8 Contributions of Thales of Miletus to Philosophy and Science

Between the Contributions by Tales of Miletus Most important are the birth of the philosophy As rational thought or the principle of similarity.

Tales of Miletus (623-540 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and great thinker who also entered mathematics, geometry, astronomy and physics. He is considered the first of the philosophers of history.

Thales of Miletus made great contributions to philosophy and science.

There is little that is known for certain about Thales of Miletus. No writings of his authorship and what has been built around his person have been found, other authors did that lived long after him. Therefore, his legacy, while very important, is also somewhat uncertain.

Tales was born in Miletus, on the west coast of Asia Minor, in what is now the Anatolian region of Turkey.

Mileto was a Greek colony strategically located halfway between two of the most important cultural and economic centers of ancient times (Persia and Egypt), making it an important commercial and exchange point of knowledge between the hidden east and the Thriving west

It is possible that Tales had Phoenician ancestry. Considering that trade between Ionians and Phoenicians was very active at the time, he could have traveled to Egypt and received priests' teachings on geometry, astronomy, and mathematics.

Contributions of Thales of Miletus in the philosophical and scientific field

1- Birth of philosophy as scientific and rational thought

Thanks to his astronomical observations, Thales was able to anticipate a great harvest of olives that made him very rich, since it could be made of a large number of presses to make oil.

With these predictions, Tales's aim was to demonstrate to the Greek people the beneficial practical aspects of philosophy.

By systematically measuring everything around him, he tried to disobey customs and question the hegemonic views of the time, based primarily on mythology.

2- Emergence of the theology

Such questions question the theogonic, cosmogonic and Olympic tradition of the time, provoking a great leap from mythological theogony to rational theology without denying the divinity, but putting it in the critical debate. It is at this time when one can speak of the birth of theology.

3- Water as divinity

Together with Anaximander and Anaximenes, his disciples, Thales is considered one of the parents of the Ionian School.

They were also known as the"physicists"as they focused their studies on determining what was the" Arché"or" Arche " (Word coined long after by Aristotle ), Or ultimate principle, the nature and origin of all things.

I was looking for something that was universal and present in everything. East" Arché The Arche "Would be nothing more nor less than water, indivisible unity.

It was considered as constituent elementary principle for being limit, means of transportation and for its capacity to transform its state and form; For being fluid, capable of occupying interstices, subtle and at the same time violent; To change, but also to sediment, to stay and to generate life.

According to Thales, then, everything was water at first. It is"the divine,"understood not as a determinate or bounded identity, but rather as a condition, a character, a"being."

4- The divinity as a whole

Tales is credited with the concept of" Panta plere theon "Which means"everything is full of the divine,"in a much wider term than the present (of a single god).

The concept could be explained in this way: because there is the divine - understood as something intelligible, eternal and necessary - you can then speak of a whole.

For Thales, that which is principle, by the very fact of being first, already makes it divine. He affirms that everything is divine or that"everything is full of gods", but not in the understanding of many physical entities, but as a principle that welcomes the whole nature and is part of its vital dynamics.

5- Astronomical discoveries

It has already been said that Tales attached great importance to the study of the stars; Investigated solstices and equinoxes and predicted and explained the eclipses of the sun and the moon.

Also, thanks to his calculations and observations, he considered the moon 700 times smaller than the sun and calculated the exact number of days of the year.

6- Contributions to navigation

At that time astronomy was of essential importance for navigators, who were guided in their voyages by the constellation of the Great Bear.

Tales of Miletus attracted the attention of seamen by suggesting to follow the Little Bear which, being smaller, could give greater precision.

7- Concept of similarity

Through observation and calculations, Tales introduced the principle of similarity between objects, explained in his first theorem. This allowed for much faster advances in mathematics and geometry.

Thus, he established criteria of similarities in triangles, angles and sides that gave rise to his theorems. By the resemblance between the right triangles, and by observing the length of the shadows produced by the sun, Thales was able to calculate the height of the objects.

His most relevant practical case was the calculation of the size of the pyramids of Egypt: measuring with a rod at the time of day when the shadow projected perpendicular to the base of the face from which it measured, it added half the length Of one of the faces, thus obtaining the total length.

8- Found Greek mathematics and geometry

Being the first to demonstrate his theories through logical reasoning, he is considered the first mathematician in history. The Theorem of Tales are fundamental in modern geometry. The most important are:

  • All triangles with equal angles are equal and their sides are proportional to each other.
  • If several parallel straight lines intersect with transverse lines, the resulting segments will be proportional.

Constant study, observation, and deduction allowed Tales to conclude other reasonings, so precise that they remain solid in our day:

  • In a triangle with two equal sides (isosceles), the angles of its base will also be equal.
  • A circle is bisected by some diameter.
  • The angles between two straight lines that are cut are the same.
  • Any angle inscribed within a semicircle will always be a right angle.
  • Triangles that have two angles and one side equal, are equal.

References

  1. Carlos Lavarreda (2004). The Presocratic Philosophy. Editorial Óscar De León Palacios. Guatemala. P. 17.43.
  2. Ana Rosa Lira et al. (2006). Geometry and trigonometry. Editorial Umbral, Mexico. P. 52-55.
  3. Thales of Miletus and criteria of similarity. Recovered from tecdigital.tec.ac.cr.
  4. Series"Voices of Thought". Recovered from canal.uned.es.
  5. Such of Miletus. Recovered from biografíasyvidas.com.


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