A Critical History of Greek Philosophy

beyond the position of Thales. Thales had taught that the
first principle of things is water. The formless matter of
Anaximander is, philosophically, an advance on this, show-
ing the operation of thought and abstraction. Secondly,
Anaximander had definitely attempted to apply this idea,
and to derive from it the existent world. Thales had left
the question how the primal water developed into a world,
entirely unanswered.