In Hesiod's Theogany, myth is defined as a way of explaining the account of the origins of the universe through the origins of God with distinctive personalities. In Presocratics Reader, philosophy is the inquiry through abstract reasoning. It critically takes experience, assesses arguments for what it believes and justifies its case. Abstract reasoning is the appeal to arguments and to take experience, abstract fundamental principles, and to make universal claims. There is a big difference between myth as seen in Hesiod's Theogany and philosophy as seen in Presocratics Reader.
             Hesiod's cosmogony (or the account of origin of all things) is based on mythological figures, while the cosmogony of the Presocratics is based on the arche which explains all other things. Arche is a Greek word meaning that which underlies all reality and sustains reality throughout. Hesiod explains everything that has happened in the world as something done because of or by the Gods. The Presocratics explains that there is some fundamental thing that makes everything happen in the world.
             The first philosopher mentioned in the Presocratics Reader is Thales. Thales said that the fundamental thing is water and that it is the principle of all things. He said this because he looked at the world, made an observation, and concluded that it must be water that is the underlying fundamental thing that makes up all reality. As a result, Thales perceived the world from a biological point of view and reduced reality to observations made in nature. From that, he assumed that if water is the source of all things in the biological sense, then it must be the source of all things in the universal sense as well. Therefore, Thales only attempted to explain the original source, from which everything is derived; however, he uses abstract reasoning and limits the principle to a concrete and definite element, which gives rise to the problem o
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