Thales and Creation

According to Aristotle, Thales is the founder of philosophy. He is most famously known for his claim that the world is made of water. When thinking about creation, Thales does not attribute significance to the gods but to natural explanations, an innovative notion for these times. Whereas everyone else makes sense of life through the lens of how gods think, how gods act, how gods are involved with humans, Thales downplays supernatural interaction to instead focus on natural principles. He looks to the laws and order of nature, what he can observe, what he can break down and explain.

I like the way one online article describes Thales’ contributions. This article explains that Thales’ pioneering success comes not from the fact that he declares water as the substance of all life, but the fact that he attempts “to explain nature by the simplification of phenomena and search for causes within nature itself rather than in the caprices of anthropomorphic gods. Thales is important in bridging the worlds of myth and reason.” This bridging of myth and reason opens up a whole new perspective to humans, a new lens that they can look through. Now, people begin to seek knowledge from studying the tangible world at their fingertips. If they find answers in the physical, what does that say about the supernatural? Do gods become powerless? Do myths lose all validity? And if people have been contributing everything to the gods, especially creation, what now do they believe?

Another interesting thing to think about: Thales sees how water falls from the sky, how the earth soaks it up, how water evaporates, rises to the clouds. Through solely observing, Thales discovers a cycle of life, and this cycle is malleable. With knowledge comes power. What level of power do people at this time think they have over the environment? If anything, Thales shows the world that by study and break down of natural processes that have long been in place, people can gain knowledge on how to change them! People can take reason and use it for their benefit, for their advantage, and for their manipulation. Thales’ cosmology pushes against traditional beliefs to create a new way of thinking.

“Thales of Miletus.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 07 Sep. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/589798/Thales-of-Miletus>.