Biography of Anaximander

Anaximander

Today we are going to talk about a quite important Greek philosopher, geometrist and astronomer in history. Is about Anaximander of Miletus. This man assumed the existence of a constitutive and original principle common to all living beings in nature. This principle was called arche. Unlike the rest of his companions who identified the arche with a physical substance, Anaximander is the one who established it as the first principle known as ápeiron.

In this article we are going to talk to you about Anaximander's biography and the most important feats of his life.

Anaximander of Miletus

Anaximander and exploits

This Greek philosopher and astronomer established as the first principle common to all beings of the nature of the apeiron. We can translate this term as "the indeterminate" or "the indefinite." He was a disciple of Thales of Miletus and a member of the Miletus school. In this city in which he lived he was an active citizen and led an expedition to Apollonia, located on the Black Sea. He acted as a politician holding important positions to such an extent that he was entrusted with the mission of limiting the birth rate in Apollonia. This serious problem due to an excess of natality in those times and a lack of resources to be able to satisfy the needs of all people.

It was one of the many colonies that had to solve the problem of the overpopulation of the Ionian cities. Limiting the birth rate was a complicated issue for that time. The citizens chose him thanks to his knowledge and political merits. Not so long ago a statue was discovered in the excavations at Miletus.

Throughout his life Anaximander devoted himself to conducting multiple investigations. One of these investigations was to develop the first map of our planet. This map had to be made from the rest of the small maps and news that the Greek merchants received. It is a map that could not have been perfected, but later by Hecateus and from which it served Herodotus. In order to make this map, Anaximander had to imagine the Earth as an immobile cylinder. This idea went against the general opinion that considered the Earth flattened.

Other works have also been attributed to him, such as the fixing of the equinoxes and solstices and the calculation of the distances and sizes of the stars. The elaboration of a sundial is also part of the works of Anaximander and of a celestial sphere. This celestial sphere was used for the visualization of some stars in the sky.

Philosophy of Anaximander

Apeiron

This philosopher has had amazing speculations about the origin of living beings and man. According to his philosophy, everything from a wet phenomenon. In this phenomenon, the Earth was a liquid place and during the process of dissociation the humidity gave rise to the living. In such a way that the first men had fish and other more primitive animals as their ancestors. For this theory he was considered the first cosmologist and as the predecessor of the modern theory of evolution.

Anaximander was the first Greek thinker who could write all his philosophical reflections. He had his treatise in which he had all the most notorious reflections of systematization of the real one before Aristotle. From his treatise called "On Nature" keep a fragment. However, given Aristotle's story at least some parts of the entire doctrine of Anaximander can be recomposed.

Within his philosophy he agreed with Thales of Miletus in the defense that there was only one basic principle, called arche, which was the generator of all things. Anaximander called this basic principle ápeiron. The apeiron referred to the indefinite or the indeterminate. This is, a substance that is indeterminate, unlimited and infinite and eternal. The apeiron is incorruptible and imperishable. From this origin, the rest of living beings and the universe derive from it and are subject to the birth of disappearance due to the contrary force between them.

The beginning of everything

Miletus city

He had several attempts to determine the total principle. For this he follows the constant of the Milesian philosophical themes. Unlike the rest of the philosophers who tried to find this principle in a finite nature, for Anaximander this principle was seen in the apeiron that it is not perceived by experience if what has to be postulated as something permanent and transcendent of an empirical world.

It is something indefinable both in space and time but that principle of all things perishable and defined. There are many details that are left out of the subjects that are the subject of our experience. For this reason, Anaximander has had a doctrine that is difficult to interpret.

In school, research on the arche would occupy most of the philosophers' time. He began studying from the school of Pythagoras and continued to Parmenides and Heraclitus. This problematic that was inaugurated in the Miletus school became a recurring theme of all Greek philosophy.

Anaximander was the author of 4 books in total. The first is the one we have already named as "On Nature". However, he authored 3 more books called Perimeter of the Earth, On the Fixed Stars and a Celestial Sphere. Anaximander's books probably had no title and were simply named after the chapter of a fundamental book. What is known with complete certainty is that Anaximander he was one of the first to write a prose book. The importance of the existence of a prose writing is that Anaximander continued the tradition of Thales as a philosopher and inaugurates a new literary genre. This genre has been used by various poets and educators throughout history.

As you can see, Anaximander has been a quite important philosopher and astronomer who has brought many advances to history. I hope that with this information you can learn more about Anaximander and his exploits.


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