Anaximenes

Anaximenes biography

He was born in Miletus, in 590 b.C. According to Theophrastus, he was a disciple of Anaximander; and, in turn, Anaximander was a disciple of Thales. Anaximenes died in the year 524 b.C. Like his teacher, Anaximenes said that the origin of all things was infinite. This thought is due to the observation of Physis, the word that designates nature. The thought about the natural events propitiated by the desire of the pore gods little by little was displaced by the going of understanding of the gods on nature in contrast with the ignorance of the men. Anaximenes believed that the origin of all things was air, which generated existence with condensation and rarefaction. The philosopher understood the importance of other elements. The water and the fire. The first, created by condensation, generates clouds; the second, created by the rarefaction, generates fire. The condensation not only generated water but also everything that had a body: the clouds, falling, condense in earth and stones.

Through the thought and reflections of Anaximenes, it is considered as one of the three pillars that helped the birth of philosophy in the West. the line of Milesian philosophers, a name given to come from Miletus, is based on the abandonment of mythological thought. Religion became, for them, insufficient. The Miletus school based its research on the search or belief of the arche or aché. It is the substance that constitutes the whole; or, from which, all things start. Thales believed that this substance was water, Anaximander called the substance arche and established its main characteristics as infinity.

The work of Anaximenes, the Book of Nature, is only referenced by later authors. One of those authors is Diogenes Laertius. The main thought of Anaximenes relates to life. For him, the breath of life is air, the same air that holds us together embraces us. The infinite substance from which all things start, as well as in man, is the air, which surrounds everything and gives it meaning. This thought differs with his line of teaching by naming the infinity. The probable that this deduction is due to his experience. The air is present in the environment and helps the perception of the world for the different senses. Air is a vehicle in which sound and smell are transmitted, even perceived by touch. For Anaximenes, the earth was flat and had been created by the condensation of air. When the planet was created, the air, being breathed by the earth, began to warm up, thus giving rise to rarefaction. That second process created the fire that revolved around the earth giving rise to the stars.

The processes of change that are present in the air represent the functioning of the physis. The relationship that is established between the air and the cosmos is the same as the breath and the man; therefore, the cosmos is a macroscopic version of the man. This reflection provoked by the philosopher affects the Greco-Latin Renaissance, where the object of study is the human soul.

Aristotle considered the teachings of Anaximenes as shallow. The evidence that was attributed to the arche (infinite primordial element) was breathing. The air that entered the cold body, and came out hot. To put a mirror to check if someone had died just by looking if it got fogged up. All this represented to Aristotle an affirmation of naivety. For him, the human soul was not the breath of life, but the sensibility with which the world is perceived and understood. His work known as Peri Physeaos is lost. It was written in Ionic, classic Greek dialect belonging to Ionia. The reference of Diogenes Laertius tells us: “He wrote in Ionian dialect, in a simple and concise style”

Pliny the old says that Anaximenes was the first to observe the shadows that determine the change from day to night. The philosopher of Thales created, according to his observations, a kind of sundial called Sciothericon. These references can be found in book two of The Natural History that Pliny wrote. The chapter, LXXVI, that preserves said history refers to the artifact as “Umbrarum hanc rationem et quam vocant gnomonicen invenit Anaximenes Milesius, Anaximandri, de quo diximius, discipulus, primusque horologium, quod appellant, Lacedaemone ostendit.” A close translation would say: Anaximenes of Miletus, in the same argumentative line of Anaximander, of which we said was a disciple, was the first to create the clock, here in Lacedemonia.

Through the thought and reflections of Anaximenes, it is considered as one of the three pillars that helped the birth of philosophy in the West. The line of Milesian philosophers, a name given to come from Miletus, is based on the abandonment of mythological thought magical Religion became, for them, insufficient.