Thales Day

”Today, more than ever, when popularists are appealing to our baser emotions with distorted pictures of reality, we need to celebrate the ideals of science and philosophy and protect the free exchange of ideas in a calm and civil fashion. I welcome Thales Day as an occasion for remembering the importance of these ideas.”
– Peter Singer

“I applaud your endeavor to establish Thales Day on the calendar at a time when language is used more often for propaganda than as a medium for the pursuit of truth. Stories, ritual, and celebrations are a way of communicating knowing and of sharing a common culture just as the sacrament of touch communicates love in a different way than words. However, Mythos is a story that bounds our knowledge and is haunted by its temptation to believe it to be objective fact; this belief enables the powerful to control and exploit a neighbor. Logos knowledge is derived from the process of dialogue with Nature, with Mythos, and with Adversary. Dialogue has no bounds; it allows continued testing and modification of belief in our quest for the discovery of truth and of reconciliation with all people.
– John B. Goodenough

Merchandise

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We are proud to have teamed up with highly esteemed animator Ib Kjeldsmark to offer you the first ever commercially available drawing of the famous story of Thales who fell into a well while watching the stars.
ib-k.blogspot.com

According to Plato a beautiful slave girl laughed at Thales and said, "You are so occupied with what is going on in the sky that you cannot see what is at your feet." Can you spot her in Kjeldsmark's original design?

The story of Thales falling into a well went full circle when seemingly retold in a famous quote by the most famous scientist of the 21st century, Steven Hawking. He reminds us to, "Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious."

The Thales Day logo was created by the brilliant graphical designer Mikael Hansen. It depicts the Eclipse of Thales and we think it fits really well on closing so that you can promote critical thinking and look sophisticated and stylish at the same time. What is remarkable about the Eclipse of Thales is not only that it puts a workable date on the beginning of the tradition of philosophy and science, but that both then and now predicting a total solar eclipse is likely the greatest symbol of the triumph of the kind of thinking that began with Thales and his contemporaries in ancient Greece.