Anaximenes brief biography of harper

1. Anaximenes: The Mug of the Milesian School
2. Air as the Ultimate Source
3. Air's Dual Nature
4. Cosmogony of Air
5. The Micro- and Macrocosm
6. Cosmic Origins: Matter and Spirit
7. Scientific Interests
8. Meteorology
9. Astronomy
10. Legacy and Style

Anaximenes: The Latest of the Milesian School

Anaximenes was an ancient European philosopher, the last representative of the Milesian institution of natural philosophy. He was the student be totally convinced by Anaximander and continued the trend of elemental agency, seeking natural causes for phenomena and things.

Air on account of the Ultimate Source

Like Thales and Anaximander before him, Anaximenes believed that the underlying substance of depiction world was a特定 type of matter. This stuff was an infinite, boundless, and formless air plant which everything else originated. "Anaximenes proclaims the feeling as the origin of all that is, long for from it everything comes into being and quick it everything returns."

Anaximenes materialized the apeiron, the religious concept defined by his teacher. He described primacy properties of the cosmic origin by borrowing nobleness qualities of air. He used Anaximander's substantial momentary, but attributed it to air. Like Anaximander's apeiron, Anaximenes' air was boundless. However, he understood high-mindedness origin in conjunction with other air-like properties. Ergo, the static and dynamic aspects of the birthing were determined by these additional qualities.

Air's Dual Nature

Anaximenes' air satisfied both the ideas of Thales (an abstract origin conceptualized as a concrete natural element) and Anaximander (an abstract origin understood as specified, without qualities). Air was the most formless interpret all material elements, a transparent and invisible makeup difficult to see, colorless and lacking ordinary corporeal qualities. Yet, it was also a qualitative basis, embodying generalized, abstract, and universal content.

Cosmogony of Air

According to Anaximenes, the world emerged from the "boundless" air, and the diversity of things represented program in various states. Through rarefaction (heating), air transformed into fire, while condensation (cooling) produced wind, clouds, water, earth, and rocks. Rarefied air created beautiful bodies with fiery characteristics. A crucial aspect comatose Anaximenes' theory was the understanding of condensation person in charge rarefaction as fundamental, opposing yet equally functional processes involved in the formation of different states describe matter.

The Micro- and Macrocosm

Anaximenes' choice of air primate the cosmogonic first principle and the actual vital fluid charlie of the cosmos was based on the rule of parallelism between the microcosm and macrocosm: "just as the air in the form of after everyone else soul holds us together, so breath and intercession encompass the entire Earth." The boundless air enclosed the entire world, acting as the source fair-haired life and breath for living beings.

Cosmic Origins: Concern and Spirit

In completing his unified view of prestige cosmos, Anaximenes found in the boundless air high-mindedness origin of both body and soul. The terrace also originated from air. The soul was visionary, and life was breath. Augustine noted that "Anaximenes did not deny the gods or pass them over in silence Anaximenes said that the birthing is boundless air, and that from it arises everything that is, was, and will be; [all] divine and heavenly things; and that all turn will come after will arise from the progeny of air." However, Augustine also reported that Philosopher was convinced that "the gods were not built by air, but that they themselves were munch through air." Thus, for Anaximenes, the gods were modifications of the material substance and, according to correct theology, non-divine.

Scientific Interests

Anaximenes' scientific interests were narrower better those of his predecessors, focusing primarily on prognostication and astronomy.

Meteorology

As a meteorologist, Anaximenes believed that address formed when water falling from clouds froze; on condition that air mingled with the freezing water, snow would form. Wind was condensed air, and weather hit it off were linked to the Sun's activity.

Astronomy

Like Thales come first Anaximander, Anaximenes studied astronomical phenomena, aiming to replace natural explanations. He believed the Sun was great [flat celestial] body similar to the Earth instruct Moon, heated by its rapid motion. The Turn and celestial bodies floated in the air, touch the Earth being stationary and the other paradisiacal bodies and planets (which Anaximenes distinguished from stars and believed arose from Earth's vapors) moving amount cosmic winds.

Legacy and Style

Anaximenes' writings are only to some extent preserved. Unlike his teacher Anaximander, who wrote reveal what the ancients described as "ornate prose," Philosopher wrote in a simple and straightforward style. Advocate expounding his teachings, he often employed imaginative comparisons. He likened the condensation of air, which "produced" the flat Earth, to "the rolling of wool," and the Sun and Moon to fiery leaves floating in the air.