Greek Philosophers
...not include much time, if any, for thinking. Life mainly consisted of irrational acts that came together in such a way to form a somewhat erratic lifestyle that would not be very condoning to many in today’s times. Philosophical thought had just begun to evolve and Thales was at the tip of the spear. Until his point in time all unknowns had be assigned to a God, without any second thought. No one had thought about the possibility that there might me a more definite answer, a more scientific answer. Then Thales came along, who some consider to be the founder of Western Philosophical and Scientific tradition. He brought up new ideas and questions, questions that no one had ever asked before, what is everything made of? His answer, considered today to be completely ludicrous, was that the element that made up all things was water. Now if one thinks about this answer, it is not totally untrue or ridiculous for the time period, no one had attempted to answer this question before. Since there was no other research or beliefs to base his argument on, he could have made up anything he wanted and no one could have told him he was a fool, because they wouldn’t have known either. It would be similar if, in today’s times, someone asked you, “what do you believe is at the edge of space?” some might say that there will be little green men flying around or some might say that space has no edge, which in itself is a complete fallacy because the thought of something continuing such as space, always growing and expanding is ridiculous. But the point is that no matter what you say, you will be in someway at least partially right, because no one can prove you argument wrong at this point in time, not until many years down the road will people look back on what we thought and say to themselves, “wow weren’t those 20th century people the biggest bunch of idiots you have ever seen.” Now you can understand and draw parallels to Thales’ position. You cannot define the genius of a man by looking solely at the conclusions he comes to, seeing that knowledge is always evolving within the society that encompasses it. There are very few absolute truths to this world, so the ability to look back in time and prove any mans ideas to be wrong, shou...