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Thales[edit]

First read Sandywell Then Curd, Then Sandywell, then Warren then Laks, then Vamvacas

Intro[edit]

Thales is mostly notable for his thought on cosmology, which marked the first written attempt to explain nature using reason, without invoking divinity.[1]

Sources[edit]

No fragments of written work of Thales survive- if there has ever been any. The earliest surviving testimonies comes from ancient historian Herodotus and theatrical playwriter Aristophanes in the middle and late fifth century BCE. The major source of information on Thales comes from Aristotle and his pupils (Dicaearchus, Eudemus, and Theophrastus). Aristotle discussed Thales' views in his Metaphysics. While it is a drawback not knowing his exact thoughts, we can reach reasonable conclusions given the overlap between various reporting. Aristote pupils might had access to earlier written work of Thales, or on Thales by other Milesians, and might have also acquired oral information by their travel to Ionia.[2]

Life[edit]

Historical Context[edit]

Thales was born in Miletus, a wealthy greek colony town town of Ionia then, a trade hub. Miletus was in a close distance from other greek towns where philosophy was soon to flourish. [3] The prosperity of Miletus, the influences of the neighbouring civilizations and the autonomous political system of Polis proved to be a fertile ground for philosophy[4] Miletus during the 7th century was transforming to an open economy town, and the intemarriage between Hellenes and natives let new ideas religious practice and ideas to circulate freely.[5] But this spring of intellect ended sharply at 594 BCE, when Persia smashed Ionian revolution. Persia obliterated Miletus.[6]

Life[edit]

It is estimated that Thales was born in .............

Thales was born in Militus c 548 BCE[7], probably being of Phoenician ancestry[8] He was well travelled- he visited all neighbouring great civilization. Egyptian Assyrians, Persia and Phoenicia. It is assumed that during his visit in Egypt learned Geometry and in Bablylon got familiar with astronomical observations.[9]

As a man, he might have been afirimenos. There is a story of falling into a well, as he was walking and thinking about planets and stars. [citation needed]

He died......

Thought[edit]

Cosmology: Water as arche[edit]

Thales tremendous step forward was the invention of rational thinking about the Cosmos. His answer- was the first attempt to conceptualize nature without escaping to divinity.[10]

Aristotle mention of Thales views on cosmology in his Metaphysics, is the earliest account available. There, Aristotle discusses Thales theory that the arche (which could translate to principle, beginning or substance [11] As Professor James Warren translates Aristotle:

Most of the first philosophers thought that the only sources (arkhai) of all things were in the form of matter (hylē). From this all things are and come to be and into this finally all things perish, but this being remains while changing in its properties. Th ey say that this is the element (stoicheion) and this is the source (arkhē) of all that exists, and because of it they think that nothing comes to be or passes away, as though this sort of nature were always preserved … (Met. 983b6–13)

But they do not all say the same thing about the number and form of such a source (arkhē). Th ales, for example, the leader and originator (arkhēgos) of this kind of philosophy, says that it is water. Perhaps he got this idea from seeing that everything is nourished by what is moist and that heat itself comes from it and lives by it (thinking that the source (arkhē) of all things is that from which they come to be); perhaps he said it for that reason, plus the fact that the seeds of all things are naturally moist, and water is the source (arkhē) of the nature of moist things. (Met. 983b18–27)

Arche, can take various meanings. It can mean beginning- that all the world started as water and transformed into something else. Or it could mean the substance of the world- everything in the world is a form of water.[12]

Warren notes that translating arkhai as "source" is somewhat dubious but there is not a better word. He also notes that Aristotle is discussing Thales from through his lense- as Aristotle was searching for the first cause. [13]

Regarding water, Thales also claimed that earth was a flat disc resting on the water.[14]

Geometry[edit]

Thales visit to Egypt made him familiar with Egyptian geometry. Egyptians were using geomentry to recover borders of their fiels after Nile flooding, but didn't use deduction, proof or generalizations, as Thales did.[15]

Know thyself[edit]

