 The tradition claims that Thales predicted a solar eclipse in 585 BC (DK 11A5/LM 5P9, P10), introduced geometry into Greece from Egypt (DK 11A11/LM 5P4, P5, R11), and produced some engineering marvels. Anaximander is reported to have invented the gnomon (the raised piece of a sundial whose shadow marks time); to have created a sphere of the heavens serving as an astronomical and cosmological model (DK 12A1/LM 6P2, P4, P11); and to have been the first to draw a map of the inhabited world (DK 12A6/LM 6P6, D4). Regardless of whether these reports are correct (and in the case of Thales’ prediction they almost certainly are not), they indicate something important about the Milesians: their interests in measuring and explaining celestial and terrestrial phenomena were as strong as their concern with the more abstract inquiries into the causes and principles of substance and change attributed to them by Aristotle (Algra 1999, White 2002 and 2008). They did not see so-called “scientific” and “philosophical” questions as belonging to separate disciplines, requiring distinct methods of inquiry. The assumptions and principles that we (along with Aristotle) see as constituting the philosophical foundations of their theories are, for the most part, implicit in the claims that they make. Nevertheless, it is legitimate to treat the Milesians as having philosophical views, even though no clear statements of these views or specific arguments for them can be found in the surviving fragments and testimonia. 