The Milesian School of Philosophy

The Milesian School of thought was founded in the 6th century BC off the Aegean coast of Asia Minor in the Ionian town of  Miletus. Its teachings were exemplified by three pre-Socratic Philosophers.

Thales

624-546 BC, Thales is recognized by Aristotle as the first philosopher in the Greek Tradition. He made a shift from the popular thought in his day, in that he attempted to explain natural phenomena, without reference to mythology. One of the Seven Sages of Greece, he was the first to define general principles and set forth hypotheses, and as such has been called the "Father of Science."

Anaximander 

610-546 BC Anaximander succeeded Thales as the master of the Milesian school of philosophy. While little is known of his work, he is credited with writing the first philosophical work, On Nature. The book did not survive, and much of his writings have been recorded in various fragments by other authors over time. The one surviving fragment for which he is given credit is as follows.

Whence things have their origin,
Thence also their destruction happens,
As is the order of things;
For they execute the sentence upon one another
- The condemnation for the crime -
In conformity with the ordinance of Time.

Anaximenes

Anaximenes (fl. c.545 BC) , the last of the Milesians was probably the least interesting by modern standards, however he was viewed as more influential at the time than Anaximander, being an important influence on Pythagoras and much other subsequent speculation. Few sources remain of his work, in those we find a framework for natural philosophy. His important contribution was in making the differences between different substances quantitative, depending entirely on the degree of condensation.

Location of Miletus on the western coast of Anatolia,

While the ideas of the Milesians was largely flawed, they changed the way we think about the world. Instead of trying to explain nature in terms of the gods, they took a more naturalistic view that attempted to explain the world by observing its fundamental constituents. It was this reliance upon reason and empirical observation that defines philosophy.