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CLASSICAL ESSAY |
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by Anaximander
Anaximander of Miletus, son of Praxiades, a fellow-citizen and associate of Thales, said that the material cause and first element of things was the Infinite, he being the first to introduce this name for the material cause. He says it is neither water nor any other of what are now called the elements, but a substance different from them which is infinite, from which arise all the heavens and the worlds within them. And into that from which things take their rise they pass away once more, "as is ordained; for they make reparation and satisfaction to one another for their injustice according to the appointed time." And besides this, there was an external motion, in the course of which was brought about the origin of the worlds. He did not ascribe the origin of things to any alteration in matter, but said that the oppositions in the substratum, which was a boundless Body, were separated out. He says that something capable of begetting hot and cold was separated off from the eternal at the origin of this world. From this arose a sphere of flame which grew round the air encircling the earth, as the bark grows round a tree. When this was broken up and enclosed in certain rings, the sun, moon, and stars came into existence. Rain was produced by the moisture drawn up from the earth by the sun. The sea is what is left of the original moisture. The fire has dried up most of it and turned the rest salt by scorching it. The earth swings free, held in its place by nothing. It stays where it is because of its equal distance from anything. Living creatures arose from the moist element as it was evaporated by the sun. Man was like another animal, namely, a fish, in the beginning. Further, he says that in the beginning man was born from animals of a different species. His reason is, that, while other animals quickly find food for themselves, man alone requires a prolonged period of sucking. Hence, had he been originally such as he is now, he could never have survived. The first living creatures were produced in the moist element, and were covered with prickly integuments. As time went on they came out upon the drier part, and, the integument soon breaking off, they changed their manner of life.
Excerpted from Early Greek Philosophy, ed. and tr. by John Burnet (1930). |
The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy, edited by A. A. Long
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