The last known representative of the Milesian school was Anaximenes (c. 588 - 525 BC). His life and work also became known thanks to the testimonies of later thinkers. Like his predecessors, Anaximenes attached great importance to clarifying the nature of the first principle. Such, in his opinion, is the air from which everything arises and into which everything returns.
Anaximenes chooses air as the first principle because it has such properties that water does not have (and if it does, it is not enough). First of all, unlike water, air has an unlimited distribution. The second argument boils down to the fact that the world, as a living being that is born and dies, requires air for its existence. These ideas are confirmed in the following statement of the Greek thinker: “Our soul, being air, is for each of us the principle of unification. In the same way, breath and air embrace the entire universe.”
The originality of Anaximenes is not in a more convincing justification of the unity of matter, but in the fact that the emergence of new things and phenomena, their diversity is explained by him by various degrees of air condensation, due to which water, earth, stones, etc. are formed, but because of its rarefaction formed, for example, fire.
He explained the appearance of cold as a result of air condensation, and heat - as a result of its liquefaction. As a result of the complete condensation of air, land appears, and then mountains. Such an interpretation of the diversity of the world was deeper and more understandable than that of his predecessors, and it is not by chance that Anaximenes' interpretation of the diversity of the world was widely used in ancient philosophy. The stability and strength of the earth was due to the fact that, being flat, it floats in the air, and just like the sun, moon and other fiery celestial bodies, it stays in the air. philosophy greece sophist socrates
Like his predecessors, Anaximenes recognized the innumerability of worlds, believing that they all originated from the air. Anaximenes can be regarded as the founder of ancient astronomy, or the doctrine of the sky and stars. He believed that all celestial bodies - the sun, moon, stars, other bodies originate from the earth.
Thus, he explains the formation of stars by the increasing rarefaction of the air and the degree of its removal from the earth. Nearby stars produce heat that falls to the earth. Distant stars do not produce heat and are stationary. Anaximenes owns a hypothesis explaining the eclipse of the sun and moon.
Consequently, the philosophers of the Milesian school laid a good foundation for the further development of ancient philosophy. Evidence of this is both their ideas and the fact that all or almost all subsequent ancient Greek thinkers, to a greater or lesser extent, turned to their work. It is also significant that, despite the presence of mythological elements in their thinking, it should be qualified as philosophical. They took confident steps to overcome mythologism and laid the foundations for a new way of thinking. As a result, the development of philosophy proceeded along an ascending line, which created the necessary conditions for the expansion of philosophical problems and the deepening of philosophical thinking.
Biographical information.
Anaximenes (c. 588-525 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher, student of Anaximander. He studied physics, astronomy, meteorology.
Main works.
"On Nature" - the work has not been preserved.
Anaximenes, like Thales and Anaximander, was an elemental materialist. He could not accept such an abstract entity as Anaximander's apeiron, and chose air- the most unqualified and indefinite of the four elements.
Cosmogony and cosmology.
According to Anaximenes, everything arises from the air: “it is the source of the emergence of (everything) that exists, existed and will exist, (including) gods and deities, while the rest (things) (arise according to his teachings) from what came from the air." In its normal state, being evenly distributed, the air is not noticeable. It becomes noticeable under the influence of heat, cold, humidity and movement. It is the movement of air that is the source of all the changes that take place, the main thing being its condensation and rarefaction. When air is rarefied, fire is formed, and then - ether; when thickening - wind, clouds, water, earth, stones (Scheme 19).
Scheme 19. Anaximenes: cosmogony
ETHER<=>FIRE<=> AIR<=>WINDS<=>CLOUDS<=>WATER<=> <=>
EARTH<=>STONES
--> - thickening (cold)<-- - разрежение (тепло)
Anaximenes believed that the Sun, Moon and stars are the luminaries formed from fire, and this fire is from moisture that rose from the Earth. According to other sources, he claimed that the Sun, Moon and stars are stones heated from rapid movement.
The earth and all celestial bodies are flat and float in the air. The earth is motionless, and the luminaries move in air whirlwinds. Anaximenes corrected Anaximander's erroneous ideas about the location of celestial bodies: the Moon is closest to the Earth, then the Sun, and the farthest are the stars.
