Thales of Miletus

Thales of Miletus

Introduction

Socrates method is used in encouraging students to learn efficiently. Socrates prepared his students to investigate and question the logical beliefs and principles to be critical thinkers. The Socrates approach applies pedagogy questions, dialogue aimed at helping the students to reflect on their understanding of the specific issue. Socrates is a real model to many philosophers’ this could be understood by examining some of the pre –Socratic philosophers. This essay   will focus on Thales of Miletus.

Thales was a pre-Socratic philosopher who is often considered the first philosopher and the father of western philosophy. He believed that everything came out of water and the earth floats on water, his main idea was to uncover the unifying principle of diversity, to him the earth could be rational, orderly and understanding being quite different from the Greek that saw it as unpredictable, full of chaos and unrelated forces therefore there was need of something to unify it.In Aristotle’s Archê means the source. Specifically, Aristotle talks about the arch of material, and Thales has some ideology that Aristotle teach us that everything is made of water or has water as a source. The philosophical interest of Thales on water generally shows several cases that explain natural phenomena. I believe that Thales explanation is logical; there is no appeal to therefore according to him water being the source of everything and something necessary to the survival of people and plant it was a unifying factor.

Some of his thoughts might not be the reality but, his believe on earth being on water may be related to islands near his home place and he was also aware of a volcanic rock that could float on water. Metal workers melted metal to form tools and with the fact that water can change into different forms then metal could be formed out of water therefore water could explain motion, life, ability to transform substances and the origin of earth. It is important to note that he rejected supernatural and mystical theories that were used to explain various phenomena by his fellow predecessors.

Thales also believed to have been an observant scientist because he was able to predict the solar eclipse of May 28,585BC, which till to date has not been known how he did it, which was later confirmed in the modern times although it is still has some controversy because he predicted the eclipse once with a method that is not known. From this evaluation I could learn that Thales was flourishing in 585 BC when he could be able to predict the eclipse. There is no piece of this philosophers works survived but testimonies. For instance, Aristotle some attribution to Thales four views, including all things are full of gods. Water is the arch of things, and the earth rests in water and magnet has a soul. I believe these views appear strange and exciting. It can easily be understood that Thales was hypothesizing to elaborate a complicated phenomenon, like why we have earthquakes, and yet earth stands on water, the philosopher work was moreover explaining than evaluating. Generally from the above elaboration, we can learn that Socrates methodology has highly been appreciated by many philosophers. Future researcher should show the alternatives of Socrates approach in philosophy.

References

Thales of Miletus http://www.philosophers.co.uk/thales-of-miletus.html

. Thales of Miletus in Five Minutes – The Pre-Socratic Philosophers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiyGnaBnIqk