Book 1: Chapter 2, The Milesian School Summary and Analysis

The first to engage in philosophy was Thales, although he engaged more in scientific explorations. He lived in a Greek city of Miletus, in Asia Minor, where constant struggle between slaves and aristocrats was common. Miletus developed politically and economically as part of Ionia as a commercial city with friendly relations with Egypt, especially in trade.

Thales was known to predict en eclipse that took place in 585 BC. As Miletus was in good relations with Lydia, having strong cultural relations with Babylonia, it derived from there the knowledge of recurring ecliptical cycles and its prediction. When traveling through Egypt, Thales discovered how to calculate the ship distance at sea and the height of the pyramid from its shadow. He regarded everything as made of water that modern science also partly confirmed. Aristotle proved...