The Ionian Thinkers
Thinkers usually referred to today as philosophers, but who could equally well be
described as theoretical scientists studying the physical world, gave impetus to new
ways of thinking in the late Archaic age. These thinkers, who came from the city-states
of
Ionia1 along the eastern Aegean coast, were developing radically new explanations of
the world of human beings and its relation to the world of the gods. In this way began
the study of philosophy in Greece. Ionia's geographical location next to the non-Greek
civilizations of Anatolia, which were in contact with the older civilizations of Egypt
and the Near East, meant Ionian thinkers were in a position to acquire
knowledge
and intellectual inspiration from their neighbors2 in the
eastern Mediterranean area. Since Greece in this period had no formal schools at any
level, thinkers like those from Ionia had to make their ideas known by teaching pupils
privately and giving public lectures. They also used writing to record their doctrines,
and some of them developed prose in Greek to express their new ways of thought. Some
Ionian thinkers composed poetry as well to explain their theories and gave public
recitations of their works. People who studied with these thinkers or heard their
presentations would then help to spread knowledge of the new ideas.
