The origin of western philosophy is often identified with the first natural philosophers of Ionia
and in particular Thales of Miletus. Thales visited Egypt, but it was probably the Babylonian
astronomical records that enabled him to predict an eclipse of the sun for the year 585 BC. As
the most powerful Greek city in Asia, he advised Miletus not to form an alliance with Croesus of
Lydia, though it was said that he enabled the Lydian army to cross the Halys River by diverting
part of it into another channel. According to Herodotus, after Croesus was defeated by the Medes
and before the Persian empire took over Greek Ionia, Thales suggested that the Ionians establish
a central seat of government in Teos which would still allow the other cities to enjoy their own
laws.
Aristotle reported that to prove he could make his knowledge practical Thales used his
astrological wisdom to predict an abundant olive crop and hired all the oil presses in Miletus and
Chios when they were cheap and then leased them later at a great profit, showing that
philosophers could become rich; but that is not what they pursue. He learned how to calculate the
height of something by measuring its shadow. Thales speculated that everything was like water,
GREEK CULTURE TO 500 BC
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though he maintained that all things are full of the gods or soul and spirits and that the
intelligence of the universe is divine. One account of how there came to be seven recognized
sages in Greece has it that some fishermen presented a tripod to Delphi, and the oracle told them
to give it to the wisest. So they gave it to Thales, who passed it on to another, who did the same
until it came to Solon, who declared that God i ...