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Thales: His contribution to scientific knowledge
Abstract
The cosmocentic period of Western Philosophy was a child of ‘circumstance'. This
was because of the general dissatisfaction from Homer and Hesiod's explanations
of the universe. Their accounts were based on mythology, which could not attract
the attention and the fancy of the people for long. The cosmoscentic period of
philosophy emerged very promising with: A systematic approach to the observable
rather than on an ad-hoc basis; A focus on nature itself rather than supernatural
gods and powers; Arguments which were open to inspection and test, instead of
assertions based on mere authority. With these three major approaches, this
period attempted diverse explanations of the phenomena in order to discern the
underlying similarity, which could be termed as the ultimate stuff of the universe.
This of course is the foundation of modern science (Shand, 2 – 4). So, as
philosophy is not a community affair but a thought of a single individual, Thales
emerged as the first to systematize his speculation in a scientific manner about the
primary stuff of the universe and on other issues. That is why this paper is to
presents to us the contribution of Thales to scientific knowledge. Of course, we are
not going to discard his contribution based on what science is today but on what
science was as of that time.
Sophia: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 8(1) 2005: 130-135
Keywords:
Keywords:
was because of the general dissatisfaction from Homer and Hesiod's explanations
of the universe. Their accounts were based on mythology, which could not attract
the attention and the fancy of the people for long. The cosmoscentic period of
philosophy emerged very promising with: A systematic approach to the observable
rather than on an ad-hoc basis; A focus on nature itself rather than supernatural
gods and powers; Arguments which were open to inspection and test, instead of
assertions based on mere authority. With these three major approaches, this
period attempted diverse explanations of the phenomena in order to discern the
underlying similarity, which could be termed as the ultimate stuff of the universe.
This of course is the foundation of modern science (Shand, 2 – 4). So, as
philosophy is not a community affair but a thought of a single individual, Thales
emerged as the first to systematize his speculation in a scientific manner about the
primary stuff of the universe and on other issues. That is why this paper is to
presents to us the contribution of Thales to scientific knowledge. Of course, we are
not going to discard his contribution based on what science is today but on what
science was as of that time.
Sophia: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 8(1) 2005: 130-135
Keywords:
Keywords:
