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 . ----------------------------------------------------------------