Anaximander

(Originally Written August 30, 2006 in History I)

The Classical Mind by W.T. Jones

Anaximander:

Anaximander was also from Miletus and was a younger contemporary of Thales.

He wrote a book and a single sentence has survived: "From what source things arise, to that they return of necessity when they are destroyed; for they suffer punishment and make reparation to one another for their injustice according to the order of time" (Jones, 11).

Anaximander agreed with Thales' presuppositions that A) there is a one stuff (monism) and B) there is a process by which this one stuff becomes the many things that exist. To these two he added a third presupposition, C) this process is a necessary one.

He believed that this first stuff was not an element like water, but something that preceded the elements and that this substance was boundless.

Anaximander contended that water couldn't be the first substance because things that are dry would have to have been made by water. There is a logical inconsistency in Thales' theory and Anaximander exploited it.

Anaximander noticed that the world existed in opposites: hot-cold, wet-dry, etc. Each of these opposites would eventually become the other. They did that by returning to the boundless substance and then reappearing as a substance's opposite.

He believed the world to be overall disorderly and felt that the orderliness of the world had to be explained.

Anaximander put forth a pre-cursor to modern evolutionary theories to explain how the boundless stuff became the many things in existence.