Anaximander (Ionian School of Philosophy)

 

Anaximander: born in Miletus(Anatolia, Turkey) around the year 611 BCE . He belonged to the Milesian/Ionian School of Philosophy set up by Thales. He was a key figure in the Milesian School, considered as the student of Thales, teacher of Anaximenes and Pythagoras. He is considered as the first metaphysicist(due to his belief in apeiron), founder of astronomy, Father of Evolution Theory and he tried to observe and explain different aspects of the universe and its origins, and to describe the mechanics of celestial bodies in relation to the Earth. He made important contributions to cosmology, physics, geometry, meteorology and geography as well as to Metaphysics. 

Important Works of Anaximander:

Although he was among the earliest philosophers in the Western world to have actually written down his studies, only one fragment of his work remains and, by the time of Plato, his philosophy was apparently almost forgotten. It was revived by the works of Aristotle and his student Theophrastus.

a) Contributions in Geography:

He was interested in scientific pursuits and constructed a “gnomon” (a simple sundial). In his time, the gnomon was simply a vertical pillar or rod mounted on a horizontal plane. The position of its shadow on the plane indicated the time of day. As it moves through its apparent course, the Sun draws a curve with the tip of the projected shadow, which is shortest at noon, when pointing due south. The variation in the tip's position at noon indicates the solar time and the seasons; the shadow is longest on the winter solstice and shortest on the summer solstice.

He was a famous cartographer who made map for the Milesian sailors on the Black Sea and first to attempt the mapping of the whole world. He observed and explained different aspects of the universe, with a particular interest in its origin, claiming that nature is ruled by laws, just like human societies, and anything that disturbs the balance of nature does not last long. Anaximander explained rain as the product of humidity pumped up from the earth by the sun. He explained thunder and lightning, to the intervention of elements, rather than to divine causes. In his system, thunder results from the shock of clouds hitting each other; the loudness of the sound is proportionate with that of the shock. Thunder without lightning is the result of the wind being too weak to emit any flame, but strong enough to produce a sound. A flash of lightning without thunder is a jolt of the air that disperses and falls, allowing a less active fire to break free. Thunderbolts are the result of a thicker and more violent air flow.

b) A Proto Evolutionary Human Anthropology :

He is regarded as the most ancient proponent of theory of evolution. By noting the existence of fossils, he claimed that long ago animals sprang out of the sea. He considered that from warmed up water and earth emerged either fish or entirely fishlike animals. Inside these animals, men took form and embryos were held prisoners until puberty; only then, after these animals burst open, could men and women come out, now able to feed themselves. The reason for this is said to be that the human child needs long protection in order to survive.

c) Metaphysics (The Nature of Reality) :

Like Thales, he showed keen interest in cosmology. However, he differed with his master in his choice of the first principle. At a time when the Pre-Socratic Philosophers were pursuing various forms of Monism and searching for the one element that constitutes all things (each had a different solution to the identity of this element: water for Thales, air for Anaximenes, fire for 

Heraclitus), Anaximander argued that neither water nor any of the other elements can embrace all of the opposites found in nature (e.g. water can only be wet, never dry) and therefore cannot be the one primary substance or first principle of the universe. He says that it is something of infinite nature, eternal, unborn and has no origin ,  from which all the heavens and the worlds in them come into being. And the things from which existing things come into being are also the things into which they are destroyed, in accordance with what must be. For they give justice and reparation to one another for their injustice in accordance with the arrangement of time  (he speaks of them in this way in somewhat poetical words). It is clear that he observed the change of the four elements into one another and was unwilling to make any one of them the underlying stuff but rather chose something else apart from them. He accounts for coming into being not by the alteration of the element, but by the separating off of the opposites by the eternal motion.

Thus, he judged that, although not directly perceptible to us, the only substance which could explain all the opposites he saw around him, is apeiron. 

