The Anaxímenes's Contributions Were of great importance in the generation of naturalistic philosophers of Ancient Greece and some of their ideas were debated for centuries.
Anaximenes of Miletus was a Greek philosopher who lived between the years 585 and 528 BC. He is considered part of the groups of philosophers considered presocratic, whose thoughts focused on the phenomena of the nature more than in the being.
Anaximenes of Miletus
Together with Anaximander, of whom his pupil was considered, Anaximenes was among the naturalists; Philosophers who searched the schemas 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 lead philosophy to another reflective scenario, with Socrates Y Plato .
As a member of the Milesia School, the thought of Anaximenes was nurtured from that previously proposed by Thales of Miletus And Anaximander.
Anaximenes was considered the youngest of the three, whose reflections reached their highest point when those died.
The legacy of Anaximenes consists not only in philosophical observations about nature, but also in firm postulates in areas such as astronomy, meteorology, and the sciences in general.
Top contributions of Anaximenes
Metaphysics of nature
Anaximenes did not focus his thoughts on the introspection of man 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 materialistic 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 mechanisms that certain phenomena of nature 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 the 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; Current of pre-Socratic thought that began to be explored by the Milesia school.
Despite embarking on the road to Empirical knowledge And to leave aside the superstition, it has been known that the postulates of Anaximenes, although ambitious and even logical, have some reverie in their contents, being considered as more landed those of his companion Anaximander.
Air as an essential element
For Anaximenes, the material or element that gave birth to all the others was air. This position confronts him to Tales and Anaximander, who had considered other elements as the original ones.
With air, Anaximis sought to demonstrate the ability of this 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 air as the material cause, as the principle of the world, man would also be considered originated by man; Considering that the human soul was air capable of holding the body together.
Elemental Transformation and Origin of the World
Anaximenes considered that the air, as primordial element, maintained positioned to the Earth, considered flat at that moment.
Through the processes of condensation, the air formed the celestial bodies like clouds; These, water, and a combination of all formed the earth. The opposite process, the rarefaction, allowed to originate the fire from the same air.
The Greek philosopher, in spite of its naturalistic foundations, sought to impress upon the air a spiritual character as an original element, and its importance not only in the life of man, but in the integrity of his soul.
About Nature
The work of Anaximenes is summarized in an information book lost today. "Sobre la Naturaleza"was a treatise that survived to the early stages of classical and medieval literary criticism.
This work of Anaximenes allowed to open the threshold towards the scientific and mathematical approach of the nature without resorting to supernatural suppositions.
Anaximenes developed in his work the first studies on the stages of the day from the shadows that were projected in the surroundings.
His prose and postulates were compared to those of Anaximander at the time. It is considered that the position of Anaximenes had greater influence on later philosophers and scientists.
Causal unification
Members of the Milesia School were accustomed to a general perception of the elements and phenomena they studied.
Anaximenes did not address his natural anxieties as isolated cases, but sought a unifying character in the various behaviors or natural manifestations that disturbed him.
This allowed to reduce the divine attributions that were given to certain natural phenomena by then, and Anaximenes allowed themselves to be integrated into their unifying position through the air as a responsible element, even to form the extraterrestrial bodies known then, such as the Sun.
A step towards further thought
It is stated that Anaximenes laid the foundations for the continuity of naturalistic and mathematical thought which the Pythagoreans and Atomists would later deepen, as well as the first metaphysical reflections on being that would later be approached by Socrates and later philosophers.
Although it is debated whether the greater legacy of the School of Milesia was taken from the work of Anaximenes or Anaximander, in the works of Pythagoras A clear reflexive influence of the work of first has been seen, although also it relies on certain objective postulates of Anaximander.
The philosophy of Anaximenes was taken as a basis by other philosophers such as Anaxagoras and Diogenes of Apollonia, who adopted many of their positions, and maintained the importance of air as an essential element of the physical world.
The thought of Anaximenes is considered the climax initiated by Tales and continued by Anaxagoras.
Anaximenes then closes the cycle of knowledge imposed by the School of Milesia, so that its natural, physical and spiritual principles are taken as the reference of this philosophical current, also by the prosaic ease of its legacy.
References
- Barnes, J. (1982). The Presocratic Philosophers. New York: Routledge.
- Burnet, J. (1920). Early Greek Philosophy. London: A & C Black.
- Classen, C. J. (1977). Anaximander and Anaximenes: The Earliest Greek Theories of Change? Phronesis , 89-102.
- Osborne, R., & Edney, R. (2005). Philosophy for beginners. Buenos Aires: I was born.
- Taylor, C.C. (1997). From the Beginning to Plato. London: Routledge.