He founded the earliest philosophical school in Greece, namely: the School of Miletus, he is the head of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece, known as the "ancestor of philosophy and science", he is recognized as the "first person of Western philosophy", because he proposed the first philosophical proposition and was honored as the "father of Western philosophy", his philosophical ideas influenced such as Heraclitus and other later masters, he was the great Greek thinker, scientist and philosopher Thales. Today, let's enjoy the six aphorisms of this sage more than 2,600 years ago, experience its ideological connotations, and enter his spiritual world.
It is said that Thales was born into a slave-owning aristocratic family with a complex family lineage, and a good family situation allowed him to receive a good education. In the early days, Thales was in business and traveled to many eastern countries, covering ancient Babylon, ancient Egypt, the plains of Mesopotamia, etc., and learned astronomy, land measurement, mathematics and other knowledge in other countries. But he is not good at business, and in the eyes of others, he always does something useless and is often ridiculed. Later, Thales began to study philosophy, recruited disciples, and founded the School of Miletus, and Pythagoras is said to have sought Thales for advice.
Thales studied astrology and geometry, and he calculated the height of the pyramids based on the proportion of height to figures; he foresaw eclipses, successfully predicted rain the next day, saw the ancient Greeks harvest olives, and had the foresight to rent oil mills, made a fortune, and fought back with practical actions against those who questioned him. In that era, Thales's assumptions were incomprehensible to the ancient Greeks, who thought that his research could not be eaten as a meal at all. But he made a lot of money and was very good at using money, and although the money he made was not philosophical, he had foresight under the voice of doubt, or he had a deeper sense of practice that made him have a sense of business.
Life, soul, water is the basic category of Thales's natural philosophy, he believes that everything is alive, and life is dynamic, variable, so he believes that everything has a soul. In ancient Greece, it was believed that "soul" was defined as a "factor of life", with which there was a change in life, and in Thales's theory of thought, "soul" and "life" were inseparable. In Thales's view, all life is produced by water, composed of water, and all things are formed from water, thus forming the core idea that "water is the source of all things".
The background of the emergence of Thales's natural philosophical thought is inextricably linked to the ancient Greek people's understanding and imagination of nature, especially the ancient Greek mythology contains a strong philosophical concept of thought, but myth is not a philosophical thought, people are framed in myths, bound, in this reality, the emergence of Thales's natural philosophical view, breaking the mythological ideological defects, rationally looking at the world. In addition, because Thales was from an aristocratic background, he should have represented the slave-owning class, but his new doctrine broke with tradition, and in the class of industrial and commercial slave owners, it shook the foundation of mythological thought, and under the resistance of mainstream thought, Thales's new ideological rationality promoted the historical process and led mankind into a new era of thought.
In addition, Thales's natural philosophical thought not only breaks the pattern of Western mythological thought and leads people to the enlightenment of civilization, but also cares for the basic characteristics of human philosophical rational thinking, so that the light of human rationality is more divergent. Moreover, we must admire the courage of Thales to put forward natural philosophical ideas, because he himself was a class of aristocratic slave owners, he did not adhere to mythological thinking, dared to put forward criticism and doubt, and thus formed his own natural philosophical thought. It is worth mentioning that Thales combined his inner confusion with the observation and verification of the external world, breaking through the mainstream thinking of the time, leading mankind to a more civilized level, and opening the door to human rational thinking.
In short, Thales is a forerunner who can break with traditional thinking and find the "key" to human civilization. Thales is recognized by posterity as the world's first philosopher, and at the age of 78, he sat on the field of the 58th Olympia Games in ancient Greece, calmly departed, and walked through his life. Today, we will enjoy the six aphorisms of Thales, who is known as the "father of Western philosophy" in ancient Greece, and understand the thoughts of the sages 2600 years ago.