THE PRE-SOCRATICS

The origins of Western philosophy are usually attributed to Thales of Miletus (fl. sixth century BC), who taught that “everything was made of water” and thus that the universe, all creation, was essentially one. In philosophical terms, however, the innovation Thales introduced was primarily methodological. In contrast to contemporary historical or religious modes of thought, which were broadly teleological in nature, he attempted to provide explanations in terms of the internal composition of objects and the mechanical principles they obey. The subsequent development of Western philosophy, therefore, involved a combination of this novel proto-scientific attitude with its emphasis upon investigating the underlying structure of the external world (as exemplified by the Atomists), together with a traditional mysticism that nevertheless took abstract mathematical speculation as its principal source of inspiration (thanks mainly to Pythagoras). The contrast between the ideal and empirical approaches became most prominent in the contrast between Plato and Aristotle in the so-called Classical Period of philosophy