The book is introduced by Professor of Philosophy Vasilis Kalfas and Professor of Comparative Literature Ioanna Oikonomou. Seeking the first causes that shaped the rational attitude of the ancient Greek philosopher towards his natural world, the author endeavors in this book to answer some questions that have sparked a different universal dispute between East and West, a silent yet deafening intellectual confrontation that at times has taken forms that one could even describe as more than mild: Where is the first glimmer of this human creation we call "science" found? In the Greek city of Miletus on the coasts of Asia Minor, the Westerners answer, infuriating their "opponents," the Orientalists. But are the former right? If so, how can this be explained as a fact, when other peoples of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt also had wealth, currency, written language, communications, and technology? Why only there in Miletus, the homeland of Thales, and not elsewhere? Why only then, in the 6th century BC, and not earlier? And of course, why only from this people, the Greeks, and not from another? What was that "decisive difference" that led the Greek to liberation from ignorance and superstition, at the moment when Prometheus stole fire from the Olympian gods to ignite the mind of mortal man with knowledge?
“From the beginning to the end, this book justified my initial appreciation that it is something special. The author consciously avoids the academic writing style and provides a clear, understandable, and vivid text, where he does not hesitate to include himself by describing his personal journey, the burning questions that have occupied and continue to occupy him, his hesitations and dilemmas. The book belongs to the literary genre of high scientific popularization, a genre that is minimally cultivated in the Greek publishing sphere, in contrast with international practice.” Vasilis Kalfas, Professor of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
“Many times I found myself in the difficult position of not finding arguments to respond to the 'attacks' of many fellow professors, who claimed that 'others before you Greeks discovered all this, you merely stole it.' Dr. Karivas offers me in his book a series of defense arguments, arising from a meticulous research of the literature, ‘seasoned’ with witty and enticing descriptions of the Greek giants, who, beyond myth and religion, laid the first stones of science. The description of his visit to the place where his heroes Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes lived is magnificent.” A.G. Kefalas, Ph.D, Professor of Management, Emeritus The University of Georgia.
“In a simple and accessible way, the author convinces the reader not only of the fact that science, as we understand it today, indeed has its source in the Greeks of ancient Greece and not elsewhere, but also of the reasons why this happened.” Angelos Katsanggelos, Professor of Computer Science, Chicago University.
“The author offers here a captivating, enjoyable, with a strong personal element, almost novelistic journey through pre-Socratic philosophical thought, a journey enriched with elements of adventurous scientific inquiry, with shifts and positions in the presentation of his evidence. He presents the difficult philosophical terms simply but not simplistically, the obscure sayings of the pre-Socratics, connecting them with the positions of modern physics regarding the genesis of the universe. He brings to life for us Thales, Anaximander, and the atmosphere of ancient Ionia with its major and minor philosophers of the time, seeking an answer to the question of why ancient Ionia is the place and the 6th century the time of the genesis of science.” Ioanna Oikonomou, Professor of Comparative Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
