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How Is The Earth Supported?

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Thales of Miletus (c. 624 - 546 B.C.) is acknowledged as an Pre-Socratic philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from Miletus in Ionia. Aristotle recognized Thales as the first person to examine the basic principles. He was the founder of the school of natural philosophy. Thales investigated almost all areas of knowledge, among the many were, new ideas about the earth, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Thales had suggested answers to many questions pertaining about the earth. One of the questions was about, how is the earth supported? Others were about its shape; its size; and the cause of earthquakes. A lot of the knowledge we have about Thales came through other sources such as Aristotle, Anaximander and Anaximenes. Aristotle stated in De Caelo …show more content…

He also acknowledged the Astronomy of Eudemus. Solstices are a phenomenon that occurs naturally on June 21 or 22, and Dec 21 or 22. It is hard to determine the exact date because the sun seems to stand still in its position for a few days making it hard to make the assessment. This was a problem for the early astronomers. Flavius Philostratus states “Thales observed the heavenly bodies from Mount Mycale which was close by his home.” (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius, IIV) Mount Mycale was the highest point in Miletus. This would have made it easy for Thales to make his observations for his studies in Astronomy. It is widely known that Thales was also responsible for the finding of the Milesian School of Philosophy. Here Thales and his students Anaximander and Anaximenes engaged in a new approach to understanding the universe. Together they worked on the nature of matter and the nature of change. All of them had difference of opinion and Thales allowed them to express their viewpoints. Thales was held high for all of his wisdom. He was also a famous Mathematician. He reached to find answers to problems and came across geometry. With this he was able to tell height and distance. His understanding of geometry can be summed up as he says, “Space is the greatest thing as it contains all things.” Some of his findings in geometry were:
1. A circle is bisected by its

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The Ancient Greeks laid foundations for the Western civilizations in the fields of math and science. Euclid, a Greek mathematician known as the “Father of Geometry,” is arguably the most prominent mind of the Greco-Roman time, best known for his composition in the area of geometry, the Elements. (Document 5) To this day, Euclid’s work is still taught in schools worldwide.

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He was one that wanted to be able to understand the movement of celestial bodies. He was always searching for someone who could explain it to him. In document five it talks to us about how it was a struggle to get from place to place with always being surrounded by water. The causeways they built are much like bridges in our time it connected them from water to shore.

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He found the first “reliable figure” for π(pi) (Source A). In ancient Greece, the crude number system was very inefficient, and Archimedes made it easier to understand and count to higher numbers (Source B). Finally, he used the first known form of calculus while studying curved surfaces under Euclid, not to be later worked on for 2,000 years by Isaac Newton (Source A).

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Some of these things are geometry, trigonometry, and the Thales intercept theorem. Trigonometry was invented by Hipparchus, geometry was invented by Euclid, and the inventor of the intercept theorem was obviously Thales. They did even more than this by improving methods in math. They also made one of the most important numbers in the world! This was known as pi, the 16th letter in the Greek alphabet.

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Essentially, Cleisthenes was the person who paved the way for Athenian democracy and

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Thales of Miletus was a popular Greek philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who is considered the first philosopher and the father of Western philosophy. He had been the first person to explain the natural phenomenon with examples from natural explanations. He was one of the first to also to define general principles and develop hypotheses. Thales of Miletus son of Examius and Cleobuline was born around the mid c. 624 BC, sadly the exact date of his birth is unknown.

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Pythagoras is the son of Mnesarchus, he was born on a greek island in 570 BC. Pythagoras was known to be married with one son, named Telauges, and three daughters named Damo, Arignote, and Myia. Pythagoras is well know accomplishment is that he had proved what is known today as The Pythagorean Theorem. The Pythagorean Theorem basically states that the sum

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Pythagoras was one of Thale’s later students, but was also taught by Anaximander. Thales passed his belief to Anaximander about rational explanations, instead of using the roman Gods as an excuse for natural phenomenons Anaximander's overall goal was to understand the universe, and i believe he did a pretty good job of that. Thales also explained to Anaximander that the world Earth is a disk hovering above an infinite body of water . Thales theory was probably made because he looked into the night sky using a telescope hey saw the stars and he thought they looked like disk, so he claimed the earth was also a disk. Thales also established the school of miletus.

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The Gods of War, Ares and Athena, both share the same father in Zeus. Although they are both Gods of War their perception through Greek Mythology is vastly different. Ares is portrayed as brutal and strong whereas Athena is portrayed as wily and cunning. In ancient Greek culture, Women were second-class citizens to the men and this is translated to the Gods. No better way to see this is than between Ares and Athena, where the conquering, strong God of war, battle lust, courage and civil order is compared to the Goddess of war wisdom, good counsel, weaving, pottery and various other crafts.

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Today virtually every child grows up learning that the Earth orbits the Sun, but four centuries ago the heliocentric solar system, where the Earth orbits the Sun, was so controversial that the Catholic Church classified it as a crime of heresy (UCLA). In the age of early philosophy, Socrates’ is well known. Between the Socratic method and his line of successful students, Socrates’ makes the history books. Galileo Galilei turned astronomers on their heads when he discovered moons around Jupiter. Giordano Bruno didn’t back down from any of his brilliant and different ideas.

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It is believed that Thales perceived that both the beginning and the end of the earth was entirely water. He based everything that he believed and judged on basic reason and nature rather then tradition or myth. Thales also compared the elements of nature with one another to see how they interact with each other to create one force. Thales also stated that “all things are full of gods”, whereas Heraclitus perceives that the earth itself wasn’t created by a physical god, but forms of nature. Many agree with the religions and beliefs of Thales; water is the most important element in life.

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Each and every philosopher met with criticism, not only during their lives, but also posthumously. One of Plato’s chief critics was Aristotle. Aristotle was a student of Plato who enrolled in Plato’s academy. Aristotle questioned much of what was presented to him. Aristotle’s work was focused more on science and observation as opposed to Plato’s work which focused more on mathematics.

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Thales and the other philosophers that followed him “attempted to convey that there were natural rather than supernatural explanations for these events.” (Feres, Ch.5, pg.119). Moreover, another influential person was a man named Pythagoras (cs. 570-490 BCE). He managed to theorize that the “Heavenly” bodies where moving in the congruence of very fine mathematical ratios.

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            Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes were Greek philosophers that made up the Milesian school. It wasn’t rare for philosophers to build on each others ideas. In fact, the pre-Socratic was dependent on this idea. Thus, “Thales is reported to have been the teacher of Anaximander, who was, in turn, the teacher of Anaximenes” (8). As students,

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In the story, we can see that Prometheus knew how to steal fire from Hephaestus’s forge. He was wise since he was able to collaborate with Zeus so that he could avoid punishment together with other titans. He is also seen as a wise man since he could warn his brother not to accept gifts from the gods during the Pandora’s Box legend. He knew Zeus would be angry. Also, Prometheus was a pillar of hope to the Greek revolutionaries.

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