PHIL 338 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: On The Soul, On The Heavens, Lightning
Document Summary
Thales was a native of miletus, in asia minor. He flourished in 585 bce (the date of an eclipse he is reputed to have predicted). No fragments of his work have survived, only testimony. Aristotle attributes the following four views to thales: the earth rests on water. ( de caelo 294a28, water is the arch of all things. ( metaph. 983b18: the magnet has a soul. ( de anima 405a19, all things are full of gods. ( de anima 411a7) This seems like a very bizarre collection of very strange views. To understand (2) we need to examine its source. Arch is aristotle"s word: it means beginning or source or principle (cf. Aristotle is here talking about what he called the material arch , which can be either the stuff from which something originated or the stuff of which it is composed.
