The First Element
You can wipe that knowing smile off your face at Thales's assertion that water is the archē, or fundamental element of existence. The Greek concept of archē refers to the foundational principle, origin, or source of all existence, serving as the underlying substance - or first principle - from which all things emerge and to which they ultimately return. In early Greek philosophy, particularly among the Pre-Socratics, archē was central to understanding the nature of reality, representing the ultimate indemonstrable principle that provides the conditions for the possibility of existence. This concept is deeply tied to monism, the supposition that the universe is composed of a single, fundamental substance. Thales of Miletus - considered the first philosopher in the Western tradition - proposed water as the archē, arguing that all things originate from and return to water, which he saw as essential for life and pervasive in nature. Much has been said and written about the true archē by philosophers - notably Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heracltus and others - until Aristotle settled the matter of archē as being the "indemonstrable principle" or, as Kant would say, synthetic a priori substance underlying all things, and virtually the foundational precept of metaphysics. Importantly, the notion of an archē is in its influence on both philosophical and theological thought. In theological contexts, particularly in Christian interpretations of Genesis, archē is used to denote the beginning of creation from chaos with God as precipitator of existence. This fundamentalist concept of the cosmos reflects an intuitive reckoning of man's place therein. Regarding Thales's place in the mythical cosmogony, we must look at the world through Thales's eyes, stand in the place where he stood, for context. The Greek world was larger than its borders. It included the surrounding sea. From the point of view of a maritime nation - such as Greece - intimately familiar, as they were, with the Mediterranean coastline as far as the Pillars of Hercules - and beyond - the world appeared to be a mass of land surrounded by water. It was a forgivable deduction therefore by Thales that the world emerged from the infinite sea. Without science, the creation myth typical of pre-scientific civilization convinced believers as the best answer to the question, where did the world come from?