From Creation Myth to Aristotle in three easy steps: (animism to mechanism)

(1) Myth to Milesians	    (2) Anaximander to Anaxagoras		(3) Atomists to Aristotle.

I.  Thales and the primal substance: F87 (Aristotle Metaphysics 983b)

Most of the earliest philosophers thought that material elements [such as water, air, or fire] were the 'beginnings' (or causes) 
of all things; for the original source of all existing things, that from which a thing first comes-into being and into which it finally
 dissolves--a substance that persists though changing its qualities--this they declare is the element and first principle of things 
in existence. And therefore they supposed that there is [no real change] no absolute coming-to-be or passing away [because the 
underlying material is essentially unaltered. Regarding the number and from [of such elements] they do not all agree. 
	But Thales, the founder of this type of philosophy, says that [the primal element] is water, and he therefore declared that t
he earth rests upon the water, perhaps supposing so from the fact that all things are nourished by moisture...

Latent animism in Thales? 'The world is full of gods.'

F91 (Aristotle de anima 405a)..Thales   [like others], seems to have supposed that the soul is something kinetic [creating motion],
 as he said that the (lode)stone (or magnet) has soul because it moves iron.

F93 (de anima 411a)  ...some say that [soul] is intermingled in the universe, and perhaps it is for this reason Thales thought that 
all things are full of gods.


II. Anaximander (active at Miletus, in the early 6th c. BC) and the Apeiron = Infinite/Indefinite substance, in place of a 
particular element (Simplicius Phys. 24.13) 

	Anaximander ...the student and successor of Thales, said that the first principle and element of existing things was the apeiron,  
and he was the first to introduce this term for the material cause.  He says that it is neither water not any other of the so-called 
elements but some other 'indefinite nature' (apeiron physin), from which come into being all the heavens and worlds in them.
	And the source of coming-to-be (genesis) for things that exist is that [same deeper reality] into which these changeable things a
re dissolved (or destroyed). For "They pay the penalty and render retribution for their injustice, according to the assessment 
of Time"--thus he describes it in rather poetical terms.
[This process , driven by "eternal motion" of whirl or spin,apparently yields infinite worlds.]

Anaxagoras (active at Athens in the mid 5th c.): the materials of this world are made up of infinitesimal 'seeds,' each containing a
 trace of all qualities. Genesis (change) is a process directed by Mind. (Simplicius Phys. 164.24 & 156.13)

All other things have a portion of everything, but Mind (Nous) is infinite and self-governed, unmixed, integral and apart unto itself.
 	... For [Mind] is the finest of all things and the purest,  it has all knowledge about everything and the greatest power; and Mind 
controls all things, both great and small, that have life.
	Mind controlled the rotation [of the world], causing the rotation in the beginning. The whirl began from a small area but has spun 
outward to involve an ever widening area. [This spinning process causes the mixing and separating of materials] And the things 
that are mixed and separated and divided off, all are known by Mind ...all that were to be, all things that once were but are no longer,
 and all that remain, Mind arranged, including the rotation of the stars, the sun and moon, the air and the aither that are separated 
[into their spheres]. The rotation/spin caused this separation: the dense is parted from the thin, the hot from the cold, the bright 
from the dark, and the dry from the moist.

III. Early atomists, Leucippus and Democritus, supposed that the qualities of material things are a product of the shapes of atoms, 
and this variation of shapes and sizes may be  (almost) infinite. The constant mixture of atoms is here (as with Anaxagoras) caused
 by the vast whirl/spin (Dine) of the universe. It is clear that the atomists regarded this force as mechanical, but the notion was still
 so novel that the comedians ridiculed it by calling Dine a false god.

	



	Plato's atomism: Plato 'idealized' the atoms by supposing four (or five) basic shapes for each of the essential elements. 
Each atom has the form of one of the regular solids--fire is the three-sided pyramid; earth is the cube; air is the octahedron 
(like two four-sided pyramids joined at the base);  and water is the almost spherical 20-sided figure (last in the diagram).
 Apparently Plato also supposed or hinted that the 4th regular solid, the dodecahedron (12-sided 'soccer ball') was the stuff
 of the aither, composing the stars and their crystalline spheres--which were, again, arranged in perfect geometrical progression.

	Upon this base Aristotle built his far more elaborate system. (described in detail by Kuhn) Sublunary elements all obey a 
'natural motion': earth and water are heavier and descend; air and fire tend upward. The outer sphere of the heavens is composed 
of aither (which even Aristotle thought of in terms of folk etymology as 'always running' aiei thei)  in perfect circles. 
The spheres of this fixed material nest one within the other, each driven by its contact with the sphere beyond. 
And the outermost sphere is impelled by the 'prime mover.'