Thales of Miletus was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer, widely regarded as the first philosopher in the Western tradition. He founded the Milesian School and is credited with shifting explanations of the natural world away from mythology and toward rational, natural causes. He made foundational contributions to geometry, including early theorems on circles and triangles, and famously predicted a solar eclipse in 585 BC. He was also counted among the legendary Seven Sages of Greece.
