Wednesday 30 April 2014 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Room G.21
About
cf. Part II papers B3 (God and Anti-God) and X1 Idols
In the lecture, I would examine in some detail (for their doctrines are not a settled matter) what Thales and Diogenes take god to be, and how each of their concepts of god are intricately involved in their explanation of the material first principle of the world and of the motion in it. Thales and Diogenes are temporally the first and last of the Presocratic philosophers, which I think makes them particularly helpful to examine in parallel (Diogenes has drawn sneers from many scholars for returning to a one element monism [air] such as Thales had [water], but the differences in explanation make it no mere return). In addition, a major yet very accessible way to try to come to grips with each of their positions (as well as how they diverge from each other) can be found in how they are reported to have explained the phenomenon of magnetic attraction(!).