por Who was Anaximenes of Miletus?
Anaximenes of Miletus He was a Greek philosopher who lived between 585 and 528 BC. He is considered one of the pre-Socratic philosophers, whose thoughts focused on the phenomena of nature rather than on being.
The contributions of Anaximenes were of great importance in the generation of naturalist philosophers in Ancient Greece and some of his ideas were debated for centuries.
Along with Anaximander, who was considered his student, Anaximenes was among the naturalists, philosophers who inquired into the schemes of natural, astronomical, and scientific processes.
The work that the naturalists and the Pythagoreans developed in Ancient Greece gave way to the reflections that would take philosophy to another reflective scenario, with Socrates and Plato.
As a member of the Milesian school, Anaximenes’ thought was nourished by that previously proposed by Thales of Miletus and Anaximander. Anaximenes was the youngest of the three, whose reflections reached their highest point when they died.
Anaximenes’s legacy consists not only of philosophical observations about nature, but also of firm postulates in areas such as astronomy, meteorology, and science in general.
Biography and main theories
Anaximenes was born in the year 585 BC in the city of Miletus, located on the Anatolian peninsula, in Asia Minor (now Turkey). He lived his entire life in this city, before it was destroyed.
Most of the details related to the life of Anaximenes are unknown today. However, according to the historian Apollodorus of Athens, Anaximenes of Miletus lived during the time of the siege of Sardis and died approximately in the year 524 BC.
It is known about Anaximenes that he was a disciple of Anaximander and that he belonged to the Ionian school or school of Miletus.
The philosopher Theophrastus would describe him in his work not only as the disciple, but also as the companion of Anaximander. It is estimated that Anaximenes was 22 years younger than Anaximander.
Anaximenes and the Air – Arjé
It is also known that he was the first philosopher to propose the important theory of the arché or arché, which affirms the existence of an original material principle from which the appearance of all things follows. For Anaximenes, the arche was the air.
Thanks to the theory of the arche, Anaximenes proposed fundamental physical concepts, such as the different states of matter (rarefaction and condensation). These concepts allowed him to explain the modalities of quantitative and qualitative movement that gave rise to all changes in nature.
For Anaximenes, the condensation of the air allowed the formation of clouds, which would give rise to water. In turn, the water builds the ice, the stones and the earth. On the other hand, the heating of the air gives rise to fire.
His eagerness to defend his theory on the origin of matter led him to disagree with the first principles raised by Tales of Miletus and Anaximander.
It is believed that the approach to his theory of air as the first principle of life started from his observations of nature and the importance of the phenomenon of respiration for life.
universe and man
Anaximenes was the first philosopher to understand the world as a living being with its own soul, analogous to the human soul. In this way, when human beings died their soul was united with that of the universe.
His knowledge of meteorology, astronomy and philosophy led him to believe that the Earth was flat and floated in the air «like a leaf».
This approach was considered a step backwards, compared to those elaborated by other Greek philosophers. On the other hand, thanks to his knowledge of physics, he also suggested that the stars did not move under the Earth, but around it.
Plays
Thanks to the accounts of the Greek historian Diogenes Laertius, it is known that Anaximenes wrote multiple works. Unfortunately, at present there is no record of almost anything.
However, Anaximenes is credited with authoring the work. About Nature either periphyseos. Diogenes tells that this book was written in the Ionic dialect, with a simple style and devoid of excesses.
The historical importance of Anaximenes does not center so much on his cosmology as on his desire to reveal the nature of reality.
About Nature
The work of Anaximenes is summarized in an informative book lost today. “About Nature” was a treatise that survived into the early stages of classical and medieval literary criticism.
This work by Anaximenes allowed us to open the threshold towards a scientific and mathematical approach to nature without resorting to supernatural or mythological assumptions.
Anaximenes developed in his work the first studies on the stages of the day from the shadows that were projected in the environment, which allowed him to design a sundial that he called sciothericon.
