Excerpt:
The most primitive electrical and magnetic phenomena -- the attraction of dry light material such as chaff to rubbed amber, and the attraction of iron to loadstone -- were no doubt observed before recorded history began. However, as far as I can find, these phenomena were not recorded by the Egyptians or any other pre-Greek civilization. The first definite statement is by Thales of Miletus (about 585B.C.) who said loadstone attracts iron because it has a soul. The prevailing view at the time was that movement of any kind indicated life, or a soul, or a god. In fact, it was advanced thinking on Thales’ part to think that the loadstone’s moving of the iron was caused by itself rather than by the intervention of some god. Actually Miletus was a very multicultural environment -- a flourishing commercial city in Asia Minor (now part of Turkey), trading with Babylon and also Egypt, where Thales travelled. This mixture of cultures meant that there was not a strongly repressive religious orthodoxy, as was often the case in primitive (and not so primitive) societies, so freedom of inquiry was tolerated. Sad to report, this did not lead to a more enlightened political system -- it was a slave based society, with bloody rebellion and repression.