"[W]ith Thales... Aristotle ascribes the statement: "Water is the material cause of all things." This... expresses, as Nietzsche... pointed out, three fundamental ideas of philosophy. First, ...the material cause of all things; second, ...that this ...be answered in conformity with reason, without ...myths or mysticism; third, ...that ...it must be possible to reduce everything to one principle."
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Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy (1958) pp. 59-60.
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Thales
Thales (; c. 624 BC – c. 546 BC) was a philosopher born in Tyre, South of Lebanon and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. He has been called the "father of science."
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