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In this article, we talk about what we could call the ‘journey of stories’ through
philosophical texts, theological doctrines and historical eras.
Contrary to a "habit" consecrated in the tradition of the history of philosophy, we tried
to show, based on the work of Hans Blumenberg, that stories (fables, anecdotes, etc.)
are not just rhetorical and dialectical tools in the texts of philosophers, but rather basic elements of thought, which can reflect and indicate, in a more obvious way, and better than the concepts, changes and transformations of thought. In this sense, anecdotes can be essential tools available to the historian in his quest for changes in ideas. In order to prove this fact, we followed with Blumenberg the changes of an anecdote. It is the anecdote of Thales who, while observing the stars, fell into a well. In the Platonic version of the anecdote, the focus was on the servant’s reaction against the astronomer. With her famous laugh, the servant made fun of those who spend their lives philosophizing.
When the Christian era came, theologians concentrated on the act of the fall of the star observer in the well. For these theologians, Thales' desire to know the laws of the sky symbolizes the transgression of the limits of human knowledge, and for that, the
astronomer deserved a divine punishment. The story of this anecdote tells us a
historical truth: we lost the original version of the anecdote forever in favor of a story
about its reception. On the other hand, this story will reveal to us the image of the
world of each era and its evaluation of the functions and limits of scientific curiosity.