Teaching about the soul.
Boundless air is the beginning not only of the body, but also of the soul. Thus, the soul is airy, and therefore material.
The doctrine of the gods.
Anaximenes believed that it was not the gods who created the air, but the gods themselves arose from the air.
Ephesus school
Heraclitus (Heraclitus)
Biographical information.
Heraclitus (c. 544-480 BC) - ancient Greek sage. He was born and lived in the city of Ephesus, so he is often called Heraclitus of Ephesus. Despite the fact that he belonged to the royal-priestly family, he lived poor and lonely. Heraclitus had the nicknames Dark (since his statements were obscure) and Weeping (since he often lamented because of human imperfection). Heraclitus - elemental materialist and founder dialectics.
Main works.
"On Nature" - about 130 fragments have been preserved.
Philosophical views. Initial.
Heraclitus believed that the beginning of all things Fire. Fire is material, eternal and living (hylozoism), moreover, it is reasonable, it has a Logos. Fire is not created by anyone, but it obeys the world law, "flaring up in measure and fading out in measure."
Dialectics.
The fundamental feature of the world is its constant variability: “everything flows”, “you cannot step into the same river twice”. In this, Heraclitus opposes the majority of ancient philosophers who believed that "true being" is eternal and unchanging (Pythagoreans, Eleatics, etc.). A significant change according to Heraclitus is a change in its opposite (cold heats up, hot cools down). Opposites exist in unity and in eternal struggle (“struggle is the father of everything and the king over everything”).
Cosmology and cosmogony.
Everything in the world arises from fire, and this is the “way down” and the “lack” of fire (Scheme 20). According to Heraclitus, the cosmos is not eternal, the “way down” is replaced by the “way up”, and then the whole world burns in a world fire, which is at the same time a world court (since the fire is alive and intelligent).
Teaching about the soul.
The human soul is a combination of fire and moisture. Souls arise, "evaporating from moisture", and, conversely, "death to souls - birth to water." The more fire in the soul, the better it is; the human mind is Fire (Logos).
According to Clement of Alexandria (3rd century)
According to Plutarch (I-II centuries)
- /502 BC e. , Miletus) - an ancient Greek philosopher, a representative of the Milesian school of natural philosophy, a student of Anaximander.
Encyclopedic YouTube
-
1 / 5
Anaximenes is the last representative of the Milesian school. Anaximenes strengthened and completed the trend of spontaneous materialism - the search for natural causes of phenomena and things. Like Thales and Anaximander earlier, he considers a certain type of matter to be the fundamental principle of the world. He considers such matter to be unlimited, infinite, having an indefinite form. air, from which everything else arises. “Anaximenes… proclaims air to be the beginning of existence, for everything arises from it and everything returns to it.”
As a meteorologist, he believed that hail is formed when water falling from clouds freezes; if air is mixed with this freezing water, snow is formed. Wind is compressed air. Anaximenes associated the state of the weather with the activity of the Sun.
Like Thales and Anaximander, Anaximenes studied astronomical phenomena, which, like other natural phenomena, he sought to explain in a natural way. Anaximenes believed that the Sun was a [flat celestial] body, similar to the Earth and the Moon, which became hot from rapid movement. Earth and heavenly bodies hover in the air; The earth is motionless, other luminaries and planets (which Anaximenes distinguished from stars and which, as he believed, arise from earthly vapors) are moved by cosmic winds.
Anaximenes corrected the teachings of Anaximander about the order of the arrangement of the Moon, the Sun and the stars in the world space, in which they followed in circles in reverse order.
Compositions
The writings of Anaximenes have been preserved in fragments. Unlike his teacher Anaximander, who wrote, as the ancients themselves noted, “artificial prose,” Anaximenes writes simply and artlessly. Outlining his teaching, Anaximenes often resorts to figurative comparisons. The condensation of air, "giving birth" to the flat earth, he likens to "felting wool"; The sun, the moon - fiery leaves floating in the middle of the air, etc.
Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes are the founders of the entire philosophy of ancient Greece. It is believed that they laid the foundation of Ionian philosophy. Their school was in Miletus, hence the name - the Milesian school. The city was located on the banks of the Anatolia River and was adjacent to the beginning of Asia. Therefore, there are prerequisites for thinking that the Eastern peoples influenced the foundation of Milesian philosophy.
They were the first to study nature and interpret life from a scientific point of view. Each of these thinkers had their own versions of pravoschestvu. Thales believed that water was the ancestor of everything. Anaximander had a different point of view on this matter, he believed that apeiron (something indefinite - it had neither form, nor beginning, nor end). Anaximenes assumed it was air. The world for them was a single living organism.Thales
Thales (624 - 546 BC) was a merchant, statesman and was a respected person in his circles. Therefore, taking part in state affairs, he had the right to speak out, gave advice to the townspeople (some of his advice later saved the city from destruction by the Persians). He often traveled, which gave him the opportunity to collect scientific information and expand his horizons. He invented astronomical instruments and understood hydroengineering. At one time he became famous in Greece when he foresaw a solar eclipse in 585 BC
Thales believed that the whole world arose from water. And that the earth floats in some kind of huge reservoir like a boat in the sea. Everything around is alive. He believed in the divine, but did not believe in the gods like most of his compatriots. He believed that the divine is the movement with which the entire universe is saturated.
He learned astronomy from the Egyptian priests when he lived for some time in Egypt. He made his contribution to this science by trying to determine how the heavenly bodies are located in relation to the Earth. Thales was able to determine that the Moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun. We also managed to determine the length of the solar year.
Thales was famous not only as a philosopher, but also as a mathematician. He managed to contribute to the development of this science. He inscribed a triangle in a circle, deduced some theorems related to triangles and circles.
His thinking had two facets, on the one hand it was based on the first scientific discoveries, and on the other hand on the mythological theories of that time. But this did not stop him from becoming one of the seven famous sages of the world.Anaximander
Anaximander (611 - 546 BC) was a student and follower of Thales. Only his theory of the creation of the world was different. He believed that everything began from apeiron - a kind of faceless substance that combines opposites in the type of hot and cold.
He believed that the Earth was motionless, round and flat. All life was formed from the sediments of the seabed and changed shape, moving to land. He believed that nothing is eternal, including the world. But after it collapses, apeiron will again highlight a new world. This cycle, in his opinion, is eternal.
Like his teacher, the philosopher was also engaged in other sciences. Anaximander managed to excel in astronomy and geography. In astronomy, his success was that he was able to calculate the size of the Moon and the Sun, as well as the distance from them to the Earth. He believed that they are gods, as they move with incredible force. In geography, his success lay in the fact that he was able to determine the days of the equinox, the difference in the latitudes of cities and countries, and was the first to draw up a map of the earth.Anaximenes
Anaximenes (585 - 525 BC) lived in one of the most difficult times for Miletus, when there was a war with the Persians. The dates of his life are approximate, since information from that time has practically not reached us. He was a student of Anaximander, but, like him, he disagreed with the opinion of his teacher. He believed that the world was created from the air, because it is thanks to him that the movement of all life on Earth occurs. He assumed that the Earth is a flat circle, which is shrouded in air, immersed in it. Also, there are, in his opinion, other astronomical units. His theory was based on the fact that everything consists of air, and the differences between living units are only due to different concentrations of air in them. In his philosophy, he did not forget about the soul, considering it the basis of all thinking organisms.
Knowledge in astronomy was primitive: he believed that the Earth is motionless, and everything else is mobile. The movement of everything gives a certain special cosmic wind. Anaximenes interpreted eclipses by the fact that the heavenly bodies had two sides: light and dark, and when they turned to the dark side, there was an eclipse. He also assumed that the stars are further away than the Moon and the Sun.
