Everything comes from water

Aristotle considered Thales the founder of the philosophy that asks what everything is made of. According to him, Thales said the principle of all things is water; Aristotle supposes he may have thought so because nourishment and seeds are moist.

ancient testimony · Aristóteles, Metaphysics 1.3 983b20

This idea opens onto 3 paths

Metaphysics · archē (first principle) · material monism

What is claimed and why

Aristotle attributes to Thales the view that water is the principle (archē) of all things. ancient testimony
Aristóteles, Metaphysics (tr. Hugh Tredennick) — 1.3 983b20
Thales, the founder of this school of philosophy, says the permanent entity is water
Aristóteles, Metaphysics (tr. Patricio de Azcárate) — I.3 983b
Tales, fundador de esta filosofía, considera el agua como primer principio.
Diógenes Laercio, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (tr. R. D. Hicks) — 1.27
His doctrine was that water is the universal primary substance
Patricia O'Grady, Thales of Miletus (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) — §3 · consulted; copyrighted text, not reproduced
Aristotle explains that, for most of the earliest philosophers, the material principle is that of which all things consist, from which they first come and into which they are resolved on their destruction, while its substance persists. ancient testimony
Aristóteles, Metaphysics (tr. Hugh Tredennick) — 1.3 983b1
That of which all things consist, from which they first come and into which on their destruction they are ultimately resolved
Aristóteles, Metaphysics (tr. Patricio de Azcárate) — I.3 983b
Aquello de donde salen todos los seres, de donde proviene todo lo que se produce, y adonde va a parar toda destrucción
Patricia O'Grady, Thales of Miletus (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) — §3 · consulted; copyrighted text, not reproduced
Aristotle conjectures that Thales reached the idea of water by observing that the nourishment of all things is moist, that heat itself comes from moisture, and that seeds are moist by nature. ancient testimony
Aristóteles, Metaphysics (tr. Hugh Tredennick) — 1.3 983b20
Presumably he derived this assumption from seeing that the nutriment of everything is moist
Aristóteles, Metaphysics (tr. Patricio de Azcárate) — I.3 983b
se vio probablemente conducido a esta idea, porque observaba que la humedad alimenta todas las cosas
Patricia O'Grady, Thales of Miletus (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) — §5 · consulted; copyrighted text, not reproduced
Aristotle calls Thales the founder of the kind of philosophy that sought the principles of things in matter. ancient testimony
Aristóteles, Metaphysics (tr. Hugh Tredennick) — 1.3 983b20
Thales, the founder of this school of philosophy
Aristóteles, Metaphysics (tr. Patricio de Azcárate) — I.3 983b
Tales, fundador de esta filosofía
Patricia O'Grady, Thales of Miletus (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) — §3 · consulted; copyrighted text, not reproduced

Profile: Thales of Miletus