Thales Of Miletus

Thales of Miletus
Philosophy:
Thales' most famous belief was his cosmological thesis, which held that the world started from water. "Thales", says Cicero, assures that water is the principle of allthings; and that God is that Mind which shaped and created all things from water."Thales, however, aimed to explain natural phenomena via a rational explanation that referenced natural processesthemselves. For example, Thales attempted to explain earthquakes by hypothesizing that the Earth floats on water, and that earthquakes occur when the Earth is rocked by waves, rather than assuming thatearthquakes were the result of supernatural processes. Thales was a Hylozoist (those who think matter is alive).[12] It is unclear whether the interpretation that he treated matter as being alive mighthave been mistaken for his thinking the properties of nature arise directly from material processes, more consistent with modern ideas of how properties arise as emergent characteristics of complexsystems involved in the processes of evolution and developmental change.
The best explanation of Thales' view is the following passage from Aristotle's Metaphysics.[16] The passage contains words fromthe theory of matter and form that were 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 atlast, its substance remaining under it, but transforming in qualities, that they say is the element and principle of things that are."
And again:
"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."
Thales was known for his innovativeuse of geometry. His understanding was theoretical as well as practical. For example, he said:
Megiston topos: hapanta gar chorei (Μέγιστον τόπος• άπαντα γαρ χωρεί)
”Space is the greatest...