I. THALES.

According to Aristotle the founder of the Ionic physical philosophy, and therefore the founder of Greek philosophy, was Thales of Miletos. According to Diogenes Laertios, Thales was born in the first year of the thirty-fifth Olympiad (640 B.C.), and his death occurred in the fifty-eighth Olympiad (548-545 B.C.). He attained note as a scientific thinker and was regarded as the founder of Greek philosophy because he discarded mythical explanations of things, and asserted that a physical element, water, was the first principle of all things. There are various stories of his travels, and in connection with accounts of his travels in Egypt he is credited with introducing into Greece the knowledge of geometry. Tradition also claims that he was a statesman, and as a practical thinker he is classed as one of the seven wise men. A work entitled ‘Nautical Astronomy’ was ascribed to him, but it was recognised as spurious even in antiquity.

Literature: F. Decker, De Thalete Milesio, Diss. Halle, 1865; Krische, Forsch. auf d. Gebiet d. alt. Phil. i. pp. 34-42; V. also Acta Phil. iv. Lips. 1875, pp. 328-330; Revue Philos. Mar. 1880; Archiv f. d. Geschichte d. Phil. ii. 165, 515.

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