PHIL 232 Lecture : Greek Philosophy – Sept 12th.docx
8 Oct 2013
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Prior to thales, greek society was literate but not philosophical. There were tremendous accomplishments in other fields: example: hesiod. Unsure of whether hesiod or homer came first. We also don"t know if homer was a person or a tradition. Enormous deliberation in every word of his poetry: predecessors to thales were not foolish or unsophisticated people, they simple did not raise questions. Thales: predicted an eclipse in 585 bce, 150 years after the poets, thales and the other. Milesians came along: if anything has a self-serving motor, it has a soul. Magnets cause motion, so they have soul. There is something about the magnet that puts it in the same ballpark as other living things. Not as mysterious as we think it is today. Even something that appears to be inert can have the same kind of power as something visibly alive. Something about it is comparable to other things. The magnet must share a trait with living things.
