1. Everything is full of gods ~Thales
The First Genuine Greek
Philosopher, Scientist and Mathematician!

2. Background Information
Thales (Thay-leez)
Lived from BCE
Born in Miletus, a wealthy port in present day…

3. Because of $ = thinking
Miletus (the place) given the title of “birthplace of western philosophy” because its wealthy citizens lived lives of leisure and engaged in an intellectual activity known as…philosophizing
(Paquette & Gini- Newman, 2003, p.14).

4. Thales as Explorer Miletus Then on he went to Egypt
Eventually settling in Greece

5. Once upon a time in Egypt 2,600years , Thales wondered…
How high was the great Pyramid of Khufu (Koo-foo)
How high is it?
How do you measure the slippery slope of a pyramid by not climbing to its top?

6. Answers were found… IV VIII I
But Thales did not know this yet and no one could answer his question!
He thought and pondered and decided to discover the height of the pyramid by measuring it…

7. Running in circles around a triangle
The Shadow
But Thales had a problem-when the sun was near the horizon , the pyramid’s shadow was long

8. From sun rise to the noon day sun to sunset…
When the sun rose in the sky-the shadow was shortened
???
When was the right time to measure?
?????
So the geometer Thales ( Mathematician + geometry) “devised a method that was as inspiring in its ingenuity as it was beautiful in its simplicity” (Paquette & Gini- Newman, 2003, p.14).
His knowledge of geometry was very practical.

9. For awhile he was in the shadows
“He waited until the length of his own shadow equaled his height and then he measured the length of each pyramid’s shadow. At that precise moment , he reasoned the length of the shadow of each pyramid would also equal it’s height”
(Paquette & Gini- Newman, 2003, p.14).

10. Just goes to show the importance giving one the time of day!
Thales was credited with INVENTING a new way of thinking…a philosopher was in the making…
But the journey continues…
Curious Thales wondered…

11. What is everything made of?

12. Many = One
All natural substances led Thales to believe that they all shared similarities
Many = One
And the basis for everything Thales concluded was H2O

13. He relied on his sense of sight – observation
Water appears in 3 forms:
Solid
Liquid
Gas
Therefore it is the source of ALL things

14. Thales’ rational explanation of the world
All things come from water
Even the earth floats on water like a log.

15. X = yes incorrect! Wrong Answer!!!
Even though Thales’ conclusion was wrong
X = yes incorrect!
He was given 100% for ASKING the question in the first place and TRYING to answer it however, you won’t be!
He became the 1ST person in history to explain natural phenomena using Reason rather than attributing the answer to the gods or myths.

16. Doctrine of Hylozoism
This theory says that matter possesses life, or sensation.
Life and Matter are Inseparable
Soul is in substances
Anecdote: Thales saw metal filings drawn to a magnet…could not figure it out and exclaimed, Everything is full of gods.

17. Interesting Tidbits While studying the stars
Rumor has it …
While studying the stars
and not looking where he was going…

18. Interesting Tidbits continued
Thales fell into a well but fortunately by his lucky stars he was rescued…

19. Thales as Businessman and became a wealthy businessman…
by predicting a bumper olive crop and buying up all the olive presses available

20. Thales as Navigator
Wanted to know the distance from ships to shore.

21. Ship to shore Theoretical foundations of physics
5 theorems of elementary geometry

22. Greek historian Herodotus reported
Thales once overcame the problem of getting an army across a river by diverting the flow off water to run behind the army’s encampment until the channel in front was shallow enough for the army to cross.

23. Herodotus also notes that
Thales predicted the eclipse of the sun in 585 BCE

24. Thales just wanted to KNOW
The nature of the substance
Matter

25. Thales is a physicists
because of his devotion to cosmology-a branch of physics that deals with the cosmos or the nature of the orderly universe.

26. “
Thales of Miletus: Nothing is more active than thought, for it travels over the universe, and nothing is stronger than necessity for all must submit to it.
org

27. Characteristics of a philosopher:
Wondering…wandering
Curious…ingenious…conscious
Inventive…imaginative…creative
Thoughtful…resourceful…practical
Intelligent…astute…rational
Observant…creative