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II.

ANAXIMANDROS.

ANAXIMANDROS of Miletos was a companion or pupil of Thales. According to Apollodoros he was born in the second or third year of the forty-second Olympiad (611-610 B.C.). Of his life little is known; Zeller infers from the statement of Aelian (V. H. iii. 17) to the effect that he led the Milesian colony into Apollonia, that he was a man of influence in Miletos. He was a student of geography and astronomy; and various inventions, such as the sundial, are attributed to him. His book, which was referred to as the first philosophical treatise in Greece, may not have received the title 'Tερì púσews' until after his death. It soon became rare, and Simplicius does not seem to have had access to it.

Literature: Schleiermacher, Abh. d. Berl. Akad. 1815; Op. Phil. ii. 171; Krische, Forschungen, pp. 4252; Teichmüller, Studien, pp. 1-70, 545-588; Büsgen, Das aπeрov Anax. Wiesbaden 1867; Lütze, Das areрov Anax. Leipz. 1878; J. Neuhauser, De Anax. Miles. Bonn 1879, and in more complete form, Bonn 1883; Tannery, Rev. Phil. v. (1882); Natorp, Phil. Monatshefte, 1884; Tannery, Archiv f. d. Gesch. d. Philos. viii. 443 ff.; Diels, ibid. x. (1897) 228 ff.

(a) FRAGMENTS OF ANAXIMANDROS.

1. Arist. Phys. iii. 4; 203 b 13 ff. The words å¤ávatov γὰρ καὶ ἀνώλεθρον and by some the words περιέχειν

ἅπαντα καὶ πάντα κυβερνᾶν are thought to come from Anaximandros.

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2. In Simpl. Phys. 6 r (24, 19); Dox. 476, it is generally agreed that the following phrase is from Anaximandros: κατὰ τὸ χρεών· διδόναι γὰρ αὐτὰ ἀλλήλοις τίσιν καὶ δίκην τῆς ἀδικίας.

Translation.-1. Immortal
Immortal and

and

indestructible,' surrounds all and directs all.' 2. (To that they return when they are destroyed) of necessity; for he says that they suffer punishment and give satisfaction to one another for injustice.'

(b) PASSAGES RELATING TO ANAXIMANDROS IN
ARISTOTLE.

Arist. Phys. i. 4; 187 a 12. For some who hold that the real, the underlying substance, is a unity, either one of the three [elements] or something else that is denser than fire and more rarefied than air, teach that other things are generated by condensation and rarefaction. . . . 20. And others believe that existing opposites are separated from the unity, as Anaximandros says, and those also who say that unity and multiplicity exist, as Empedokles and Anaxagoras; for these separate other things from the mixture [μîyμa].2

Phys. iii. 4; 203 b7. There is no beginning of the infinite, for in that case it would have an end. But it is without beginning and indestructible, as being a sort of first principle; for it is necessary that whatever comes into existence should have an end, and there is a conclusion of all destruction. Wherefore as we say, there is no first principle of this [i.e. the infinite], but it itself

The fragment is discussed at length by Ziegler, Archiv f. d. Gesch. d. Philos. i. (1883) p. 16 ff.

2 Cf. Theophrastos (Dox. 478) under Anaxagoras, infra.

seems to be the first principle of all other things and to surround all and to direct all, as they say who think that there are no other causes besides the infinite (such as mind, or friendship), but that it itself is divine; for it is immortal and indestructible, as Anaximandros and most of the physicists say.

Simpl. Phys. 32 r; 150, 20. There is another method, according to which they do not attribute change to matter itself, nor do they suppose that generation takes place by a transformation of the underlying substance, but by separation; for the opposites existing in the substance which is infinite matter are separated, according to Anaximandros, who was the earliest thinker to call the underlying substance the first principle. And the opposites are heat and cold, dry and moist, and the rest.

Phys. iii. 5; 204 b 22. But it is not possible that infinite matter is one and simple; either, as some say, that it is something different from the elements, from which they are generated, or that it is absolutely one. For there are some who make the infinite of this character, but they do not consider it to be air or water, in order that other things may not be blotted out by the infinite; for these are mutually antagonistic to one another, inasmuch as air is cold, water is moist, and fire hot; if one of these were infinite, the rest would be at once blotted out; but now they say that the infinite is something different from these things, namely, that from which they come.

Phys. iii. 8; 208 a 8. In order that generation may actually occur, it is not necessary to prove that the infinite should actually be matter that sense can perceive; for it is possible that destruction of one thing is generation of another, provided the all is limited.

De Coelo iii. 5; 303 b 11. For some say that there is only one underlying substance; and of these some

say that it is water, some that it is air, some that it is fire, and some that it is more rarefied than water and denser than air; and these last say that being infinite it surrounds all the heavens.

Meteor. 2; 355 a 21. It is natural that this very thing should be unintelligible to those who say that at first when the earth was moist and the universe including the earth was warmed by the sun, then air was formed and the whole heavens were dried, and this produced the winds and made the heavens revolve.1

Metaph. xii. 2; 1069 b 18. So not only is it very properly admitted that all things are generated from not-being, but also that they all come from being:potentially from being, actually from not-being; and this is the unity of Anaxagoras (for this is better than to say that all things exist together [oμοû ñáντа]), and it is the mixture [uiyua] of Empedokles and Anaximandros.

Plut. Symp. viii. 730 E. Wherefore they (the Syrians) reverence the fish as of the same origin and the same family as man, holding a more reasonable philosophy than that of Anaximandros; for he declares, not that fishes and men were generated at the same time, but that at first men were generated in the form of fishes, and that growing up as sharks do till they were able to help themselves, they then came forth on the dry ground.

(c) PASSAGES RELATING TO ANAXIMANDROS IN
THE DOXOGRAPHISTS.

(Theophrastos, Dox. 477) Simpl. Phys. 6r; 24, 26. Among those who say that the first principle is one and movable and infinite, is Anaximandros of Miletos, son of Praxiades, pupil and successor of Thales. He said that the first principle and element of all things is infinite, and he was the first to apply this word to

1 Cf. Theophrastos, Dox. 494, infra, p. 12.

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the first principle; and he says that it is neither water nor any other one of the things called elements, but the infinite is something of a different nature, from which came all the heavens and the worlds in them; and from what source things arise, to that they return of necessity when they are destroyed; for he says that they suffer punishment and give satisfaction' to one another for injustice according to the order of time, putting it in rather poetical language. Evidently when he sees the four elements changing into one another, he does not deem it right to make any one of these the underlying substance, but something else besides them. And he does not think that things come into being by change in the nature of the element, but by the separation of the opposites which the eternal motion causes. On this account Aristotle compares him with Anaxagoras.

Simpl. Phys. 6 v; 27, 23; Dox. 478. The translation is given under Anaxagoras, infra.

Alex. in Meteor. 91 r (vol. i. 268 Id.), Dox. 494. Some of the physicists say that the sea is what is left of the first moisture; 2 for when the region about the earth was moist, the upper part of the moisture was evaporated by the sun, and from it came the winds and the revolutions of the sun and moon, since these made their revolutions by reason of the vapours and exhalations, and revolved in those regions where they found an abundance of them. What is left of this moisture in the hollow places is the sea; so it diminishes in quantity, being evaporated gradually by the sun, and finally it will be completely dried up. Theophrastos says that Anaximandros and Diogenes were of this opinion.

1 Archiv f. d. Geschichte d. Phil. i. p. 16 sqq.

2 Aet. iii. 16; Dox. 381.

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