Continuing History of Ancient Greek Philosophy In Verse .

**Friends , breaking my composition  into sections , due lenght restrictions **

Thales :The First Philosopher Scientist :-

Thales visited Egypt to study geometry ,
And also developed his unusual mathematical 
ability !
Back in 585 BC he became very famous , -
By accurately predicting an eclipse of the sun !
Those early days of antiquity , had no clear
divisions between science and philosophy !
With philosophy , science , and mathematics , - 
all were rolled into one ;
Thales became very renowned for his theorems !
One theorem stated that when you draw a triangle ,
Inside a semi-circle , it always had a right angle !
He was the first to introduce the process of 
deduction , -
Deriving mathematical statements from logical
observations ! 
He was an exceptional man of antiquity ,
Much ahead of his time , - deserving publicity !

ANAXIMANDER (611-546 BC) :

Had introduced the sun-dial into Greece .
His treaties ‘On Nature’ was the first 
philosophical work in Greek prose , -
Which the people of Greece had ever known !
For him the ‘arche’ was the ‘Boundless or
the Infinite’;
A space filling animate mass , a kind of
mysterious mixture ,
From which all things arose through
separation ,
Whose true nature he never described , -
Specifically or otherwise , in all his
deliberations !

ANAXIMENES (588-524 BC) :

A pupil of Anaximander - declared it was
air , mist or vapor ,
Which held the key to all reality forever !
From air all things arose through rarefaction 
and condensation ;
Rarefied air into fire gets blown !
But when condensed it transformed into , -
Wind , cloud , water , earth and stone !
Man’s soul which is air , holds him together ,
So does the air which envelopes the earth -
sustaining all matter ! 
Since all changes are produced by motion ,
and motion being eternal ;
Further clarification he felt was not needed ,
and had nothing more to tell !
These Milesians with their innovative philosophy , 
Tried to seek a single explanation for the universe ,
and its multiplicity !  (To be continued with Pythagoras
of Samos next !) -Raj Nandy .
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Copyright © Raj Nandy | Year Posted 2010

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