UNITED THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

NAME: MAFUKIDZE MEMORY

PROGRAM: DIPLOMA IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES

LEVEL: FIRST YEAR

COURSE: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

LECTURER: REV O. MASAWI

ASSIGNMENT: 2 OF 2022-2023

DUE DATE: 23 SEPTEMBER 2022

QUESTION

Critically examine any three pre-Socratic philosophers of your choice from the Milesian
School.
The term “pre-Socratic” refers to a brand of philosophers who were dominated by an interest
in the natural world, mathematics, form, and a quest to understand origins, mechanics, and to
formulate hypotheses about the world. These philosophers rejected the prevailing religious
explanations about the origins of the world, instead, they sought answers from the natural
world. This assignment critically examine the ideas of three pre-Socratic philosophers from
the Milesian school of thought, namely: Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes.

According to Copleston, (1994) Thales’ cosmology held that water was the source of
everything, and everything in the material world was some form of water. According to his
hypothesis, water could take on many forms, and that it was capable of transforming itself
and differentiating onto all that is seen in the material Inasmuch as it is known that about
three quarters of the world consists of water, it is quite an error to think that everything is
some form of water. Scientists have identified only three states or forms of water, namely:
solid, liquid and gas. It would be sensible to say that things have a percentage of water, not
that everything is water.

Anaximander is believed to have lived from 610 to 546 BC. Wheelbright (1966:60) states
that “In his philosophy, Anaximander held that everything originated from the “apeiron”, also
known as the infinite, unlimited or indefinite or boundless stuff.” He postulated that eternal
motion along with the “apeiron”, was the originating cause of the world. According to him,
this motion caused opposites such as hot and cold, wet and dry, to be separated from one
another as the world came into being. This philosophy is nothing but an excuse for trying to
reject the religious position which points to the existence of the supernatural, because the
infinite stuff cannot exist from nowhere.

Fieser (2008) holds that Anaximenes opined that air was source of all things. Air was thought
of as a kind of neutral stuff that is found everywhere and is available to participate in physical
processes. According to him, natural forces constantly act on the air and transform it into
other materials, which came together to form the organized world. However, this kind of
philosophy falls short of accounting for the origins of the natural forces or the air that is
purported to be source of everything.

All three philosophers erred in looking for answers about the origins of the world from nature
because, for the nature to be in existence, it surely must have originated from somewhere.
Only the religious explanation which they rejected seems to make sense about the origins of
the world.
REFERENCES

Copleston, F. (1994). The History of Philosophy. Vol. 1, p 24ff. New York: Doubleday

Fieser, J. (2008). The History of Philosophy: A Short Survey. Available on

www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/110 accessed on 22 September 2022

Wheelbright, P. (1966). The Presocratics. New York: Odyssey Press