Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 In the year 450 BCE, a man embarked on a ship traveling from Miletus to Abdera. It was to be a crucial journey for the history of knowledge. #2 The Milesians, a group of thinkers who lived in Miletus, Turkey, in the sixth century before our era, revolutionized the way questions were asked about the world and the way answers were sought. They realized that by shrewdly using observation and reason, rather than searching for answers in fantasy, they could discover new aspects of reality. #3 The city of Miletus was the birthplace of the natural sciences and philosophy. It was there that the first parliament in the history of the world met, and where men decided collectively their own laws. #4 The Milesians had understood that the world can be comprehended using reason. They had become convinced that the variety of natural phenomena must be attributable to something simple, and had tried to understand what this something might be. They conceived of a kind of elementary substance from which everything was made

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