Patricia F. O'Grady is an Australian

historian of philosophy The history of philosophy is the systematic study of the development of Philosophy, philosophical thought. It focuses on philosophy as rational inquiry based on argumentation, but some theorists also include myth, Religion, religious traditions ...

specializing in

ancient Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics ...

and in particular on

Thales of Miletus Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages, founding figures of Ancient Greece. Beginning in eighteenth-century historiography, many came to ...

. She earned a doctorate in 1998 at

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

, with the dissertation ''Thales: Some Problems in Early Greek Science and Philosophy''. Her books include: *''Thales of Miletus: The Beginnings of Western Science and Philosophy'' (Ashgate, 2002) *''Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Ancient Greek Philosophy But Didn't Know who to Ask'' (edited, Ashgate, 2005) *''The Sophists: An Introduction'' (edited, Bloomsbury, 2008) She was the author of the first book to cover Thales, although another has subsequently appeared. Some of her claims about Thales have been controversial. One of these concerns Thales' prediction of the

eclipse of Thales The eclipse of Thales was a solar eclipse in the early 6th century BC that was, according to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (writing about 150 years later), accurately predicted by the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus. If Herodotus' acc ...

in May 585 BCE. Following

Bartel Leendert van der Waerden Bartel Leendert van der Waerden (; 2 February 1903 – 12 January 1996) was a Dutch mathematician and historian of mathematics. Biography Education and early career Van der Waerden learned advanced mathematics at the University of Amste ...

, O'Grady suggested that Thales could have predicted this

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

through its occurrence 23 1/2 months after a

lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, ...

, using

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

n data on prior eclipses. However, although David Sherry finds this theory convincing, it has been disputed by Dirk L. Couprie, who argued against the possibility of making the prediction in this way and provided an alternative theory. Another of these claims concerns a passage in

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

stating that Thales described the Earth as floating on water. The consensus of scholars is that Thales thought that the world was flat, and floats like a leaf or a raft on a flat ocean, but O'Grady takes the non-standard and disputed position that Thales thought of the Earth as a sphere surrounded by space, with its land masses ("earth", using the same word as Earth in ancient Greek as one does in English) floating on its oceans, and that Thales was misinterpreted by Aristotle.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Flinders University alumni Australian historians Australian women historians 21st-century Australian philosophers Australian women philosophers Scholars of ancient Greek philosophy {{Australia-historian-stub