Bayterek Uluslararası Akademik Araştırmalar Dergisi

Öz

Philosophical thought, in a sense, started with the efforts of philosophers to find the unchanging principle, element or essence beyond change. The first question of the philosophers, who attempted to explain nature by staying in nature, was the question of what is the highest principle that forms the basis of the universe, in other words, where and how all kinds of existence came from. The issue focused on within the framework of this article is the discussions about the founding principle of the universe in question, and in this context, the subject is mostly dealt with on the basis of Aristotle's Metaphysics. The arkhe problem, which was handled by many philosophers in the Pre-Socratic period, is the main philosophical problem discussed by each philosopher from various perspectives. In addition to the philosophers who discussed the Arkhe problem starting from a monist principle, there were also philosophers who discussed the problem in a pluralist framework. When it comes to the systematic period when the problems of nature were made the subject of philosophical interest together with the problems of human beings, it is seen that the issue in question was transformed into the discussion of universals by Plato, while Aristotle put the issue in the form of a discussion of substance. Throughout the article, it is mentioned how the problem was handled in the Middle Ages and how it was discussed in the post-Renaissance periods, and it is also reminded that the subject is up-to-date from the Big-Bang to today's discussions on particle physics.