Thales

Contents

1 Life

o 1.1Background
o 1.2Engineering
o 1.3Business
o 1.4Politics
o 1.5Sagacity
o 1.6Astronomy

2 Theory

o 2.1Cosmology: water as a first principle

2.1.1Influences

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Life
The current historical consensus is that Thales was born in the city of Miletus
around the mid 620s BC from Phoenician parents, although some historians say he
was a Phoenician who emigrated to Miletus with his parents.
The ancient source, Apollodorus of Athens, writing during the 2nd century BCE,
thought Thales was born about the year 625 BCE.

Background
Thales' parents were Examyes and Cleobuline, both wealthy and distinguished
Phoenicians, and then traces the family line back to Cadmus, a mythological
Phoenician prince of Tyre. It is said that Thales married and either fathered a son
(Cybisthus or Cybisthon) or adopted his nephew of the same name; it is also said that
he never married, telling his mother as a young man that it was too early to marry, and
as an older man that it was too late.
Thales involved himself in many activities, taking the role of an innovator. Some
say that he left no writings; others say that he wrote On the Solstice and On the
Equinox. (No writing attributed to him has survived.

Engineering
Thales' principal occupation was engineering.
He was aware of the existence of the lodestone, and was the first to be connected
to knowledge of this in history. According to Aristotle, Thales thought lodestones had
souls, because iron is attracted to them (by the force of magnetism). According to
Hieronymus, historically quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Thales found the height of
pyramids by comparison between the lengths of the shadows cast by a person and by
the pyramids.

Business
Several anecdotes suggest Thales was not just a philosopher, but also a
businessman.
A story, with different versions, recounts how Thales achieved riches from an
olive harvest by prediction of the weather.

Politics
Thales political life had mainly to do with the involvement of the Ionians in the
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defense of Anatolia against the growing power of the Persians, who were then new to
the region.

Sagacity
It is said that the Seven Sages were created in the archonship of Damasius at
Athens about 582 BC and that Thales was the first sage. There is also a report that he
did not become a student of nature until after his political career. Much as we would
like to have a date on the seven sages, we must reject these stories and the tempting
date if we are to believe that Thales was a native of Miletus, predicted the eclipse, and
was with Croesus in the campaign against Cyrus.

Astronomy
Thales predicted the solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BC. Thales described the
position of Ursa Minor, and thought the constellation might be useful as a guide for
navigation at sea. He calculated the duration of the year and the timings of the
equinoxes and solstices. He is additionally attributed with the first observation of the
Hyades and with calculating the position of the Pleiades.

Theory
Cosmology: water as a first principle
Thales' most famous philosophical position was his cosmological thesis, which
comes down to us through a passage from Aristotle's Metaphysics. Thales hypothesis
about the nature of all matter is that the originating principle of nature was a single
material substance: water. Thales thought the Earth must be a flat disk which is
floating in an expanse of water.
Heraclitus Homericus states that Thales drew his conclusion from seeing moist
substance turn into air, slime and earth. Aristotle considered Thales position to be
roughly the equivalent to the later ideas of Anaximenes, who held that everything was
composed of air.
Influences
Later scholastic thinkers would maintain that in his choice of water Thales was
influenced by Babylonian or Chaldean religion, that held that a god had begun
creation by acting upon the pre-existing water.
The social significance of water in the time of Thales induced him to discern
through hardware and dry-goods, through soil and sperm, blood, sweat and tears, one
fundamental fluid stuff...water, the most commonplace and powerful material known

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to him. This combined with his contemporary's idea of "spontaneous generation"
allow us to see how Thales could hold that water could be divine and creative.