Philosophy is a Greek, philein means to love, and sophia means wisdom. Greek philosophers were among the first in the west to explore nature in a rational way. Also, they made educated guesses about the creation of the world and the universe. This is why greece is referred as the birthplace of Western culture.

Some ancient ideas made by the Greeks have been successfully anticipated this 20th century. Atoms were first formulated by Leucippus and Democritus around 400 B.C. Greek thought and values has influenced everyone, countries throughtout the centuries.

Around 600 BC. there was flourishing commercial town at the sunny coast of Ionia trading intensively with each other and surrounding nations. In this way many Greek city states accumulated considerable wealth and with it came it art, science, and philosophy. The political climate was afflicting as a consequence of slavery and mercantilism. Greek cities were often ruled by ruthless tyrants landowning aristocrats and superrich merchants who gave little importance to ethical considerations. Around 585 BC there lived a man in Miletus whose name was Thales, one of the Seven Wise men of Greece. Thales had traveled to Egypt to study the science of geometry. Somehow he must have refined the Egyptian methods, because when he came back to Miletus he surprised his contemporaries with his unusual mathematical abilities. Thales calculated the distance of a ship at sea from observations taken on two points on land and he knew how to determine the height of a pyramid from the length of its shadow. He was reproached for his poverty, which was supposed to show that philosophy is of no use. According to the story, he knew by his skills in the stars while it was yet winter that there would be a great harvest of olives in the coming year; so, having a little money, he gave deposits for the use of all olive-presses in Chios and Miletus, which he hired at a low price because no one bid against him. When the harvest time came, and many were wanted all at once and of a sudden, he let them out at any rate which he pleased, and made a quantity of money. Thus he showed the world that philosophers can be rich if they like, but that their ambition is of another sort." [from "Politics", Aristotle]

Thales was a mathematician rather than a philosopher, but in antiquity there was no differentiation between the natural sciences and philosophy; instead, mathematics, philosophy and science were closely related in the works of the early Greek philosophers.

Thales stated that the origin of all matter is water. Although this sounds a bit odd, there may be some truth in it. As we know today, the largest constituent of the universe is hydrogen, which makes two of the three atoms in water (H2O). The missing oxygen atom was added later when our planet formed. Scientists believe that liquid water is prerequisite to life, and we know with certainty that the first life forms flourished in the oceans, so water is indeed a primordial substance. The Greeks before Heraclitus focused on the essence of things, its nature and being, which they deemed unchangeable. In contrast, Heraclitus said: "You cannot step into the same river twice, for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you." This simple sentence expresses the gist of his philosophy, meaning that the river isn't actually the same at two different points in time. - It is a radical position and Heraclitus was the to conceive it.