His prose and postulates were compared to those of Anaximander at the time. Anaximenes’s position is considered to have had the greatest influence on later philosophers and scientists.
Contributions of Anaximenes
metaphysics of nature
Anaximenes did not focus his thought on the introspection of the human being or his place in the world, but on the original qualities of the natural elements that surrounded him and the world he inhabited.
Despite these considerations, he started from a materialist position in the sense that a recognizable element was responsible for forming the rest of the bodies.
From this position, Anaximenes reflected on the importance or the mechanisms that certain natural phenomena had for themselves, the Earth and the human being.
A material explanation of the world
Anaximenes was one of the first to seek to explain the mechanisms of the world leaving aside supernatural conceptions.
Together with others, he managed to discern that everything that exists has a material origin. Anaximenes was considered a practitioner of material monism, a pre-Socratic school of thought that began to be explored by the Milesian school.
Despite embarking on the path towards empirical knowledge and leaving superstition aside, it has been known that Anaximenes’s postulates, although ambitious and even logical, have something dreamy in their contents, being considered as more down-to-earth those of his companion Anaximander. .
Air as an essential element
For Anaximenes, the material or element that gave rise to all the others was air. This position confronts him with Thales and Anaximander, who had considered other elements as the original ones.
With air, Anaximenes sought to demonstrate its ability to generate other elements (water, earth, fire) from physical processes such as condensation and rarefaction.
The original character of the air for Anaximenes was not only natural or physical, but was closely related to the mind of the individual.
With the air as a material cause, as the beginning of the world, the human would also be considered originated by it, considering that the human soul was air capable of keeping the body together.
Elemental transformation and origin of the world
Anaximenes considered that the air, as a primordial element, kept the Earth positioned, considered flat at that time.
Through the processes of condensation, the air formed the heavenly bodies as clouds; these, the water, and a combination of everything formed the Earth. The opposite process, rarefaction, allowed to originate the fire from the same air.
The Greek philosopher, despite his naturalistic and materialistic foundations, sought to imbue air with a spiritual character as an original element, and its importance not only in human life, but also in the integrity of his soul.
causal unification
Members of the Milesian school used to have a general perception of the elements and phenomena they studied.
Anaximenes did not address his natural anxieties as isolated cases, but rather sought a unifying character in the different behaviors or natural manifestations that disturbed him.
This made it possible to reduce the divine attributions that were given to certain natural phenomena at that time, and Anaximenes allowed himself to integrate them into his unifying position through the air as an element responsible, even, for forming the extraterrestrial bodies known at that time, such as the Sun.
A stepping stone to further thought
It is affirmed that Anaximenes laid the foundations for the continuity of naturalistic and mathematical thought that would later be deepened by the Pythagoreans and atomists, as well as the first metaphysical reflections on being that would later be addressed by Socrates and later philosophers.
Although it is debated whether the greatest legacy of the Milesian school was taken from the work of Anaximenes or Anaximander, a clear reflective influence of the former’s work has been seen in the works of Pythagoras, although it is also supported by certain objective postulates of Anaximander.
Anaximenes’ philosophy was taken as a basis by other philosophers such as Anaxagoras and Diogenes of Apollonia, who adopted many of his positions and maintained the importance of air as an essential element of the physical world.
The thought of Anaximenes is considered the culminating point started by Thales and continued by Anaxagoras.
Anaximenes then closes the cycle of knowledge imposed by the Milesian school, in such a way that its natural, physical and spiritual principles are taken as the reference of this philosophical current, and also due to the prosaic ease of its legacy.
References
Barnes, J. (1982). The Presocratic Philosophers. New York: Routledge.
Burnett, J. (1920). Early Greek Philosophy. London: A&C Black.
Classen, C.J. (1977). Anaximander and Anaximenes: The Earliest Greek Theories of Change? phronesis89-102.
Osborne, R., & Edney, R. (2005). Philosophy for beginners. Buenos Aires: It was Nascent.
Taylor, CC (1997). From the Beginning to Plato. London: Routledge.