ANAXIMENES: BIOGRAPHY AND MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS - PHILOSOPHY - 2024

Anaximenes of Miletus was a Greek philosopher who lived between 585 and 528 BC. He is considered part of the pre-Socratic philosophers, whose thoughts focused on the phenomena of nature rather than being.

Anaximenes contributions had great importance in the generation of naturalistic philosophers of Ancient Greece and some of his ideas were debated for centuries.

Along with Anaximander, whose student he was considered, Anaximenes was among the naturalists, philosophers who inquired into the schemes of natural, astronomical and scientific processes.

The work that naturalists and Pythagoreans developed in Ancient Greece gave way to reflections that would lead philosophy to another reflective scenario, with Socrates and Plato.

As a member of the Milesian School, Anaximenes' thought was nourished by that previously proposed by Thales of Miletus and Anaximander. Anaximenes was considered the youngest of the three, whose reflections reached their highest point when they died.

Anaximenes' legacy consists not only of philosophical observations about nature, but also of strong postulates in areas such as astronomy, meteorology, and science in general.

Biography and main theories

Anaximenes was born in 585 BC in the city of Miletus, located on the Anatolian peninsula, in Asia Minor. He lived his whole life in it, before it was destroyed.

Most details related to the life of Anaximenes are unknown today. However, according to the historian Apollodorus of Athens, Anaximenes of Miletus lived during the time of the siege of Sardis and died in approximately 524 BC.

Of Anaximenes it is known that he was a disciple of Anaximander and that he belonged to the Ionic school or school of Miletus.

The philosopher Theophrastus would describe him in his work not only as the disciple, but also as the companion of Anaximander. Anaximenes was estimated to be 22 years younger than Anaximander.

Anaximenes and the Air - Arjé

It is also known that he was the first philosopher to propose the important theory of the arche or arché, which affirms the existence of an original material principle from which the appearance of all things follows. For Anaximenes, the arche was the air.

Thanks to the arche theory, Anaximenes proposed fundamental physical concepts, such as the different states of matter (rarefaction and condensation). These concepts allowed him to explain the quantitative and qualitative modes of movement that gave rise to all the changes in nature.

For Anaxiemens, the condensation of the air allowed the formation of clouds, which would give rise to water. In turn, water builds ice, stones, and earth. On the other hand, the heating of the air gives rise to fire.

His eagerness to defend his theory on the origin of matter, led him to disagree with the first principles raised by Thales de Mileto and Anaximander.

It is believed that the approach to his theory of air as the first principle of life started from his observations of nature and the importance of the phenomenon of respiration for life.

Universe and man

Anaximenes was the first philosopher to understand the world as a living being with a soul of its own, analogous to the soul of men. In this way, when men died their soul joined the universe.

His knowledge of meteorology, astronomy and philosophy led him to propose that the Earth was flat and floated in the air.

This approach was considered like a step backwards, compared with those made by other Greek philosophers. On the other hand, thanks to his knowledge in physics, he also stated that the stars did not move under the Earth, but around it.

Plays

Thanks to the stories of the Greek historian Diogenes Laertius, it is known that Anaximenes wrote multiple works. Unfortunately, there is currently no record of most of them.

However, Anaximenes is credited with the authorship of the work On Nature or Periphyseos. Diogenes says that this book was written in the Ionic dialect, with a simple style and devoid of excesses.

The historical importance of Anaximenes is not centered so much in his cosmology as in his eagerness to reveal the nature of reality.

About Nature

The work of Anaximenes is summarized as an informative book lost today. "On Nature" was a treatise that survived into the early stages of classical and medieval literary criticism.

This work by Anaximenes made it possible to open the threshold towards the scientific and mathematical approach to nature without resorting to supernatural assumptions.

Anaximenes developed in his work the first studies on the stages of the day from the shadows that were projected in the environment.

His prose and postulates were compared to those of Anaximander at the time. Anaximenes' position is considered to have had the greatest influence on later philosophers and scientists.

Contributions of Anaximenes

Metaphysics of nature

Anaximenes did not focus his thought 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 the 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 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; Presocratic current of thought that began to be explored by the Milesian school.

Despite embarking on the path to empirical knowledge and putting superstition aside, it has been known that Anaximenes' postulates, although ambitious and even logical, possess some dreaminess in their contents, those of his partner Anaximander being considered as more down-to-earth..

Air as an essential element

For Anaximenes, the material or element that gave rise to all the others was air. This position confronts him with Thales and Anaximander, who had considered other elements as the original ones.

With the air, Anaximenes sought to demonstrate its ability 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 a material cause, as the principle of the world, man would also consider himself originated by it; considering that the human soul was air capable of holding the body together.

Elemental transformation and origin of the world

Anaximenes considered that air, as a primordial element, held the Earth in position, considered flat at that time.

Through the processes of condensation, the air formed the heavenly bodies as clouds; these, the water, and a combination of everything formed the earth. The opposite process, rarefaction, made it possible to originate fire from the air itself.

The Greek philosopher, despite his naturalistic foundations, sought to print a spiritual character to the air as an original element, and to its importance not only in the life of man, but in the integrity of his soul.

Causal unification

Members of the Milesian School used to have a general perception of the elements and phenomena they studied.

Anaximenes did not approach his natural anxieties as isolated cases, but rather sought a unifying character in the different behaviors or natural manifestations that disturbed him.

This allowed reducing the divine attributions that were given to certain natural phenomena by then, and Anaximenes allowed himself to integrate them to his unifying position through the air as an element responsible, even, for forming the extraterrestrial bodies known at that time, such as the Sun.

A stepping stone to after thinking

It is claimed that Anaximenes laid the foundations for the continuity of naturalistic and mathematical thought that the Pythagoreans and Atomists would later deepen, as well as the first metaphysical reflections on being that would later be addressed by Socrates and later philosophers.

Although it is debated whether the greatest legacy of the School of Milesia was taken from the work of Anaximenes or Anaximander, in the works of Pythagoras a clear reflective influence of the work of the first grade has been seen, although it is also supported by certain objective postulates of Anaximander.

Anaximenes' philosophy was taken as a basis by other philosophers such as Anaxagoras and Diogenes of Apollonia, who adopted many of his positions, and maintained the importance of air as an essential element of the physical world.

The thought of Anaximenes is considered the culminating point initiated by Thales and continued by Anaxagoras.

Anaximenes then closes the cycle of knowledge imposed by the School of Milesia, in such a way that its natural, physical and spiritual principles are taken as the reference of this philosophical current, also due to the prosaic ease of its legacy.

References

1. Barnes, J. (1982). The Presocratic Philosophers. New York: Routledge.
2. Burnet, J. (1920). Early Greek Philosophy. London: A & C Black.
3. Classen, CJ (1977). Anaximander and Anaximenes: The Earliest Greek Theories of Change? Phronesis, 89-102.
4. Osborne, R., & Edney, R. (2005). Philosophy for beginners. Buenos Aires: It was Nascent.
5. Taylor, CC (1997). From the Beginning to Plato. London: Routledge.