Tales of Miletus, philosopher: "The most difficult thing is to know ourselves; the easiest is to speak ill of others"'

No matter how much society evolves, there will always be behaviors and thoughts that remind us that we are still the same human beings now as we were thousands of years ago. The reflections of the great Greek philosophers remind us that man has not changed that much.

In the midst of the digital age and with the proliferation of social media, people's relationships with others have evolved to the point of becoming increasingly less ‘social’ and leading us to think less about others, giving priority to the ego, to what others think about us and how they see us.

As early as the 6th century BC, Thales of Miletus reflected on this human behavior : "The most difficult thing is to know ourselves; the easiest is to speak badly of others." In other words, what matters in this life is knowing who we really are and not thinking about what we want to appear to be in front of others. Not an easy task, since we will always want to please others and fit into a society that moves in groups and where solitude is not well regarded.

What certainly seems like a simple task for Thales of Miletus is speaking ill of others. We have the example now on social media: it doesn’t take us long to criticize what others think, how they dress, how they move,... In short, how they live. Whereas we are not capable of introspection.

Who was Thales of Miletus, one of humanity's great thinkers

The philosopher was born in Miletus, a Greek city located in what is now Turkey and considered one of the great intellectual centers of the world, and he lived between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. If there was one thing that characterized Thales' work, it was that he became one of the first to try to explain the world without resorting to mythology or religion.