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Pherecydes : The First Philosopher ?
Nicholas Sheldon ( PhD Philosophy , Keele University )
Abstract
Consult any book on the history of philosophy , and whether it is an academic text or popular work , the first entry will in almost every case be the Milesian philosopher , Thales . The proposed paper , emerging from my work on the philosophical underpinning to the religion known as Christian Science , disputes this almost universally held idea , and instead argues for Pherecydes as the true holder of this epithet , a figure from antiquity previously dismissed as a mere mythologist and also having post-dated Thales . In researching the work of Mary Baker Eddy , the originator of Christian Science , I have sought to demonstrate that she was not an amateur theologian on the fringes of Christianity , but a metaphysical idealist philosopher of the first rank . In doing so , I have needed to demonstrate that her work echoed that of established academic philosophers from throughout history , and that she went beyond this previously published work , either in character or in degree . As part of the background reading necessary for this task , I came across an obscure reference to a rare work on philosophy published in the eighteenth century , which , amongst much else , gave an unambiguous dating method regarding when Pherecydes was active as a philosopher – before Thales . Other works which I have found since