HBH 36: The Greek Dark Ages, The Archaic Age, and Thales the Wise
The History of Being Human
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Thales' Life and Times
According to Aristotle, Thales was the first philosopher to try to understand nature without appealing to something supernatural or metaphysical. In his day, that's all there was: Why did anything happen? Well, it was because of some divine fiat or another. His intellect was too inquisitive for him to believe in any supernatural explanations at all. He realized that everything you see is a fundamental manifestation of three particles - and also makes cause and effect prediction nearly impossible.
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