Another distinguished Ionian philosopher, Xenophanes, was the first one to produce evidence-based philosophical arguments. He traveled through many Greek colonies and studied the works of philosophers before him. Soon he crafted his own theory of cosmic composition influenced by the Milesian theories of elements that make up the Earth – air and water – as well as the theory of the opposites presented by Heraclitus. The case here, that sets his thoughts apart, was that he used fossils to serve as evidence of his hypothesis.
In addition to his newfound methodologies, Xenophanes was also the first philosopher to target the questions of epistemology. He proposed that when we know something, our knowledge is only a true belief: a theory that our minds find easy to comprehend. He further asserted that there also exists a truth of reality, which remains beyond human comprehension and all we can possibly do is refine our true beliefs – our hypothesis – in order to get closer to the truth of reality.