Astronomy[edit]

Thales was a pioneer in the field of astronomy. After having spent time at Babylonia, where religious priests had sophisticated data about astronomical bodies and phenomenons, Thales made significant advances to the field.[16] The ancient book Nautical Star-Guide (or Nautical Astronomy) is attributed to Thales by Simplicius, but later historian Diogenes Laertius attributes it to Phocus of Samos.[17]

Various achievements have been attributed to Thales by ancient scholars. Firstly, most reportedly and most admirable, he predicted the eclipse in. he [18]

  • eclipse
  • Seasons
  • 365
  • books of Phocus


Many other discoveries are also attributed to Thales. Diogenes for discovering the intervals among summer and winter solstice, but scholarship considers it to be a legend. Diogenes, who lived in 200 CE, says "[Thales] is thought to be the first to do astronomy and to foretell solar eclipses and solstices, as Eudemus says in his Research in Astronomy..";[19] Eudemus, as reported by Diogenes Laertius, says Thales counted the days of the year to be 365 and also divided the year to four seasons.[20] It is not clear how he manage to do it, or even if he did it indeed, because of the lack of instruments and reliable data. [21] poet Callimachus (writing c. 270 bce) saıd Thales also dıscovered Ursa Mınor.[22]

Theology: Everything is full of gods[edit]

"panta plere theon einai" (All things are full of gods), Thales said according to Aristotle Aristotle (De Anima 411 a7-8), skewing from the traditional greek religion when (as reported by many ancient writers) saying ". There are various interpretations of his axiom. One could be, especially if we compine it with his water-axiom, that water is some form of deity. There is an atheistic interpretation as well- since divinity is everywhere, there is no special deity. But it could also be a theistic opinion, hinding to later advanced theory of hylozoism, where matter posses life. [23]

Also, Thales claimed that "Magnets possess psyche"- apparently since Magnets can produce motion. This links to another Thales view, that the universe is alive, an opinion that could correlate with Thales view that water, which is constanlty moving, is the arche of everything[24]

Another related axiom by Thales is "pan empsychon", that links to the later idea of hylozoism. [25]

Legacy[edit]

Thales is widely considered the first philosopher of the western civilization, and is considered one the seven sages of ancient greece.[26]

In Antiquity[edit]

Sagacity[edit]

There are many list of the seven sages in greece, in all of them, Thales is listed.[27] Plato, tells a story that Thales, while walking and studying the stars, he didn't see a well infront of him and fell in- it was an attempt of Plato to imply the importance of studying human affairs rather than stellar- as it was his preferance.[28]

Modern times[edit]

Thales is being considered as the founder of scientific thought. He tryied to explain nature without escaping to theology, paving the way to scientific thoufht, the first step of humanity towards demythification of nature.[29]

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Life[edit]

Thales was born in Militus c 548 BCE[7], probably being of Phoenician ancestry[8]He was well travelled- he visited all neighbouring great civilization- Egyptians, Assyrians, Persia and Phoenicia.[citation needed]

On the world Thales grew up[edit]

Miletus was a wealthy polis, in a small area of Ionia that other wealthy poleis existed as well. Polis was a unique political and social experiment in ancient Greece, where each town was autonomously governed by its people or by a tyrant.

Cosmology: All is Water[edit]

There are not any surviving fragments of Thales writing. All we know about his cosmology is from later philosophers or historians. Aristotle mention of Thales views in his Metaphysics, is the earliest account available. There, Aristotle discusses Thales theory that the arche (which could translate to principle, beginning or substance) is water.[30] As proffesor James Warren translates the relevant passage from Metaphysics of Aristotle:[13]

Most of the first philosophers thought that the only sources (arkhai) of all things were in the form of matter (hylē). From this all things are and come to be and into this finally all things perish, but this being remains while changing in its properties. Th ey say that this is the element (stoicheion) and this is the source (arkhē) of all that exists, and because of it they think that nothing comes to be or passes away, as though this sort of nature were always preserved … (Met. 983b6–13)

