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Lesson 16: Why was Thales Wrong?

Context
This lesson can be used as an introduction to the problems of knowledge in the natural sciences.
Thales (c624–c545BCE) was a Greek philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. He was one
of the Seven Sages named by Plato, and according to Aristotle was the founder of physical
science.

Aim
y To exemplify the test of a scientific hypothesis.

Class Management
One week in advance of the lesson students should be asked to spend some time observing the
night sky. In particular, they should note the pattern of the stars on two occasions on the same
evening, making the second observation about two hours after the first.
The lesson will take 40 to 60 minutes, including the initial 15 minute presentation by the teacher.
An OHP and screen will be required, and the transparencies (Thales OHPs 1, 2 and 3), included
with this lesson.

Focus Activity
Begin the lesson by discussing how the pattern of the stars appears to move in great circles (OHP
1). Continue by describing Thales’s explanation of this phenomenon (OHP 2). The key features
are as follows.
y The bowl of the sky which holds in the waters which surround the land.
y The eternal fires which burn outside the sphere.
y The windows through which the fires are glimpsed. The little fires are the stars.
y The God who turns the bowl carrying the stars and so causes the nightly rotation of the
pattern of the stars.

Discussion Questions
Most of the discussion will be directed by student answers to the question “Why was Thales
wrong?” The discussion might proceed as follows.
y The little windows will let in water as the sphere turns below the horizon. Be unfair and point
out that portholes do not leak.
y A God turning a handle is not science. What other mechanism could there be? Does it
matter?

Teacher Support Material—Theory of Knowledge Lessons from Around the World © IBO, November 2000 Lesson 16—page 1
Lesson 16: Why was Thales Wrong?

y What about the sun or moon? Point out that Thales is attempting to explain the movement
of the stars, not objects very different in appearance.
y What about the little fires in the sky? Do they all move in the same way?
y Why do the planets not follow this pattern? The Greeks called them planetes, or wanderers
(OHP 3).
y Was Thales wrong because his explanation did not fit the facts?
y Are you sure he was wrong?

Links to Other Areas of TOK


y Are disciplines other than cosmology equally susceptible to extraordinary knowledge claims?

From Other Times and Places


y Thales’s explanation is an example of a hypothesis which was a product of its time. How
does this compare with other explanations offered in the past?
y Can you identify historical examples of seemingly wild claims later being substantiated?
y Can you think of contemporary explanations of natural phenomena which might be ridiculed
in the distant future?

Quotation

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.


Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

References
Koestler, A The Sleepwalkers (1959) Penguin Books

Teacher Support Material—Theory of Knowledge Lessons from Around the World © IBO, November 2000 Lesson 16—page 2
Lesson 16: Why was Thales Wrong?

Thales: OHP 1

Why does the night sky do what it does?

A first observation

Pole Star

The pattern of stars appears to rotate to the right. The pattern remains the same
with all of the individual stars appearing to make a circular movement around the
pole star.

Teacher Support Material—Theory of Knowledge Lessons from Around the World © IBO, November 2000 Lesson 16—page 3
Lesson 16: Why was Thales Wrong?

Thales: OHP 2

BOWL IS
TURNED NIGHTLY

ETERNAL FIRES
E

BURNING OUTSIDE
THE BOWL

The bowl is turned nightly, carrying the pattern of little fires in great circles around
the axis. The stars are glimpses of the eternal fire seen through little ‘windows’ in
the bowl of night and day.

Teacher Support Material—Theory of Knowledge Lessons from Around the World © IBO, November 2000 Lesson 16—page 4
Lesson 16: Why was Thales Wrong?

Thales: OHP 3

Not all of the little fires move in great circles. A small number loop back on
themselves. The Greeks called them planetes, or wanderers.

Teacher Support Material—Theory of Knowledge Lessons from Around the World © IBO, November 2000 Lesson 16—page 5

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