THE FIRST SCIENTIST

Anaximander (c. 610 B.C. - c. 546 B.C.) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in a city named Miletus. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of Thales, his teacher. He succeeded Thales and became the second master of that school where he counted Anaximenes and Pythagoras amongst his pupils.

His contributions to philosophy relate to many disciplines. In astronomy, he tried to describe the mechanics of celestial bodies in relation to Earth. In physics, his postulation that the indefinite (or apeiron) was the source of all things led Greek philosophy to a new level of conceptual abstraction. His knowledge of geometry allowed him to introduce the gnomon in Greece. He created a map of the world that contributed greatly to the advancement of geography.

With his assertion that physical forces, rather than supernatural means, create order in the universe, Anaximander can be considered the first scientist. He is known to have conducted the earliest recorded scientific experiment.

He apparently wrote treatises on geography, astronomy, and cosmology that survived for several centuries and made a map of the known world. He was the first thinker to develop a cosmology. He was a rationalist who prized symmetry and used geometry and mathematical proportions to help map the heavens; his theories thus departed from earlier, religious conceptions and foreshadowed the achievements of later astronomers. Whereas earlier theories had suggested that Earth was suspended or supported from elsewhere in the heavens, Anaximander asserted that the Earth remained unsupported at the centre of the universe because it had no reason to move in any direction.

Even though he had no theory of natural selection, some people consider him as evolution's most ancient proponent. His theory of aquatic descent of human beings was re-conceived centuries later as the aquatic ape hypotheses. However, they illustrate the beginning of a phenomenon sometimes called the "Greek miracle," whereas people try to explain the nature of the world, not with the aid of myths or religion, but with material principles. this is the very principle of scientific thought, which was later furthered by improved research methods.