First western individual to have engaged in scientific philosophy. The first individual to overcome mythology restrictions by offering naturalistic theories and hypotheses. Used geometry to calculate heights and distances. Applied deductive reasoning to solve practical problems. Thales’s theorem.
Saw water as the originating principle of matter; the origin of all things. God is the mind that shapes and creates from water. The soul animates the matter, giving it the power to act. What is the nature of things and the nature of the world? What is the composition of all things? How do things change? Can things be different and similar at the same time?