The development of Milesian philosophy, early in the lineage of the [Ionian School](https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ionian_school), is used as an illustration in Root Metaphor Methods by Stephen C. Pepper
In 2022, Patricia Claus wrote of ["The Milesian School: Ancient Greece’s Pioneers of Philosophy" for _The Greek Reporter_](https://greekreporter.com/2022/11/07/ancient-greece-milesian-school).
> The school consisted of three philosophers: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, who were all primarily interested in cosmology, and the origin and substance of the world. They all believed the world was made of a fundamental element called an arche. They all attributed the arche of the world to, respectively, water, apeiron (the unlimited), and air governed by nous (mind or intelligence). [...] > The most important feature of pre-Socratic philosophy was the use of reason to explain the universe. The pre-Socratic philosophers shared the intuition that there was a single explanation that could explain both the plurality and the singularity of the whole – and that explanation would not be direct actions of the gods. > They rejected traditional mythological explanations of the phenomena they saw in the world around them in favor of more rational explanations, boldly initiating analytic and critical thought. Their efforts were directed at the investigation of the ultimate basis and essential nature of the world and the universe. > They sought the material principle, or arche, behind all things, and the method of its origin and disappearance. The pre-Socratics saw the world as a cosmos, an ordered arrangement that could be understood via rational inquiry. > In their effort to make sense of the cosmos, they coined new terms and concepts such as rhythm, symmetry, analogy, deductionism, reductionism, and others.
Eric Gerlach, an instructor at Berkeley City College, contributes a more detailed description of [Greek Philosophy – The Milesians: Thales, Anaximander & Anaximenes](https://ericgerlach.com/the-milesians/)