Xenophanes of Colophon (l.c. 570-c.478 BCE) is known as one of the Pre-Socratic philosophers of ancient Greece, so-called because they pre-date Socrates (l. c. 470/469-399 BCE), recognized as the Father of Western Philosophy. The Pre-Socratics initiated philosophical inquiry in ancient Greece starting in the 6th century BCE with Thales of Miletus (l. c. 585 BCE) who is understood as the first to ask "What is the basic 'stuff' of the universe?" (Baird, 8). In asking this question, Thales was departing from the cultural understanding that the gods had created the world and sustained it. Thales seems to have believed that there was another, natural, answer to the creation of the world and how it continued to function.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/171/xenophanes-the-visionary-poet-philosopher/.
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