But they do not all say the same thing about the number and form of such a source (arkhē). Th ales, for example, the leader and originator (arkhēgos) of this kind of philosophy, says that it is water. Perhaps he got this idea from seeing that everything is nourished by what is moist and that heat itself comes from it and lives by it (thinking that the source (arkhē) of all things is that from which they come to be); perhaps he said it for that reason, plus the fact that the seeds of all things are naturally moist, and water is the source (arkhē) of the nature of moist things. (Met. 983b18–27)

Worth noticing that the theme that everything originated from a divinity liked to water could be found in ancient Egypt and Homer's Iliad.[31]

All things are full of gods "panta plere theon einai"[edit]

Thales skewed from the traditional greek religion by (reportedly) saying " "panta plere theon einai" (All things are full of gods). There are various interpretations of his axiom. One could be, especially if we compine it with his water-axiom, that water is some form of deity. There is an atheistic interpretation as well- since divinity is everywhere, there is no special deity. But it could also be a theistic opinion, hinding to later advanced theory of hylozoism, where matter posses life. [23]

Know thyself[edit]

Astronomy[edit]

Thales was a pioneer in the field of astronomy. Herodotus ( c. 484 – c. 425 BCE) the first Greek historian, attributes Thales with the first prediction of solar eclipse of 28 May 585. a prediction that ceased the war between Lydia and Persia.Thales might have used Babylonian's Saros cycle that could estimate with some approximation when an eclipse would occur. The story of predicting the eclipse gave fame to Thales, admired by his contemporaries and other pre-socratic philosophers.[32] He also Thales also described the position of Ursa Minor, and he thought the constellation might be useful as a guide for navigation at sea. He calculated the duration of the year and the timings of the equinoxes and solstices, and [33]


Thales most admirable achievement in the field of astronomy, was the prediction of the solar eclipse in 585, which gave him fame in the ancient times. The first report that he predicted eclipes, comes from Heraclitus. It is not quite clear how Thales reached the prediction. One explanation could be that he had astronomical data and calculated the intervals- but this is highly unlikely. Another hypothesis is that he was familiar with the babylonian Saros cycle, but also this is unlikely, because Saros cycle does not predict eclipses with accuracy.[34]

Mathematics[edit]

Thales work in mathematics was, as with cosmology, revolutionary since he was the first to use deductive logic, proofs and reached abstract conclusions.[35]


More realistically he has been credited as the first named individual to whom specific geometrical discoveries can be attributed. Appropriately these all involve demonstrations and deductive proofs: that a circle is bisected by its diameter, that the base angles of isosceles triangles are equal, the vertical angles formed by two intersecting lines are equal, two triangles are congruent if they have two angles and one side in each respectively equal, any angle inscribed in a semicircle is a right angle (DL 1.27; Proclus, Commentary, 157, 250, 299, 352). If this concern for apodictic method, proof sequences, and the deductive organization of geometrical theorems can be accepted it provides further support for the explicitly theoretical and universalizing character of Thalean reflexivity.4 Unlike the particularistic mathematics of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Ionian theorist had begun to formulate propositions and generalizations that were intended to be valid for all geometrical objects



======================================================================================================================[edit]

Thales' most famous philosophical position was his cosmological thesis, which comes down to us through a passage from Aristotle's Metaphysics.[36] In the work Aristotle unequivocally reported Thales' hypothesis about the nature of all matter – that the originating principle of nature was a single material substance: water. Aristotle then proceeded to proffer a number of conjectures based on his own observations to lend some credence to why Thales may have advanced this idea (though Aristotle did not hold it himself).

Aristotle laid out his own thinking about matter and form which may shed some light on the ideas of Thales, in Metaphysics 983 b6 8–11, 17–21. (The passage contains words that were later adopted by science with quite different meanings.)

That from which is everything that exists and from which it first becomes and into which it is rendered at last, its substance remaining under it, but transforming in qualities, that they say is the element and principle of things that are. …For it is necessary that there be some nature (φύσις), either one or more than one, from which become the other things of the object being saved... Thales the founder of this type of philosophy says that it is water.

