Anaximenes Books
-
Free Press (14 October 1991)Price: $16.20 -
Penguin Classics (26 November 2002)Price: $10.55 -
Routledge (28 July 1993)Price: $180.00 -
Princeton University Press (08 November 1991)Price: $30.95 -
Routledge (22 August 2003)Price: $34.28
Definition
“Air differs in essence in accordance with its rarity or density. When it is thinned it becomes fire, while when it is condensed it becomes wind, then cloud, when still more condensed it becomes water, then earth, then stones. Everything else comes from these” (DK13A5).
In this way, Anaximenes provided a basis for rational discourse and debate on his claim and laid the groundwork for future 'scientific’ inquiry into the nature of existence. His influence is far reaching. According to the Encylopedia of Philosophy, “Anaximenes’ theory of successive change of matter by rarefaction and condensation was influential in later theories. It is developed by Heraclitus (DK22B31), and criticized by Parmenides (DK28B8.23-24, 47-48). Anaximenes’ general theory of how the materials of the world arise is adopted by Anaxagoras (DK59B16), even though the latter has a very different theory of matter. Both Melissus (DK30B8.3) and Plato (Timaeus 49b-c) see Anaximenes’ theory as providing a common-sense explanation of change. Diogenes of Apollonia makes air the basis of his explicitly monistic theory. The Hippocratic treatise On Breaths uses air as the central concept in a theory of diseases. By providing cosmological accounts with a theory of change, Anaximenes separated them from the realm of mere speculation and made them, at least in conception, scientific theories capable of testing.”
(Citations DK in reference to the Diels/Krantz work The Fragments of the Pre-Socratics, 1967).
Articles
There are no articles on this subject yet, but you can help and write an article.Illustrations
Currently there are no illustrations for Anaximenes, but you can help and upload an illustration.
