The Merits of the Milesians

"The Merits of the Milesians" by Chad Trainer. Philosophy Now, Issue 69.

The Milesians were Mycenaean Greeks from Miletus (in SW Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey)). At Miletus they had a rich trading and manufacturing colony. Three famous pre-Socratic philosophers stationed themselves at Miletus. They were largely responsible for the "non-religious" or "non-mythical" origins of classical Greek philosophy.

The three were:
Thales - Thales described a world made from water/liquid. He believed that moisture was the essence of life.
Anixamander - Anaximander believed the essential material of the world was infinite, boundless, and intermediate. He thought it had no definite physical qualities of its own, and that it just acted as a medium for organizing matter.
Anaximenes - Anaximenes was the third in the chain of teacher/students, following Thales and Anixamander. He believed that "air" was the most fundamental substance. He was trained in geometry and applied a more rigorous, mathematical approach to his work than did his teachers.

Anaximenes had perhaps the first theory of the origin of the world without supernatural influence.

As Cyrus conquered Lydia in 547-546 BC, the capitol of Greek thought moved west to Southern Italy and the Mediterranean islands.

These guys were the first materialist philosophers, pre-dating the "4 elements" natural philosophy that persisted until the middle ages. However, it isn't necessarily right to call them materialists, because in their time, there was little notion of the mind/soul to contrast with the material interpretation of the world. Later materialists were rejecting the mind/soul primacy. These three simply hadn't thought of it, yet.