Who was Thales? Why is it important to know him? Well, without him, you can’t imagine science. He is widely regarded as the father of science. He founded the world’s first school of science – The Milesian School of Greek Science.
But how could Thales become the father of modern science exactly 2500 years back when the entire world was very primitive. The story of Thales isn’t only interesting but fascinating as well.
The reality is we still have very little knowledge about his early life. Thales began his career as a trader. Later on, he discovered an unquenchable thirst for science. Soon, he started studying science and a few years later, the entire world started considering him The Discoverer of Nature.
Born in 625 BC in Miletus, now in Turkey, Thales had a group of highly loyal science students. They not only took Thales’s teaching seriously but also went on to compiling their master’s thesis, doctrines, lectures, theories, and hypotheses.
Thales: A Man of Many Facets
1. Thales explained about Solar Eclipse. (Astronomy)
2. He believed all matter is alive. (Hylozoist – Philosophy)
3. He also measured Pyramids using the altitude of his own shadow. (Geometry)
4. The scientist believed that lodestones were living metals – it attracts iron. (Philosophy)
5. He conceptualized the Primary Principle of Nature. He felt all material in the earth is made up of water. (Physics and Metaphysics)
What Thales of Miletus Actually Discovered
The Greek scientist actually explained the natural phenomena in terms of natter interacting with natural laws. During those days, the people in Greece took earthquakes, lightening, the eruption of volcanoes, gale, and storms as the wrath of different gods including the sea god Poseidon and god of fire, Zeus.
It was Thales who first contradicted those myths and irrational concepts. He outright rejected those conventional thoughts. Instead, he tried to instill a temper of scientific understanding among the Greeks.
The Greek scientist successfully established the fact that such natural outcomes emerged because of climate change and environmental reasons.