طاليس

الموقف

Thales is remembered as the first to ask what the world is ultimately made of and to answer without appealing to the gods of myth. According to Aristotle, he held that water is the origin (archē) of all things – perhaps because moisture is present in all life, in nourishment and in seeds. He is also said to have claimed that “all things are full of gods” and that the magnet has a soul, suggesting a living, self-moving nature. What mattered was less the answer than the method: a single natural principle, open to argument and correction. With him begins the Milesian tradition of natural philosophy.

الحياة والسياق

Thales lived in Miletus, a wealthy Greek trading city on the coast of Asia Minor, in the early sixth century BCE. Later tradition credits him with predicting a solar eclipse (usually dated to 585 BCE), with theorems of geometry and with practical work in astronomy and engineering. He left no writings; we know of him through Aristotle and later reports.

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