing and therefore must not be identified among them.

In accounting for change, he posited that the world is made up of warring opposites, thus one cannot beget the other but must come from a prior stuff. He explained change to be a process of separating out from and returning to the fundamental stuff. He further explained the boundless to be a whirling mass in which things flung out from and this in a way demonstrated how the planet received their motion. He claimed that through the effect of warring opposite, cold and hot were produced and so were every other thing. He also asserted that all life form including human originally came from the sea. In Anaximander’s view, the earth rests on nothing since it is the center of a spherical universe; it has no reason to move to anywhere. He also recognized that from standpoint of the universe as a whole, there will be no up or down. He explained the world to be an everlasting motion made up creation and destruction cycle. He retained the notion of moral force and uses the principle of justice to explain the cycle, everything borrowed its existence from the boundless and must return it one day.

Anaximander introduced a speculative reasoning of considering immaterial substances; the boundless according to its features is eternal, boundless and indefinite. He also introduced a form of philosophical criticism, having learned from Thales, he was dissatisfied with Thales position, exposed the limits and weaknesses and went on to make his own assertion. He also made effort to give a reasonable account of how things change and through his principle of justice, tried to give an early version of natural law.

ANAXIMENES

Anaximenes is a younger contemporary of Anaximander, he dates around 545B.C. and was the third of the Milesian philosopher. He asked the same basic question as his predecessor about the fundamental stuff. He agrees with Anaximander that the basic stuff should be eternal, unlimitedand singular but he refused to accept apeiron to be that element. He maintained that whatever this element should be, we must have at least a small knowledge of it. He asserted that this element is ‘air’ because he observed that air is more pervasive than water, it is central to all nature, necessary for life and can be found in every other element like water, fire and earth and the soul is identical to air. He further stated that water falls whenever it fails to be supported by the air, thus cannot stand on its own but the air is able to stand on its own, therefore, water cannot hold the earth as Thales said but the air can hold it.

He accounted for change by two principles, rarefaction or condensation. When the air is extremely rarified it becomes warm and then fire but when condensed, it gets cold, becomes wind, water, earth and finally stone. He provided an experimental process that when one opens wide his mouth and blow out air, that air would be warm but when one squeezes it as to whistle, the air that comes from it would be cold. He contributed to philosophy development in two ways. Firstly, he showed that abstract thought must be conceptually clarified i.e. when we claim the basic stuff is indefinite and we will know less about it and secondly, he involved a scientific experimental sort of explanation to demonstrate change.

SUMMARY

These Milesian philosophers demonstrated a sort of early epistemological and metaphysical positions. Thales and Anaximenes through their claim classified themselves to be empiricists because they held sensible entities to be the primordial stuff while Anaximander was grouped among the rationalist because his apeiron underline a conceptual substance. On the base of metaphysics, all of them held that a single entity should account for other numerous entities in the world, thus they were grouped to be Monist.