Quotation
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“Thales, too, to judge from what is recorded, seems to have held soul to be a motive force, since he said that the magnet has a soul in it because it moves the iron.”
Thales of Miletus · Milesian · Ancient · 4th-century BCE report of a 6th-century view
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading takes Aristotle to be filing Thales as someone who treated soul as whatever sets a body moving, because a magnet moves iron and so, on the report, has a soul in it. A competing reading thinks the magnet story is a later classroom anecdote, pressed into the history of psychology so that Aristotle has a primitive to stand at the start. The report is De Anima I.2, 405a19. It is a different claim from the Metaphysics report, already in this library, that the principle is water. One is about what things are made of. This one is about what counts as being alive. Neither sentence was written by Thales.
Did Thales of Miletus really say this?
The library’s label is Questionable. Thales left no book. This is Aristotle's report in On the Soul, collected as Diels-Kranz 11 A22. The magnet story is the testimony. The sentence is Aristotle's Greek, in a standard English of that report, not a line from Thales.
Where it comes from
Aristotle, De Anima I.2, 405a19, reporting Thales (Diels-Kranz 11 A22)
Approximate date: 4th-century BCE report of a 6th-century view.
How to use it
When a gadget in a kitchen is described as if it wanted something, notice that the description has smuggled in a soul. Aristotle says Thales did that with a magnet. The useful question is what motion is actually being explained, not whether the story makes a founder sound wise.
A mindset reading
A report can be famous and still be someone else's sentence. The habit is to keep the book that preserves the story in the citation. Dropping Aristotle's name is how a testimony becomes a fake quotation.
Understand the philosophy
On the Soul is Aristotle's study of living things, and this paragraph is part of his survey of earlier views. The key term is soul as a source of motion. Diels-Kranz 11 A22 is the standard number for the testimony. The water report in Metaphysics I.3 is a separate card. Both are reasons to say that nothing Thales wrote has survived.
- mind
- change
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading takes Aristotle to be filing Thales as someone who treated soul as whatever sets a body moving, because a magnet moves iron and so, on the report, has a soul in it. A competing reading thinks the magnet story is a later classroom anecdote, pressed into the history of psychology so that Aristotle has a primitive to stand at the start. The report is De Anima I.2, 405a19. It is a different claim from the Metaphysics report, already in this library, that the principle is water. One is about what things are made of. This one is about what counts as being alive. Neither sentence was written by Thales.
Did Thales of Miletus really say this?
Questionable. Thales left no book. This is Aristotle's report in On the Soul, collected as Diels-Kranz 11 A22. The magnet story is the testimony. The sentence is Aristotle's Greek, in a standard English of that report, not a line from Thales.
Which work is it in?
Aristotle, De Anima I.2, 405a19, reporting Thales (Diels-Kranz 11 A22) Approximate date: 4th-century BCE report of a 6th-century view.