How Philosophy Started

Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes were the first three philosophers of western philosophy, the monistic Milesian school. Thales brought the greek imagination out of mythos and conceived of monism, setting up the first big philosophical question; what is the arché? What is being, the fundamental unchanging basis of reality? For Thales the arché is water. Anaximander conceived of Apeiron as the arché, a rationalistic theory still part of the conversation today. Anaximenes became the synthesis of their two respective approaches, claiming that the arché is air. This dialectical triad sets up the precedent for the philosophic discourse and brings greek philosophy to a lively start.
#thales #anaximander #anaximenes

0:00 Intro
0:55 Thales
4:38 Anaximander
8:20 Anaximenes

Books Cited:
"A History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell
"Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks" by Friedrich Nietzsche
"Lives of Eminent Philosophers" by Diogenes Laertius
"The Beginning of Western Philosophy" Martin Heidegger