THalis

Thales, the founder of Greek philosophy and the Milesian school of cosmologists, was born in Miletus in 636 BC and died at the age of ninety. Herodotus mentions that Thales successfully predicted a solar eclipse. His philosophy was based on two premises: that the Earth is a flat disc floating on water and that water is the origin of the world. Everything originates from water and everything returns to water. This perspective means that water is the primary element of existence, and therefore, everything else in the universe is merely a modification of water. Water thus prevails over the other fundamental physical elements: earth, fire, and air. Aristotle notes that Thales might have derived this view from the observation that the nourishing element of all beings is liquid, which also quantitatively dominates the other three elements. Naturally, the fact that Thales himself came from a place where the presence of water was prominent—being a coastal city with a river and frequent rainfall—played a crucial role. Another groundbreaking theory of Thales for his time was that the magnet has a soul. To reach this conclusion, he considered movement as indicative of the existence of a soul. After all, a dead body does not move. Since the magnet attracts and is attracted, meaning it moves, it possesses a form of soul. However, Aristotle observes that if the magnet had a soul, it would logically also possess certain human qualities, such as will, initiative, and various desires. With Thales, we move beyond the era of gods and heroes, as well as cosmological religious beliefs. Now, the Earth is not supported by gods, but it is up to human scientific thought to ascertain the essence and purpose of the world.