In this quote we see Aristotle's depiction of the problem of change and the definition of substance. He asked if an object changes, is it the same or different? In either case how can there be a change from one to the other? The answer is that the substance "is saved", but acquires or loses different qualities (πάθη, the things you "experience").

Aristotle conjectured that Thales reached his conclusion by contemplating that the "nourishment of all things is moist and that even the hot is created from the wet and lives by it." While Aristotle's conjecture on why Thales held water as the originating principle of matter is his own thinking, his statement that Thales held it as water is generally accepted as genuinely originating with Thales and he is seen as an incipient matter-and-formist.[citation needed]

Thales thought the Earth must be a flat disk which is floating in an expanse of water.[37]

Heraclitus Homericus states that Thales drew his conclusion from seeing moist substance turn into air, slime and earth. It seems likely that Thales viewed the Earth as solidifying from the water on which it floated and the oceans that surround it.

Writing centuries later, Diogenes Laërtius also states that Thales taught "Water constituted (ὑπεστήσατο, 'stood under') the principle of all things."[38]

Aristotle considered Thales’ position to be roughly the equivalent to the later ideas of Anaximenes, who held that everything was composed of air.[39] The 1870 book Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology noted:[40]

In his dogma that water is the origin of things, that is, that it is that out of which every thing arises, and into which every thing resolves itself, Thales may have followed Orphic cosmogonies, while, unlike them, he sought to establish the truth of the assertion. Hence, Aristotle, immediately after he has called him the originator of philosophy brings forward the reasons which Thales was believed to have adduced in confirmation of that assertion; for that no written development of it, or indeed any book by Thales, was extant, is proved by the expressions which Aristotle uses when he brings forward the doctrines and proofs of the Milesian. (p. 1016)

Refs[edit]

  1. ^ Sandywell 1996, pp. 85–86.
  2. ^ White 2008, pp. 89–91.
  3. ^ Sandywell 1996, pp. 75–79.
  4. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 79.
  5. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 82.
  6. ^ Sandywell 1996, pp. 82–83.
  7. ^ a b Sandywell 1996, p. 75.
  8. ^ a b Sandywell 1996, p. 89.
  9. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 86-89.
  10. ^ Sandywell 1996, pp. 91–92.
  11. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. ?.
  12. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 94.
  13. ^ a b Warren 2008, p. 26.
  14. ^ Warren 2008, p. 27; Sanywell 1996, p. 97.
  15. ^ Sandywell 1996, pp. 87–89.
  16. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 86.
  17. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 86; White 2008, p. 90.
  18. ^ White 2008, p. 90.
  19. ^ White 2008, pp. 92–93.
  20. ^ White 2008, p. 94.
  21. ^ White 2008, pp. 94–98.
  22. ^ White 2008, p. 98.
  23. ^ a b Sandywell 1996, pp. 95–96.
  24. ^ Sandywell 1996, pp. 96–97.
  25. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 102.
  26. ^ Sandywell 1996, pp. 75–78; Warren 2014, p. 23.
  27. ^ Sandywell 1996, pp. 75–78; Warren 2014, p. 23 & 28.
  28. ^ Warren 2014, p. 28.
  29. ^ Vamvacas 2009, pp. 32–33.
  30. ^ Sandywell1996, p. 96.
  31. ^ Burkert 2008, p. 69.
  32. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 86; White 2008, p. 92.
  33. ^ Vamvacas 2009.
  34. ^ White 2008, p. 92.
  35. ^ Sandywell 1996, p. 87.
  36. ^ Aristotle. Metaphysics. 983 b6 8–11.
  37. ^ Allman, George Johnston (1911). "Thales of Miletus" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 721.
  38. ^ Diogenes Laërtius. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Book 1, paragraph 27.
  39. ^ Daniel W. Graham. "Anaximenes (d. 528 B.C.E.)". IEP. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  40. ^ Cite error: The named reference CPM was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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