Thales of Miletus (624–548 BC)

Was
a Greek-speaking mathematician, astronomer and pre-Socratic
philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of
the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle,
regarded him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition, and
he is otherwise historically recognized as the first individual
in Western civilization known to have entertained and engaged
in scientific philosophy.
Thales is recognized for breaking from the use of mythology to
explain the world and the universe, and instead explaining
natural objects and phenomena by theories and hypotheses, in a
precursor to modern science. Almost all the other pre-Socratic
philosophers followed him in explaining nature as deriving from a
unity of everything based on the existence of a single ultimate
substance, instead of using mythological
explanations. Aristotle regarded him as the founder of the Ionian
School and reported Thales' hypothesis that the originating
principle of nature and the nature of matter was a single
material substance: water.
In mathematics, Thales used geometry to calculate the heights
of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore. He is the
first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to
geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales' theorem. He is
the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has
been attributed.
 PRELIM ILP IN

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND

SOCIETY

STS (6116)
S. Y 2019-2020

NAME: DANA KRISTIA NICOLE SUMUGAT

SECTION: BSIT- ERIA

INSTRUCTOR:MS.JASMIN BULANGHAGUI