Such myths and fanciful explanations represent a primal desire for knowledge, but they are not knowledge itself because they do not rest on fact or proof.
Among the first people to recognize the difference between explanation and proof were the Ionians, who lived in Asia Minor from the eleventh to the fourth centuries B.C. Ionians were traders who had little time for ritual and myth but valued knowledge deeply and borrowed it shamelessly from other cultures along their trade routes. They were the first to use the stars as navigational beacons, a trick they based on information from the astrological charts of Zoroastrian priests. They also produced the first navigational maps in the West.
The Ionians believed in keeping a close watch on the world, and tried to support their observations with solid proof. This tradition led them to conclude that the cosmos operated according to certain unchangeable laws, not the whims of fickle gods.
The Ionians' approach laid the groundwork for the scientific method that emerged two thousand years after the height of their own culture.
