Thales of Miletus : the beginnings of Western science and philosophy / Patricia F. O'Grady.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Grady, Patricia F.

Series:

Western philosophy series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Thales, of Miletus, approximately 634 B.C.-approximately 546 B.C.

Thales.

Philosophy, Ancient.

Physical Description:

xxii, 310 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Aldershot ; Burlington, Vt. : Ashgate, [2002]

Contents:

2 'The Writings of Thales' and 'Aristotle's Possible Sources for Thales' 8

The Writings of Thales 8

Topics on which Thales may have Written 13

Aristotle's Possible Sources for Thales 14

Anaximander and Anaximenes 15

Heraclitus and Anaxagoras 16

Alcmaeon 16

Hippias 17

Plato's Hippias 18

The Works of Hippias 19

Bruno Snell on Hippias and 'The Teachings of Thales' 20

Aristophanes and the Birds 22

Hippo 22

3 Thales ... Says the 'APXH' Is Water 29

Thales's Watery Principle 29

But What is this 'Nature'? 30

Material Principles as '[characters not reproducible]' - Generation, Destruction and Preservation 31

The Ancient Terminology and the Aristotelian Texts 32

4 Aristotle on the 'APXH' of Thales and some Traditional Explanations of Phenomena 45

The Cyclic Theory of Thales 45

Aristotle's Reasons for Thales's Supposition: Preliminary Comments 46

A 'The Nurture of all Creatures is Moist' 47

B 'Warmth Itself is Generated by Moisture': Heat, Moisture and Spontaneous Generation 52

C 'Another Reason would be that the Semina of all Things have a Moist Nature' 58

D Water is the First Principle 59

5 Thales and Mythology 71

Oceanus, Tethys and Styx 71

Near Eastern Myth 76

Common Themes in Diverse Areas 78

Common Mythological Themes 79

6 New Ideas about the Earth 87

Earth Rests on Water 87

Point I The Earth is at Rest 88

Point II Others Say the Earth Rests on Water 89

Point III The Earth Floated like Wood 90

Point IV Water is Lighter than Earth 93

Thales's Spherical Earth 95

Thales's Earthquake Theory 100

Traditional Explanations of Earthquakes 101

Arguments Supporting Thales's Theories 102

7 All Things Are Full of Gods 108

Thales's Views on the Soul 108

Sources and Interpretation 108

[characters not reproducible] in Homer 111

The Moving Force: Magnetite or Lodestone 112

Amber 113

The Influence of Thales's Cosmology 114

Thales's Successors 114

'All Things are Full of Gods' 117

The Life Force 121

8 New Ideas about the Cosmos 126

The Eclipse of Thales 126

A The Ancient Testimony 126

B The Saros Period 129

C Near Eastern Heavenly Observations 133

Thales's Comprehension of Eclipse Phenomena 142

Setting the Solstices 147

Thales's Determination of the Diameters of the Sun and the Moon 150

The Seasons and the Calendar 155

Ancient Calendars 155

The Earliest Greek Calendars 156

Thales and Greek Calendars: a supposition 157

Cleostratus of Tenedos 161

Thales's 'Discovery' of the Seasons 163

9 Crossing the Halys 178

10 Thales the Mathematician 191

The Ancient Sources on the Discovery of Geometry 191

Democritus and the Relevance of the Harpedonaptae 194

The 'Treatises with Proof' of Democritus's Claim 194

The Travels of Democritus 196

The Harpedonaptae 196

Plato and Aristotle 198

Mathematics and Mensuration in Egypt 199

Thales and Greek Geometry 202

The Theorems Attributed to Thales 203

Euclid 1.5 204

Euclid 1.15 205

Euclid 1.26 205

Measuring the height of a pyramid 206

The Seqt and The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus 208

Suggested methods of the utilization of Theorem 1.26 209

The suggested application of Euclid 6.4 211

Euclid 3.31 211

The Sacrifice of an Ox 213

11 Scientificity and Rationality 222

Criticism, Rationality and Science 223

The Milesian School 226

Rationality 228

Induction 229

Falsification of Thales's Watery Thesis 232

Testability and Falsifiability 234

Experimentation and Science 236

Economy and Multiple Hidden Entities 240.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

0754605337

OCLC:

48571444