_LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS._ Dox. = Diels, _Doxographi Graeci_, Berlin 1879. Aet. = _Aetii de placitis reliquiae._ } Hipp. _Phil._ = _Hippolyti philosophumena._ } Included in Epi. = _Epiphanii varia excerpta._ } Diels, _Dox._ Herm. = _Hermiae irrisio gentilium philosophorum._ } Simp. _Phys._ = _Simplicii in Aristotelis physicorum libros quattuor priores_ edidit H. Diels, Berlin 1882. Simp. _Cael._ = Simplicius, _Commentary on Aristotle’s De caelo_. For other abbreviations, see list of authors in the Index of sources. THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS OF GREECE I. _THALES._ According to Aristotle the founder of the Ionic physical philosophy, and therefore the founder of Greek philosophy, was Thales of Miletos. According to Diogenes Laertios, Thales was born in the first year of the thirty-fifth Olympiad (640 B.C.), and his death occurred in the fifty-eighth Olympiad (548-545 B.C.). He attained note as a scientific thinker and was regarded as the founder of Greek philosophy because he discarded mythical explanations of things, and asserted that a physical element, water, was the first principle of all things. There are various stories of his travels, and in connection with accounts of his travels in Egypt he is credited with introducing into Greece the knowledge of geometry. Tradition also claims that he was a statesman, and as a practical thinker he is classed as one of the seven wise men. A work entitled ‘Nautical Astronomy’ was ascribed to him, but it was recognised as spurious even in antiquity. Literature: F. Decker, _De Thalete Milesio_, Diss. Halle, 1865; Krische, _Forsch. auf d. Gebiet d. alt. Phil._ i. pp. 34-42; V. also _Acta Phil._ iv. Lips. 1875, pp. 328-330; _Revue Philos._ Mar. 1880; _Archiv f. d. Geschichte d. Phil._ ii. 165, 515. (_a_) PASSAGES RELATING TO THALES IN PLATO AND IN ARISTOTLE. Plato, _de Legg._ x. 899 B. And as for all the stars and the moon and the years and the months and all the seasons, can we hold any other opinion about them than this same one—that inasmuch as soul or souls appear to be the cause of all these things, and good souls the cause of every excellence, we are to call them gods, whether they order the whole heavens as living beings in bodies, or whether they accomplish this in some other form and manner? Is there any one who acknowledges this, and yet holds that all things are not full of gods?