Aristotle's Testimony in Question: The Beginning of Philosophy and The Theory of Material Monism

Abstract

When and how philosophy began are such questions that they are equally significant ones as what philosophy is. There is indeed a conventional view regarding the beginning of Western philosophy. The transition from mythos to logos marked with the Milesian school of thought’s pioneer Thales at about 7th century BC. The conventional interpretation leads us back to the Aristotelian account on the beginning of philosophy presented in the Metaphysics’ introductory chapter as a genuine example of the historiography of philosophy. Aristotle’s interpretation bases on the material monism thesis regarding this very first philosophers’ attempt to explain the nature in a broad sense of the word. Aristotle also binds this beginning to wonder and leisure. Though there is a strong critic against the material monism thesis proposed by Daniel W. Graham in his Explaining the Cosmos. Graham offers us an alternative reading of this beginnings’ nature in terms of generating substance theory. In this paper, it is thus intended to show that Graham’s argument is more tenable than Aristotle’s and Graham’s account in turn needs to be read along with the theories discussed in R. Hahn and G. Naddaf’s distinct works regarding the nature of the very beginning of philosophy. Such a complementary reading thus needs to take social, cultural, technological, i.e., architecture, and political interactions into consideration both within the internal and intercultural contexts back then.