Thales

 

What is Permanent in Existence?

In his speculations Thales asserted that the world originated in water and was sustained by water and that the earth floated on water. Because there is natural change everywhere, he went on to claim, the world is animated and possesses psyche, the principle of self-motion. Thales thought the world was understandable through the idea of water, an element essential to the life and thus to motion, versatile, common, and powerful enough to account for every physical phenomenon. The statement that everything is made of water is to be regarded as a scientific hypothesis. According to Russell, the Ionians were rash in their hypotheses, but were prepared to test them empirically. 

Thales inquiry concerned the nature of things. What is everything made of, or what kind of stuff goes into the things of the world? What Thales was trying to do with his questions was to account for the fact that there are many different kinds of things and that some of these things change into something else and they resemble each other. Thales’ unique contribution to thought was his notion that in spite of differences between various things there is a basic similarity between them all, and that "the many" are related to each other by "the One". He assumed that some single element which contained its own principle of action or change is at the foundation of all physical reality. To him this One was water. Because there is no record of how Thales came to this conclusion that water is the cause of all things, Aristotle wrote that Thales could have derived it from observation. Thales’ analysis of the composition of things is far less important than the fact that he raised the question concerning the nature of the world. His question set the stage for a new kind of inquiry, one which could be debated on its merits and could be confirmed or refuted by further analysis. Thales shifted the basis of thought from a mythological base to one of scientific inquiry. And from this time others were to follow him with other answers, but always with his problem and questions in mind.

Main Propositions of Thales as stated by Aristotle

1) The first principle and basic nature of all things is water.

2) The earth rests upon water.

3) All things are full of gods.

4) The magnetic stone has soul because it sets the iron in motion.