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The Greek philosopher, Thales was born around 624BC, the son of Examyes and Cleobuline. While some believe his lineage was Phoenician, most consider him to be Milesian (Miletus, Asia Minor, now Turkey). He came from a distinguished family.

It is difficult to write about Thales, since none of his own writing survives.

He was an engineer, scientist, mathematician, and philosopher, the first natural philosopher in the Milesian School. It is also thought that he was the teacher of Anaximander (611 BC - 545 BC).

There are those who believe he wrote a book on navigation, but there is little evidence of such a tome. In fact, if he wrote any works at all, they did not even survive until the time of Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC). Whether the book ever existed, Thales probably did define the constellation Ursa Minor.

Despite the fact that much of what is known about thalse is pure hear-say, he was definitely well respected in ancient Greece, being the only philosopher before Socrates to be among the Seven Sages.

There are reports that Thales predicted an eclipse of the Sun in 585 BC. While the 19 year cycle for Lunar eclipses was well known by this time, solar eclipses were harder to predict, since they were visible from different locations on Earth. Most likely, if he did make such a predictipon, it was a lucky guess based on experience saying that another eclipse was due.

After the eclipse on 28 May, 585 BC Herodotus wrote, "Day was all of a sudden changed into night. This event had been foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who forewarned the Ionians of it, fixing for it the very year in which it took place. The Medes and Lydians, when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on."

Santosh jha

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