Happy birthday, philosophy!

Today is the traditional birthday of philosophy, May 28, 585 BCE. It’s a great story, so I’ll tell a version of how philosophy was born.

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Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus (died c. 546), one of the first people to be recognized as a philosopher in the western tradition, used previously collected data to predict an eclipse that occurred — you guessed it — 28 May 585 BCE. When the eclipse came on the day he predicted, people praised him, saying he was “favored by the gods.” Thales, however, told everyone that the gods had nothing to do with it, and explained how he had used math to work out the date of the eclipse.

So, Thales’s explanation of his prediction came to represent the separation of philosophy, which relies on evidence and arguments, from the Greek religious tradition.
Since the core of philosophy is what we can work out with our own reasoning ability, I’m going to encourage everyone to celebrate the birthday of philosophy by doing some serious thinking. 😉
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Author: Matthew

philosopher, iconoclast, technoboy, musician, conjuration battle-mage, dean