Thales of Miletus - 712 Words

Thales of Miletus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus in Asia Minor, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. According to Bertrand Russell, Western philosophy begins with Thales. Thales attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology and was tremendously influential in this respect. Almost all of the other Pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence of the world without reference to mythology. Those philosophers were also influential and eventually Thales rejection of mythological explanations became an essential idea for the†¦show more content†¦Another remarkable achievement of his was deriving the theorem, popularly known as Thales theorem on basis of deductive reasoning. Thales is credited with the following five theorems of geometry: 1. A circle is bisected by its dia meter. 2. Angles at the base of any isosceles triangle are equal. 3. If two straight lines intersect, the opposite angles formed are equal. 4. If one triangle has two angles and one side equal to another triangle, the two triangles are equal in all respects. (See Congruence) 5. Any angle inscribed in a semicircle is a right angle. This is known as Thales Theorem. Thales’ method to find the height of the pyramid To calculate the height of the pyramids of Giza, Thales used the following proposition: two similar triangles with identical angles have their three sides in proportion. The great pyramid of Giza is made of more than 2.3 million limestone blocks Each of the blocks originally was covered with an outer casing of lustrous white limestone. This layer was later removed and used to build the city of Cairo. After this, the Pyramids height was reduced by about 30 feet (9.1 meters). Thus the current height is 138 m. Another real life application Similarity is a concept that is the basis of scale drawing in architecture and engineering, used in building scale models from toy model airplanes to scale modelsShow MoreRelatedThales was the First Recorded Philosopher from Miletus576 Words   |  2 Pagesdiscoveries. Thales is regarded as the first recorded philosopher from Miletus. He believed reality was defined by water. Water rests on earth, reflects objects, and conforms to the shape of other objects. During what we call the ancient period, 600-300 BCE, communities lived by water supplies. Water is necessary to have the ability to obtain other means of survival. As opposed to referring to religion, Thales rejected the concept of Gods on Mount Olympus. The reality beyond mythology for Thales reliedRead More Scientific Method Essay888 Words   |  4 PagesScientific Method Thales of Miletus (624-546 B.C.) was the first to suggest a single material substratum for the universe--namely water or moisture. His cosmology proposes that all objects in the universe are composed of water. His choice of water as the component building block of all matter may have been due to the apparent motion of bodies of water and the conversion of water to vapor and back. Anaximander of Miletus (610-545 B.C.) was the foremost student of Thales. He denied Thales claim that waterRead MoreEssay on Philosophy vs. Science1181 Words   |  5 Pagesalteration in the major world-view and brought it more or less to what it is today (Buckler, 605-608). As for science, it too cannot have an official beginning, but the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus created it as â€Å"natural philosophy,† and the thinkers of the time considered it a part of philosophy (O’Grady, â€Å"Thales of Miletus†). Scientific advances in theories and objects like the astrolabe gradually came about, though it continued to be either a philosophical or a theological branch for many centuriesRead MoreEssay on Philosophy1146 Words   |  5 Pagescuriosity. The things that caused these questions to come about were the people started to realize that everything isn’t exactly what it appears to be. Philosophy started in the town of Miletus, many early philosophers came from here. The philosophers started their work around 585 B.C. Thales, one of the early Miletus philosophers, left no writings behind, all we know about him is memorable incidents recorded by later writers. He lived between 624 and 546 B.C. His unique contributions to thoughtRead MoreElectricity And Its Effects On Our Lives1072 Words   |  5 Pagesdid this was named Thales of Miletus (Thales of Miletus - Discovers Static Electricity, 1). He was the man that discovered the principle of static electricity (Thales of Miletus - Discovers Static Electricity, 1). As you may expect because during this time no one was really interested in things of that nature and they also did not have the appropriate tools, no further research, investigations, nor experiments took place to learn about static electricity(Thales of Miletus - Discovers StaticRead MoreQuestions On The Origins Of Philosophy1760 Words   |  8 PagesT he first recorded philosopher came about early on in the sixth century B.C.E. His name was Thales of Miletus or what is now Turkey. The first three philosophers, Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, are known as the Milesians because they all came from the Greek colony of Miletus on the Persian coast and because they constitute the first school of philosophy. (Pg. 24) However, little is known about Thales due to the fact, there weren’t any pieces of literature connecting to him. However, he did makeRead MorePythogoras of Samos Essay examples1350 Words   |  6 Pagesdescribed as the teacher of Pythagoras. The other two philosophers were Thales and his pupil Anaximander, who both lived on Miletus. Pythagoras visited Thales when he was between 18 and 20 years old. By this time Thales was an old man, and probably didn’t teach him a great deal. Yet, he advised Pythagoras to travel to Egypt, and learn more in the field of mathematics and astronomy. Thaless pupil, Anaximand er, lectured in Miletus, and Pythagoras attended. Anaximander was interested in geometry and cosmologyRead MoreThe Origins Of The Origin Of Philosophy1752 Words   |  8 PagesThe first recorded philosopher came about early on in the sixth century B.C.E. His name was Thales of Miletus or what is now Turkey. The first three philosophers, Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, are known as the Milesians because they all came from the Greek colony of Miletus on the Persian coast and because they constitute the first school of philosophy. (Pg. 24) However, little is known about Thales due to the fact, there weren’t any pieces of literature connecting to him. However, he did makeRead MoreThe History of Physics Essay1534 Words   |  7 Pagesancient Greek port of Miletus as the beginning of the discovery of nature that we commonly think of as the original physics. The town of Miletus is credited as the home of a Greek philosopher named Thales and what is know of Thales is taken from the writings of Aristotle (Spangenburg 8). Thales is considered to be the first example of a person leaving supernatural explanations in an effort to better understand the natural world (Lindberg 29). If Thales of Miletus recorded any of hisRead MoreHistory And Philosophy Of Ancient Philosophy1480 Words   |  6 PagesMost of the early philosophers were looking for a materialistic arche. Thales of Miletus (624-546 BC) is considered to be the first philosopher and he considered water to be the fundamental principle of everything. He thought that all things were composed of water, because it could take all three forms (liquid, solid and gas). He also observed that all living things needed water to stay alive and grow. Aristotle wrote about Thales’ views: â€Å"nourishment of all things is moist, and that even the hot itself