Distinction between Greek Mythologists and Philosophers

But it remains admittedly that the best researches of scholarship have produced remarkably little by way of true antecedents (Barnes 16).

The one antecedent that is clear is that twain the mythologist and the metaphysician were offering explanations for the same crucial doubtfulnesss, such as wherefore are things as they are. Hesiod stands midway between the mythologist and the philosopher. His Theogeny represents a disceptation of the early Greek concept of the inventorys of the universe and of the gods. Hesiod's statement of the origin of the universe is myth, but it is considered scientific myth in that some of the gods he discusses are personifications of natural features or phenomenon. The first wee-wee was madhouse, sometimes referred to as the Chasm, or the Abyss, from which completely else emerged:

In the outgrowth in that respect was only KHAOS, the Abyss,

But then GAIA, the Earth, came into being,

Her broad center the ever-firm foundation of all.

The subsequent development of the earth and of life on earth is explained in much the same way, done the intercession of god-like forces and entities that become gods. Hesiod was much criticized by later theorists for stating that everything came from Chaos without indicating from where Chaos came

Thales was the first of the Presocratic philosophers who want a first cause outside the realm of myth. thales and his fellow-Milesians, Anaximander and Anaximenes, show a different point of thinking that marked the startle of philosophy. Thales began by considering the nature of change and the underlying substance that must change in order to form all of the elements seen in the world. The first cause was that which was permanent, that which always existed as the origin and into which all things would eventually disintegrate. It was the underlying substrate of all things and all existence.. It was the unity, the oneness, that was disguised in the plurality we see all around us. Thales original the mythic view that all things were formed of four elements--fire, water, air, and earth.

The question for him was which of these was the first cause. Of the four, water is the most obvious in its transformations as it is seen in the form of vapor, water, ice, and can change from one to the other(a) depending on the climate. We may disagree with the determination make by Thales that the basic stuff of the universe is water, and that everything is really water in some different form, since we know that this is not the case. His conclusion is slight important in the history of philosophy than the basis on which he made the determination in the first place--that there is something serving as the ultimate stuff of the universe, and that this something explains change spot itself remaining unchanged. We call this stuff atoms, and further divisions into smaller sub-atomic particles. The essential concept is the same--that there is a first cause. Thales thus made considerable forward progress and set in inquiry the philosophical mode of inquiry which would be continued through the ages to this day. He is also considered the first scientist as he sought-after(a) an explanation outside divine intervention for the reality and the changes of this world.

Anaximander's view
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