Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each explanatory move by whether it is characteristic of mythological or Milesian explanation.
Groups: Mythological explanation · Milesian explanation
- The origin must be unobservable because no observable will do
- The world came about through the acts of divine agents
- All substances arise from one material by a uniform process
- The earth stays put because nothing distinguishes any direction
- The sea storms because a god is angry
Hints
- Ask whether the explanation appeals to an agent with intentions or to a uniform principle.
- Agency and intention mark the mythological side.
Show the answer
Mythological explanation: The sea storms because a god is angry, The world came about through the acts of divine agents
Milesian explanation: All substances arise from one material by a uniform process, The origin must be unobservable because no observable will do, The earth stays put because nothing distinguishes any direction
Why
The dividing line is agency. Myth explains by what someone wanted; the Milesians explain by what always happens. Every explanation on the right could in principle be argued about, which is the point.
Practise The Milesians
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Philosophy I is free to start.
More questions on The Milesians
- What makes the Milesians the first philosophers rather than simply early scientists or theologians?
- Which considerations plausibly supported Thales’ choice of water as the archē?
- Anaximander argued that the earth remains at the centre of things because it is held up by symmetry, having…
- Arrange the Milesian thinkers in chronological order and note how each responds to the one before.
- Thales famously asserted that 'all things are full of gods'. Given the overarching Milesian shift away from…
- Complete the account of Anaximander’s argument for the apeiron.