The Miletians - Essay about the philosophies of Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaximander. PDF

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Essay about the philosophies of Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaximander. ...

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Maha Altuwaijri Professor Cosand Philosophy 110 10/19/19 The Miletians The city of Meletus in Ionia produced great thinkers, three of which were the Miletians: Thales, Anaximenes and Anaximander. I consider these philosophers great thinkers because of their ideas and theories on what this world is made of. During their time, science was not as refined or developed as it is today. They  were not aware about the Higgs Boson particle, nor did they know much about cellular and molecular biology. Nevertheless they were deeply reflective, evaluative and contemplative. They were deep thinkers and utilized their logic and what they knew as building blocks to theorize. These philosophers are material monist meaning they believe that the world as we know it is made of a single element or substance. Each of them, however, has a different idea or theory on what that substance is. Thales was known for his interest in Astronomy, in fact, he was once made fun of for falling into a well because he was looking up into space instead of investing his time on Earthly things and what is going on around him. What people didn't realize though is that he was not solely interested in Astronomy but he was also engrossed in geometry and engineering as well. Further, he spent much time pondering about the world as a whole, leading him to theorize that the world is composed of water. He claimed “everything comes from water as the originating source, or that everything is water in one form or another” making him a material monist. (Curd 14). He

believed everything is made of a persisting substance, water, that remains as the same substance but changes its characteristics to take another form. In addition, he believed the Earth is floating on water. He reached these conclusions by observing the world around him and noticing that everything alive is nourished by water. Although nowadays we might think this is a foolish theory given that we know about atoms, it is actually a clever one given that this was in ancient times and science was not as advanced. One  can even look at this in a literal view and think of a table, for example, being made of water in that the table is made of wood and wood comes from trees and trees survive off of water, thus water is the building block of that table. However,  Thales was only the first of the three monist Miletians and was a teacher to another philosopher, Anixamander. Anixamander was a follower and a student of Thales. He learned many things from Thales, however, he did not simply follow his teachings, instead he learned to further his own thoughts, ideas, and philosophy. Thales’ idea that all is water did not sit well with Anixamander. Although he is a material monist, he was not satisfied with water being the originating element. He rationalized that since all is one, and water is part of “all”, water cannot be the originating element because the thing that composes everything cannot be part of that thing, meaning the elemental object that creates everything cannot be a subset of “all”. He thinks the originating element must be something outside of “all” that precedes everything. Furthermore, he argues that water contains properties that oppose properties of other elements. For instance, water is cold, wet, clear and flows down, on the other hand, fire is hot, dry, colored and its flames go upwards, these properties are not only different, but they are opposites. How can these contradictory

characteristics originate from the same element? Anaximander did not know of an exact answer but he arrived to the conclusion that the world originates from a boundless and infinite substance, he calls the apeiron. Apeiron is an unidentified substance that carries all qualities within it making it capable of making up everything. Lastly, Anixemenes was a student of Anaximander and like Anaximander, Anaximenes learned from his teacher but remained an independent thinker and came up with his own ideas and philosophies. Although he learned from Anaximander, he disagreed with his theory and argued that everything is made of air. Not air as we know it, but a kind of thick  air. This theory might have people think that he is going backwards in his philosophy in that he went back to Thales’ physicalist theory on the originating element. Air, just like water, is an observable, physical element but to most people, an unobservable, unidentified substance makes more sense and is a better explanation for what makes up everything. Although on a surface level these philosopher’s ideas and theories about the world may seem quite different, they do have some things in common, afterall, they did learn from each other given that Aniximander was a student of Thales and Anaximenes was a student of Anaximander. To start off, these philosophers all agree that everything in the world is made up of one substance, making them materialistic monists. Thales’ and Anaximenes’ originating elements are both similar in that they are observable, we can see it and touch it and they are both persisting elements that retain their origin yet changing their attributes. Furthermore, Anaximander and Anaximenes do have things in common, despite the fact that Anaximander’s originating elements is unidentified and Anaximenes is quite observable, in that both elements are divine

and boundless  . Further, Anaximenes; and Thales’ theories have some things in that they both agree that the originating substances are definable and material.  All  these philosophers have interesting philosophies and ideas about this planet as well as outer space. Each philosopher’s theory has its good and bad points and one could agree with all three. However, in my opinion, Anaximander has  the most convincing and rational theory. I think this because it is what is most congruent with  science and the idea of atoms and the Higgs Boson particle. However, if I was alive during Thales’ time, I would believe his theory because if you look around, you would realize that water truly brings life to all things so it  would make sense to think water is  the origin of all things.

Works Cited A Presocratics Reader - Hrstud.unizg.hr . https://www.hrstud.unizg.hr/_download/repository/Curd,_A_Presocratics_Reader.pdf....