The first philosopher of the West. He broke with mythological origins, declaring that Water is the first principle (Arche) of all things, introducing rational natural scientific explanation.
Founder of the Milesian school and first of the Seven Sages of Greece. Active in the commercial port of Miletus, he was also an astronomer and engineer who reportedly predicted the solar eclipse of 585 BCE. He demonstrated that philosophers could easily grow wealthy if they chose, but his ambition lay in the pursuit of higher truth.
Thales was the first to abandon mythological explanations of the world, declaring that "water is the arche (principle)" of all things. He held that everything arises from water and returns to it, recognizing water as the foundational basis of life across solid, liquid, and gaseous states. By positing a single natural element as the universal substrate, he initiated the tradition of seeking rational, unified explanations of the cosmos.
"Water is the oldest of all things, for it was the first to come into being; and the universe is the greatest, for it encompasses all."
思考泰勒斯用‘水’作为万物本原，与用神话、神灵解释世界有什么区别？从身边看似平凡的自然物中寻找万物的共同规律，对你重构自己的世界观有什么启发？
Thales sought a concrete material substance (water) as the primitive principle, with a materialist inclination. Pythagoras transcended concrete matter, positing that abstract number and proportion constitute the fundamental order and harmony of the cosmos, representing a form of mathematical realism.
In understanding phenomena, should we trust the tangible material particles we can touch, or the mathematical proportions and formulas that govern their behavior?
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