Arche (Ancient Greek: ἀρχή) is a Greek word with primary senses beginning, origin or source of action.(εξ’ ἀρχής: from the beginning, οr εξ’ ἀρχής λόγος: the original argument), and later first principle or element, first so used by Anaximander (Simplicius in Ph. 150.23), principles of knowledge (ἀρχαί) (Aristot.his source of entity is always preserved. (Aristotle-Metaph.A, 983, b6ff). Anaximander was the first philosopher that used arche for that which writers from Aristotle onwards called the substratum (Simplicius Phys.