For Anaximander, the Unifying Principle of Diversity or archē is ápeiron . It is  disputed whether the apeiron should be interpreted as spatially or temporarily without limits, or perhaps as that which has no qualifications, or as that which is inexhaustible. Some scholars have even defended the meaning “that which is not experienced,” by relating the Greek word “apeiron” not to “peras” (“boundary,” “limit”), but to “perao” (“to experience,” “to apperceive”). The suggestion, however, is almost irresistible that Greek philosophy, by making the Boundless into the principle of all things, has started on a high level of abstraction. On the other hand, some have pointed out that this use of “apeiron” is atypical for Greek thought, which was occupied with limit, symmetry and harmony. The Pythagoreans placed the boundless (the “apeiron”) on the list of negative things, and for Aristotle, too, perfection became aligned with limit (Greek: “peras”), and thus “apeiron” with imperfection. 

d) Astronomy : 

Anaximander made three important astronomical speculations which make up the core of Anaximander’s astronomy, and meant a tremendous jump forward and constitute the origin of  Western concept of the universe. They are : 

(1) the celestial bodies make full circles and also pass beneath the earth : That the celestial bodies make full circles is not something he could have observed, but a conclusion he must have drawn. We can see – at the northern hemisphere, like Anaximander – the stars around the Polar star making full circles, and we can also observe that the more southerly stars sometimes disappear behind the horizon. We may argue that the stars of which we see only arcs in reality also describe full circles, just like those near the Polar star. Similarly he observed  that the arcs described by sun and the moon are sometimes bigger and sometimes smaller, and we are able to predict exactly where they will rise the next day. Thus it was a daring conclusion, precisely because it necessarily entailed the concept of the earth hanging free and unsupported in space. 

(2) the earth floats free and unsupported in space : Anaximander boldly asserts that the earth floats free in the center of the universe, unsupported by water (as proposed by Thales) , pillars, or whatever. Apparently, he drew this bold conclusion from his assumption that the celestial bodies make full circles.  More than 2500 years later astronauts really saw the unsupported earth floating in space and thus provided the ultimate confirmation of Anaximander’s conception. The shape of the earth, according to Anaximander, is cylindrical, like a column-drum, its diameter being three times its height. The flat top forming the inhabited world, surrounded by a circular oceanic mass. This theory allowed for the concept that celestial bodies could pass under or around it, and provided a better explanation than Thales’ claim of a world floating on water (then what would contain this ocean?)

(3) the celestial bodies lie behind one another : It was believed that the celestial bodies are attached on a celestial vault, a kind of dome or tent, onto which all of the celestial bodies are attached, at the same distance, like in a planetarium. One meets this kind of conception in Homer, when he speaks of the brazen or iron heaven, which is apparently conceived of as something solid, being supported by Atlas, or by pillars. When Anaximander looked at the heaven, he imagined, for the first time in history, space. Anaximander’s vision implied depth in the universe, that is, the idea that the celestial bodies lie behind one another.

Anaximander also said that heavenly bodies are spaced at varying distances ie the idea of orbits . Also he considered celestial bodies as chariot wheels. The rims of these wheels are of opaque vapor, they are hollow, and filled with fire. This fire shines through at openings in the wheels, and this is what we see as the sun, the moon, or the stars. Sometimes, the opening of the sun wheel closes: then we observe an eclipse. The opening of the moon wheel regularly closes and opens again, which accounts for the phases of the moon. It is quite certain that the question of why the celestial bodies do not fall upon the earth must have been as serious a problem to Anaximander as the question of why the earth does not fall. The explanation of the celestial bodies as wheels, then, provides an answer to both questions. The celestial bodies have no reason whatsoever to move otherwise than in circles around the earth, as each point on them is always as far from the earth as any other. 

Anaximander built a celestial sphere(as shown in fig 1,2 and 3), and his work on astronomy shows that he must have observed the inclination of the celestial sphere in relation to the plane of the Earth to explain the seasons. He also speculated on the plurality of worlds or multiverse or parallel universes, which places him close to the Atomists and the Epicureans who, more than a century later, also claimed that an infinity of worlds appeared and disappeared.

Conclusion :  What we know of him, we may say that he was one of the greatest minds that ever lived. By speculating and arguing about the “Apeiron - boundless” he was the first metaphysician. By drawing a map of the world he was the first geographer. But above all, by boldly speculating about the universe he broke with the ancient image of the celestial vault and became the discoverer of the Western world-picture.

"Men first appeared as fish. When they were able to help themselves they took to land."