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Thales's most famous idea was his philosophical and cosmological thesis that all is water, which comes down to us through a passage from Aristotle's Metaphysics. [45] In the work, Aristotle reported Thales's theory that the arche or originating principle of nature was a single material substance: water. Aristotle then proceeded to proffer a ...
Air as the arche is a limitless concept, which resembled Anaximander's theory that the arche was the abstract infinite that he called apeiron (Ancient Greek: ἄπειρον, lit. 'unlimited, 'boundless'). At the same time, air as the arche was a defined substance, which resembled the theory of Thales that the arche was water. [35]
He proposed the theory of the apeiron in direct response to the earlier theory of his teacher, Thales, who had claimed that the primary substance was water. The notion of temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the religious concept of immortality, and Anaximander's description was in terms appropriate to this ...
Thales' most famous belief was his cosmological doctrine, which held that the world originated from water. Aristotle wrote in Metaphysics, "Thales, the founder of this school of philosophy [Ionian school], says the permanent entity is water (which is why he also propounded that the earth floats on water). Presumably he derived this assumption ...
Thales of Miletus (7th to 6th century BC), the father of philosophy, claimed that the first principle of all things is water, [14] and considered it as a substance that contains in it motion and change. His theory was supported by the observation of moisture throughout the world and coincided with his theory that the Earth floated on water.
Thales of Miletus claimed that the first principle of all things is water. His theory was supported by the observation of moisture throughout the world and coincided with his theory that the earth floated on water. Thales's theory was refuted by his pupil and successor, Anaximander. Anaximander noted that water could not be the arche because it ...
Thales thought that the Earth floated in water like a log. [35] It has been argued, however, that Thales actually believed in a spherical Earth. [36] [37] Anaximander (c. 550 BC) believed that the Earth was a short cylinder with a flat, circular top that remained stable because it was the same distance from all things.
But the most plausible explanation, suggested by Aristotle, is that Thales is advocating a theory of hylozoism, that the universe, the sum of all things that exist, is divine and alive. [55] Lastly, another notable claim by Thales is that earth "rests on water"- maybe that was a conclusion after observing fish fossils on land. [56]