Natural World: Beyond the Elements

Before the well-known and widely celebrated works of Aristotle and Plato, there lived a group of thinkers who Aristotle referred to as “those who first pursued Philosophy”. These early philosophers originated from Miletus, thus they are referred to as the Milesians. They enquired into the science of the natural world, hence they are known as Naturalist philosophers.

These natural scientists, Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, all participated in astronomy. Each of them studied the stars and planets, clouding the line between whether they were mainly philosophers or scientists. In Ancient Greece, astronomy was considered an aspect of Philosophy, whereas today the two subjects are divided by their individual attributes which uniquely classify them.

In 585 BCE, Thales himself successfully predicted an eclipse known as the Eclipse of Thales. This solar eclipse, according to the historian Herodotus, is the earliest eclipse recorded before it actually occurred.The truth of the entire incident, and just how Thales managed to predict the planetary event, remains uncertain. However, if Thales did figure a pattern in eclipses using concise calculations, and his prediction was not a fortunate stroke of luck, he may have used the Saros cycle (a period of time when the sun, moon and earth are in relative positions between eclipses), or knowledge of astronomy from other parts of the world. Regardless, fellow Philosophers were impressed by his predictions, including Xenophanes, with additional declarations from Heraclitus.

Similar to Aristotle, the Milesians sought for a basic substance from which everything is made. Before Aristotle’s theory of form, matter and nature, the Pre-Socratics had their own ideas revolving around the four elements with similar aspects. Each of the Milesians believed a different element being this core material principle:

Thales; water, for the Earth rests upon it
Anaximenes; air, claiming that Earth is a flat disc on gaseous air
Anaximander; apeiron

Thales and Anaximenes disagreed over which one was the most fundamental. Anaximander, on the other hand, proposed something different, something more basic than the four elements. This, he called apeiron, an unbounded, infinite principle which is indestructible (similar to Aristotle’s matter). The aspects of the four elements are separated and extracted from aperion into hot and cold, becoming each of the individual materials.

Regardless, to the Naturalists, the four elements accounted for everything in the natural world and beyond. Instead of appealing to a divine entity to explain natural phenomena, they chose to study the natural world from the inside, instead of the usual perspective of looking for answers in an otherworldly, supernatural authority. By appealing to the elements, they had natural explanations for disasters such as earthquakes, and even illnesses without God being the cause. They believed that all celestial bodies operate on the same principles as earthbound ones, so everything in the Universe applies to the same elemental principles.

This means that the Naturalists opposed to the popular idea that the Gods were celestial bodies themselves, they looked for natural explanation as opposed to metaphysical means. However, that isn’t to say the Milesians rejected the concept of God altogether.

“All things are full of Gods” - Thales

Although Thales believed the material principle is water, and Anaximenes air, the idea of an infinite divinity within the cosmos was still apparent and respected. As much so, that Cicero stated Anaximenes believed that air is God. Anaximander, on the other hand, labelled his principle of apeiron the ‘divine’, calling it deathless and indestructible, hence bearing the characteristics assigned to a Godlike deity. This gives us a different approach to the conventional image of God shared in religion throughout the ages.

Heraclitus, a knowledgeable, yet reputedly incoherent Pre-Socratic, wrote about his own reason, which he insisted was the absolute truth. Those who didn’t understand these Logos (meaning accounts), he compared to being sleepers who needed to be awakened.

“Listen not to me but to the logos: it is wise to agree that all things are one” - Heraclitus

Heraclitus’s logos stated that all things are one. Therefore, everything within the Universe, the sun, earth, moon etc, are all different phases of the same thing. Day and night, he claimed, for example, are one. The sleepers here are usually instantly confused, unable to grasp his concept of reality’s truth. Heraclitus, therefore, believed in unity within our world, and this unity was one of underlying order and structure.

The soul, also had an underlying logos, he stated. This logos is reason. All of our empirical senses of touch, sound and sight are deceiving - “eyes and ears are bad witnesses”. Instead, we must act according to our soul’s deep reason, our soul’s logos. Just like the Milesians, Heraclitus believed the world could be understood. However, he believed this was through the power of reasoning.

Unlike Thales believing the underlying principle to be the element water, Heraclitus believed the elements were characterizations of the cosmos, which constantly change according to the destruction and creation of the world. Therefore, the elements are not material principles. Instead, they are implemented by the destruction and creation of the natural world, which corresponds to an underlying, just order within the Universe. The constant changes continuously raging are structured accordingly to this orderliness, resulting in a world full of justice and instinctive regulation.

Xenophanes (born 570 BC), a philosopher, poet and skeptic of religion, also believed in the idea of a more singular God, in opposition to the general belief of many of his contemporaries. Being an atheist in this age was similar to stating the sun is merely a stone. Xenophanes’s concept of God is beyond mortal, cannot die but exists among men without bearing any resemblance to them. Thus, he believed in a single God, who is unchanging and eternal, intelligent and within all things. This opinion of Xenophanes implies he was an early pandeist; theorising that God became the Universe, instead of being a separate entity, who no longer interacts nor interferes with human affairs, and is not conscious. Xenophanes felt that the anthropomorphic view of God needed to be abandoned. The traditional, inevitable pattern of humankind assigning their appearance and characteristics to the world unknown to them had mistakenly become a solid, inescapable path. He reportedly stated that if horses had Gods for example, then they would appear as horses:

“But if cattle and horses and lions had hands

or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,

horses like horses and cattle like cattle

also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies

of such a sort as the form they themselves have” - Xenophanes

Despite this Pre-Socratic, early concept of God being an intelligence far greater than can be empirically perceived by humankind, in today’s society it is still an overlooked view. This concept is further explored, shaped and defined after Xenophanes by Aristotle and many others to follow.

The study of Animism reveals an intimate detail of how and why early civilizations perceived the metaphysical world as bearing similarities to mankind; from the humble beginnings of small tribes and the development of their relationship with the non-human. However, when dealing with conflicting views on the existence of God, the traditional, anthropomorphic image continues to be a basic assumption of theism. Although Xenophanes’s interesting view is recognised within it’s field and accounted for by many others, in a wider view it remains sorely overlooked in common debate.