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The problem of the nature of matter, and its transformation into the
myriad things of which the universe is made, engaged the natural
philosophers, commencing with Thales. For his hypothesis to be credible,
it was essential that he could explain how all things could come into
being from water, and return ultimately to the originating material. It
is inherent in Thales's hypotheses that water had the potentiality to
change to the myriad things of which the universe is made, the botanical,
physiological, meteorological and geological states. Thales would have
recognized evaporation, and have been familiar with traditional views,
such as the nutritive capacity of mist and ancient theories about
spontaneous generation, phenomena which he may have 'observed', just as
Aristotle believed he, himself had.
'Thales says that it [the nature of things] is water', but he became
tentative when he proposed reasons which might have justified. Simple
metallurgy had been practised long before Thales presented his
hypotheses, so Thales knew that heat could return metals to a liquid
state. Water exhibits sensible changes more obviously than any of the
other so-called elements, and can readily be observed in the three
states of liquid, vapour and ice. The understanding that water could
generate into earth is basic to Thales's watery thesis. At Miletus it
could readily be observed that water had the capacity to thicken into
earth.
Previus
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