<P> Humankind 's mental engagement with nature certainly predates civilization and the record of history . Philosophical , and specifically non-religious thought about the natural world , goes back to ancient Greece . These lines of thought began before Socrates , who turned from his philosophical studies from speculations about nature to a consideration of man , viz. , political philosophy . The thought of early philosophers such Parmenides , Heraclitus , and Democritus centered on the natural world . In addition , three presocratic philosophers who lived in the Ionian town of Miletus ( hence the Milesian School of philosophy , ) Thales , Anaximander , and Anaximenes , attempted to explain natural phenomena without recourse to creation myths involving the Greek gods . They were called the physikoi ( natural philosophers , ) or , as Aristotle referred to them , the physiologoi . Plato followed Socrates in concentrating on man . It was Plato 's student , Aristotle , who , in basing his thought on the natural world , returned empiricism to its primary place , while leaving room in the world for man . Martin Heidegger observes that Aristotle was the originator of conception of nature that prevailed in the Middle Ages into the modern era : </P>
<P> Humankind 's mental engagement with nature certainly predates civilization and the record of history . Philosophical , and specifically non-religious thought about the natural world , goes back to ancient Greece . These lines of thought began before Socrates , who turned from his philosophical studies from speculations about nature to a consideration of man , viz. , political philosophy . The thought of early philosophers such Parmenides , Heraclitus , and Democritus centered on the natural world . In addition , three presocratic philosophers who lived in the Ionian town of Miletus ( hence the Milesian School of philosophy , ) Thales , Anaximander , and Anaximenes , attempted to explain natural phenomena without recourse to creation myths involving the Greek gods . They were called the physikoi ( natural philosophers , ) or , as Aristotle referred to them , the physiologoi . Plato followed Socrates in concentrating on man . It was Plato 's student , Aristotle , who , in basing his thought on the natural world , returned empiricism to its primary place , while leaving room in the world for man . Martin Heidegger observes that Aristotle was the originator of conception of nature that prevailed in the Middle Ages into the modern era : </P>
the miletians lived during what period in the history of western philosophy
the miletians lived during what period in the history of western philosophy
presocratic
presocratic