Who Are Thales Reductionism?

Thales is the earliest known philosopher who thought about what was around him like modern scientists do today. He questioned why things exist, how things are, and how they changed. He came up with conclusions by ways of thinking rather than testing his hypothesis. What Thales came up with could not be tested or proven due to not having the means and ability to test his ideas in era he lived in. Thales had a way of simplifying what he observed into explanations for why things are, or how they change. Reductionism is a term that describes taking something that is complex and putting it into a simpler explanation (Palmer 13-14).
Thales thought the Earth floated on water. Today through ways of science we know the Earth does not float on water. Thales was on to something with his idea due to the fact that the Earth does float in space. This brings his ideals into a more modern approach. How did Thales come up with knowing that the Earth somehow floated? It is very remarkable how Thales could have come up with an idea like this in his time which was not scientifically advanced as we are today (Palmer14).
One of the beliefs Thales had is that all things are full of gods. This shows us that he comes from a religious polytheistic culture, and Thales himself was a religious …show more content…
Science has not proven the existence of souls, but many today believe everything has a soul. Thales may find conflict in today’s world when thinking about monotheistic religions like Christianity where a belief of everything having a soul would not work in that faith. What Thales thought up may not have been totally accurate, and he has been disproven on many of his ideas through modern science. He was close to understanding in his time what we know today and may have understood the world in a more spiritual way that science has yet to be able to prove (Palmer