Essay Sample about Thales of Miletus

Thales of Miletus strove to uncover the starting point of the world, though none of his extant writings remain- through Aristotle- we learn that Thales claimed this starting point was water. However, due to this retelling, two separate interpretations of his meaning exist, the material and cosmological, and though the cosmological interpretation seems more palatable to a modern audience, in the scientific context of his era, it is more likely that Thales himself believed the material interpretation. 

To understand why Thales believed the material over the cosmological interpretation, we must first understand each interpretation and their respective differences. The material interpretation supposes that if one was to break everything that exists into its constituent parts, it would all be composed of water. This is an early material monist view of the world- material meaning that everything is composed of physical substance rather than mental/ immaterial substances, and monist meaning that there is only one type of substance. (Thales, 983b1, 7-8) The cosmological interpretation claims that everything that exists originated from water at the start of the universe, which Aristotle himself rationalized saying, “[Thales] perhaps reaching this supposition from seeing the nourishment of everything is moist, that the hot itself comes from this, and what is alive lives by this...” (Thales, 983b1, 22-24) Because the seeds of all life forms have a moist nature, inanimate things like the ground and clouds contain water, and because life is unable to sustain without water, it’s certainly easier for a contemporary audience to understand the belief that at the start of the universe, all things originated from water, rather than everything presently being made of water. 

Even through a modern lens, it’s understandable that Thales would come to the conclusion that water is the basis of all things because, with the limited access to physics ancient people had, it seemingly explained a lot of natural phenomena. It explained how rivers and waves were able to move and act on their own, how life was able to sustain itself, the formation of earth itself, and how different transformations of materials were possible. However, as a modern audience, we must consider that the concept of “being water” in Thales time was probably more related to liquidity than being “H2O” as we understand it now. If everything was water, it would explain how something like metal could be melted down- everyone understood water’s ability to change states of matter. Additionally, Thales held the belief that the earth floated on the water (Thales, 983b1, 21-22), and within the context of the material interpretation, this too makes a lot more sense. If water is the principal element and the earth a modification of it, the earth must be a lighter substance and thus have the ability to float. And to be fair, floating islands do exist. While Thales didn’t have the scientific knowledge to understand plate tectonics or that masses of floating aquatic plants and mud could explain this phenomenon, he would have been easily able to observe volcanic pumice stones floating and further support his theory.