(This
entry somehow reiterates what I have already explained in the penultimate
paragraph of the previous entry, but its focus on the irony of the
Thalean-Aristotelian quote in the title is so original that its separate
existence as an entry is an absolute and delightful necessity. Besides, I do
love this title!)
Thales
is often called the first secular thinker of Western Civilization, emphasizing
the fact that he gave a non-theological answer to the question about the origin
of things. We may readily agree with this opinion, as it is infinitely
non-controversial, and to some extent even trite. It is therefore the more
ironic and funny that Thales’s most famous phrase, recorded by Aristotle, that all things are full of gods, suggests quite the opposite.
The suspense is easily lifted by explaining the gods away as some sort
of active agents of motion and change, but, perhaps, it has been lifted too
easily. In a sense, this phrase provides a bridge between an ostensibly
naturalistic cosmogony of Thales and his theological suggestiveness pointing to
the fact that the supernatural may still remain an essential part of nature.
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