The first Western philosopher, Thales of Miletus, was born in 600 BC into a privileged family in the richest city in Greece. His city was known for its olives, and everyone in the city believed that the gods were directly responsible for successful harvests and that bad harvests were caused by angry gods.

Thales thought this was stupid. He noticed that harvests were plentiful in years where there was lots of rain. One year where it rained constantly, Thales went and spent all his money to buy every olive press in town. Naturally, when the time came for olives to be processed, he was in control of all the presses and he became very wealthy, very fast.

Thales did this not because he was in need of money or even because he wanted it, but rather to show everyone the rewards of questioning commonly held beliefs through reasoning. This is just one of many fascinating stories about Thales.

What I find admirable about Thales is that unlike most philosophers throughout history who came up with their philosophies out of necessity in times of war and turmoil, Thales philosophized because he wanted to. He enjoyed the pursuit of knowledge. Instead of following his biological imperatives of chasing women or even having children to pass on his legacy, he chose the pursuit of knowledge. He lived an incredible life and came up with many of the geometric theorems we learn in high school geometry today. His influence can directly be traced to Aristotle, who I consider the first Scientist.

I think all men should be philosophers. We should look past our biological imperatives and think past our social conditioning to form our own viewpoints about the world around us. Philosophers like Epicurus thousands of years ago thought about the best way to live, and interestingly, none of the noteworthy ones thought it was to marry and have children.