The philosopher interpreted meteorology in his own way. I thought that the clouds are concentrated air from which water drips - ordinary rain, if the water is from the air, then it is snow and frozen water - hail. Lightning and thunder occur as a result of a sharp rupture of a cloud by a stream of wind. He had his own view on the earthquake. This phenomenon occurs due to the appearance of cracks in the earth during drought or when there is too much moisture, the earth collapses.ancient Greek philosopher, representative of the Milesian school of natural philosophy, student of Anaximander
The genesis of the world in Anaximenes
Anaximenes was the last representative of the Milesian school. Anaximenes strengthened and completed the trend of spontaneous materialism - the search for natural causes of phenomena and things. Like Thales and Anaximander earlier, he considers a certain type of matter to be the fundamental principle of the world. He considers such matter to be unlimited, infinite, having an indefinite form. air, from which everything else arises. “Anaximenes… proclaims air to be the beginning of existence, for everything arises from it and everything returns to it.”
Anaximenes materializes apeiron, a purely abstract definition of his teacher. To describe the properties of the world principle, he draws on a set of properties of air. Anaximenes still uses the substantial term Anaximander a, but attributively. The air of Anaximenes is also unlimited, that is, apeiron (???????); but Anaximenes understands the beginning already in addition to other properties that air has. Accordingly, the statics and dynamics of the beginning is determined by such properties.
That. the air of Anaximenes at the same time corresponds to the ideas of both Thales (an abstract principle, conceivable as a concrete natural element) and Anaximander (an abstract principle, conceived as such, without quality). Anaximenes' air is the most poor quality from all material elements; a transparent and invisible substance that is difficult/impossible to see, which has no color and normal bodily qualities. At the same time, air is quality start, although in many ways it is an image of universal spontaneity, filled with a generalized abstract, universal content.
According to Anaximenes, the world arises from "infinite" air, and the whole variety of things is air in its various states. Due to rarefaction (that is, heating) fire arises from air, due to condensation (that is, cooling) - wind, clouds, water, earth and stones. The rarefied air gives rise to heavenly bodies with a fiery nature. An important aspect of the provisions of Anaximenes: condensation and rarefaction are understood here as basic, mutually opposite, but equally functional processes involved in the formation of various states of matter.
The choice of air by Anaximenes as a cosmogonic first principle and the actual life basis of the cosmos is based on the principle of parallelism of the microcosm and macrocosm: “just as air in the form of our soul holds us together, so breath and air cover the entire Earth.” Anaximenes' boundless air encompasses the whole world, is the source of life and breath of living beings.
Gods at Anaximenes
Completing the construction of a single picture of the world, Anaximenes finds in the boundless air the beginning of both the body and the soul; the gods also come from the air; the soul is airy, life is breath. Augustine reports that “Anaximenes did not deny the gods and did not pass them over in silence ... Anaximenes ... said that the beginning is unlimited air, and that everything that is, that was, that will be arises from it; [all] divine and divine things; and that everything that follows will arise from the offspring of air. But Anaximenes, says Augustine, was convinced that "air was not created by the gods, but that they themselves were made of air." That. the gods of Anaximenes are a modification of a material substance (and, accordingly, in the view of orthodox theology, they are not divine, that is, they are not actually gods). And divine is not material air, as it was characterized at that time.
scientific assumptions
The circle of scientific interests of Anaximenes was somewhat narrower than his predecessors; Anaximenes was mainly interested in meteorology and astronomy.
As a meteorologist, Anaximenes believed that hail is formed when water falling from clouds freezes; if air is mixed with this freezing water, snow is formed. Wind is compressed air. Anaximenes associated the state of the weather with the activity of the Sun.
Like Thales and Anaximander, Anaximenes studied astronomical phenomena, which, like other natural phenomena, he sought to explain in a natural way. Anaximenes believed that the Sun was a [flat celestial] body, similar to the Earth and the Moon, which became hot from rapid movement. Earth and heavenly bodies hover in the air; The earth is motionless, other luminaries and planets (which Anaximenes distinguished from stars and which, as he believed, arise from earthly vapors) are moved by cosmic winds.
Compositions
The writings of Anaximenes have been preserved in fragments. Unlike his teacher Anaximander, who wrote, as the ancients themselves noted, “artificial prose,” Anaximenes writes simply and artlessly. Outlining his teaching, Anaximenes often resorts to figurative comparisons. The condensation of air, "giving birth" to the flat earth, he likens to "felting wool"; The sun, the moon - fiery leaves floating in the middle of the air, etc.
