Thales of Miletus, (born 

c. 624–620 BCE—died c. 548–545 BCE), philosopher
renowned as one of the legendary Seven Wise Men, or Sophoi, of antiquity. He is
remembered primarily for his cosmology based on water as the essence of all matter,
with Earth a flat disk floating on a vast sea. The Greek historian Diogenes
Laërtius (flourished 3rd century CE), quoting Apollodorus of Athens (flourished
140 BCE), placed the birth of Thales during the 35th Olympiad (apparently a
transcription error; it should read the 39th Olympiad, c. 624 BCE) and his death in the
58th Olympiad (548–545 BCE) at the age of 78 (see philosophy, Western: The pre-
Socratic philosophers).

No writings by Thales survive, and no contemporary sources exist. Thus, his

achievements are difficult to assess. Inclusion of his name in the canon of the legendary
Seven Wise Men led to his idealization, and numerous acts and sayings, many of them
no doubt spurious, were attributed to him, such as “Know thyself” and “Nothing in
excess.” According to the historian Herodotus (c. 484–c. 425 BCE), Thales was a
practical statesman who advocated the federation of the Ionian cities of the Aegean
region. The poet-scholar Callimachus (c. 305–c. 240 BCE) recorded a traditional belief
that Thales advised navigators to steer by the Little Bear (Ursa Minor) rather than by
the Great Bear (Ursa Major), both prominent constellations in the Northern
Hemisphere. He is also said to have used his knowledge of geometry to measure
the Egyptian pyramids and to calculate the distance from shore of ships at sea. Although
such stories are probably apocryphal, they illustrate Thales’ reputation. The poet-
philosopher Xenophanes (c. 560–c. 478 BCE) claimed that Thales predicted the solar
eclipse that stopped the battle between King Alyattes of Lydia (reigned c. 610–
c. 560 BCE) and King Cyaxares of Media (reigned 625–585 BCE), evidently on May 28,
585. Modern scholars believe, however, that he could not possibly have had the
knowledge to predict accurately either the locality or the character of an eclipse. Thus,
his feat was apparently isolated and only approximate; Herodotus spoke of his
foretelling the year only. That the eclipse was nearly total and occurred during a crucial
battle contributed considerably to his exaggerated reputation as an astronomer.

Thales has been credited with the discovery of five geometric theorems: (1) that a circle
is bisected by its diameter, (2) that angles in a triangle opposite two sides of equal length
are equal, (3) that opposite angles formed by intersecting straight lines are equal, (4)
that the angle inscribed inside a semicircle is a right angle, and (5) that a triangle is
determined if its base and the two angles at the base are given. His mathematical
achievements are difficult to assess, however, because of the ancient practice
of crediting particular discoveries to men with a general reputation for wisdom.

The claim that Thales was the founder of European philosophy rests primarily

on Aristotle (384–322 BCE), who wrote that Thales was the first to suggest a single
material substratum for the universe—namely, water, or moisture. According to
Aristotle, Thales also held that “all things are full of gods” and that magnetic objects
possess souls by virtue of their capacity to move iron—soul being that which in the
Greek view distinguishes living from nonliving things, and motion and change (or the
capacity to move or change other things) being characteristic of living things.
Thales’ significance lies less in his choice of water as the essential substance than in his
attempt to explain nature by the simplification of phenomena and in his search for
causes within nature itself rather than in the caprices of anthropomorphic gods. Like his
successors the philosophers Anaximander (610–546/545 BCE) and Anaximenes of
Miletus (flourished c. 545 BCE), Thales is important in bridging the worlds of myth and
reason.

Reference:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thales-of-Miletus