PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kočandrle, Radim
TI  - Aristotle on Thales's Conception of Origin
DP  - 2016 Mar 30
TA  - Aither
PG  - 46--71
VI  - 8
IP  - 1
AID - 10.5507/aither.2016.003
IS  - 18037879
AB  - Aristotle's influential conception of the four causes may have tendentiously skewed our view of his predecessors, but even so, we might be able to discern in it the outlines of the original Presocratic conceptions. We could thus see the emphasis on 'origins' as, among other things, the archaic thinkers' focus on the origin and maintenance of life. These are, after all, the reasons which Aristotle himself lists in connection with Thales's conception of origin in the first book of his Metaphysics, where he discusses the connection between moisture, warmth, and life. Interest in these factors is characteristic for archaic philosophy. We can, meanwhile, assume that Aristotle's claim that Thales believed water to be the origin may be due to the Milesian's link to an ancient tradition where water indeed played an important role. Of decisive importance may have been a report, included as part of cosmology - one of the areas Thales was especially interested in - that the Earth rests on water.