Jiva

MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA
M.M.NINAN
GREEK ROOTS
Various Pre-Socratic Philosophers described reality as being monistic, and devised
a variety of explanations for the basis of this reality:
Thales of Miletus (c. 624 - 546 B.C.)
Thales of Miletus called the ultimate reality as water and soul is that which possesses
eternal motion. He was one of the so-called Seven Sages of Greece, and many regard
him as the first philosopher in the Western tradition. He was the founder of the
Milesian School of natural philosophy, and the teacher of Anaximander. According to
Bertrand Russell, "Western philosophy begins with Thales." Thales attempted to
explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology and was tremendously
influential in this respect. Almost all of the other Pre-Socratic philosophers follow him in
attempting to provide an explanation of ultimate substance, change, and the existence
of the world—without reference to mythology. Those philosophers were also influential,
and eventually Thales' rejection of mythological explanations became an essential idea
for the scientific revolution. He was also the first to define general principles and set
forth hypotheses, He was perhaps the first subscriber to Materialist and Naturalism in
trying to define the substance or substances of which all material objects were
composed. His innovative searches for universality in the disciplines of mathematics,
astronomy and philosophy have earned him the label the "first scientist".
Plato mentions the inscription in the Protagoras. The injunction is attributed to the
Seven Sages, who lived in ancient Greece in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, and are
generally regarded as the founders of Greek philosophy.
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