The Milesian School

(Originally written July 1, 2006 in Book 2)

The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1974

Chapter 2 - The Milesian School

Philosophy began with Thales, who said everything was made of water.

Thales was a native of Miletus in Asia Minor.

Miletus was a commercial city with a large slave class and a vicious class war between rich and poor freedman.

Thales predicted an eclipse in 585 BC; that is how we know when he definitively lived.

Thales is one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece.

Thales, according to Aristotle believed:
1. Water was the original substance
2. Water birthed all other substances
3. The Magnet has a soul
4. All things are full of gods

Thales, according to Aristotle's Politics chose to live impoverished. When his value and the value of philosophy was questioned due to his poverty he made an ambitious business venture that made him rich, proving that philosophers can easily be rich, but have different ambitions.

Anaximander was the second philosopher of the Milesian school, born around 610 BC. Anaximander believed that all substances came from a single substance, but it wasn't water or any other known substance. He believed that the substance was infinite, eternal and ageless and formed the substances on earth and many other worlds.

Anaximander believed there must be a proportionality between fire, earth and water (which are each gods). The problem is that each elemental god is wanting more than their portion. Justice forces them to not overstep their bounds. Justice transcends the gods in Greek philosophy and religion.

Justice was the supreme power, but was not personal nor a supreme god.

Anaximander believed in a constant motion.

He believed that the world was not created, but evolved. Evolution also existed in the animal kingdom. Man also evolved. All evolved from fish.

He believed that the earth was a cylinder.

Anaximenes was the third and last of the Milesian philosophers. He lived sometime after Anaximander and prior to 494 BC.

He believed the primal substance to be air: the soul was air; fire was rarefied air; water was condensed air; earth was further condensed air; and, stone was fully condensed air.

The Milesian School was important for its attempts, not accomplishments. The Milesian speculation "seldom show any undue intrusion of anthropomorphic desires and moral ideas" (Russell, 28).