Rational Thinking
Developing the view that people must give reasons to explain what they believe to be
true, rather than just make assertions that they expect others to believe without
evidence, was the most important achievement of the early Ionian thinkers. Along with
the invention of democracy based on citizenship, their achievement gave real distinction
to the Greek Archaic Age. The insistence of the Ionian thinkers on rationality, coupled
with the belief that the world could be understood as something other than the plaything
of divine whim, gave human beings hope that they could improve their lives through their
own efforts. As
Xenophanes1 from
Colophon2 (c. 580 - 480 B.C.), put it, “The gods have not revealed all things
from the beginning to mortals, but, by seeking, human beings find out, in time, what is
better.” Xenophanes, like other Ionian thinkers, believed in the existence of
gods, but he nevertheless assigned the opportunity and the responsibility for improving
human life squarely to human beings themselves. Human beings themselves were to
“find what is better.”
