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Question: Anaximenes View on!.!.!.!.!?
can any one tell me what Anaximenes View on the apeiron was!?!?!? how did he differ with Anaximander From Miletus and ThalesWww@QuestionHome@Com


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Anaximander (Ancient Greek: ?ναξ?μανδρο?) (c!. 610 BC–c!. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia!. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales!. He succeeded him and became the second master of that school where he counted Anaximenes and Pythagoras amongst his pupils!.

Little of his life and work is known today!. According to available historical documents, he is the first philosopher known to have written down his studies[2], although only one fragment of his work remains!. Fragmentary testimonies found in documents after his death provide a portrait of the man!.

Anaximander was one of the earliest Greek thinkers at the start of the Axial Age, the period from approximately 700 BC to 200 BC, during which similarly revolutionary thinking appeared in China, India, Iran, the Near East, and Ancient Greece!. He was an early proponent of science and tried to observe and explain different aspects of the universe, with a particular interest in its origins, claiming that nature is ruled by laws, just like human societies, and anything that disturbs the balance of nature does not last long!.[3] Like many thinkers of his time, his contributions to philosophy relate to many disciplines!. In astronomy, he tried to describe the mechanics of celestial bodies in relation to the Earth!. In physics, he postulated that the indefinite (or apeiron) was the source of all things!. His knowledge of geometry allowed him to introduce the gnomon in Greece!. He created a map of the world that contributed greatly to the advancement of geography!. He was also involved in the politics of Miletus as he was sent as a leader to one of its colonies!.

With his assertion that physical forces, rather than supernatural means, create order in the universe, Anaximander can be considered the first true scientist!. He is known to have conducted the earliest recorded scientific experiment
Apeiron
Main article: Apeiron (cosmology)
The bishop Hippolytus of Rome (I, 5), and the later 6th century Byzantine philosopher Simplicius of Cilicia, attribute to Anaximander the earliest use of the word apeíron (?πειρον/infinite or limitless) to designate the original principle!. He was the first philosopher to employ, in a philosophical context, the term arkh? (?ρχ?), which until then had meant beginning or origin!. For him, it became no longer a mere point in time, but a source that could perpetually give birth to whatever will be!.

Aristotle writes (Metaphysics, I III 3-4) that the Pre-Socratics were searching for the element that constitutes all things!. While each pre-Socratic philosopher gave a different answer as to the identity of this element (water for Thales and air for Anaximenes), Anaximander understood the beginning or first principle to be an endless, unlimited primordial mass (apeiron), subject to neither old age nor decay, that perpetually yielded fresh materials from which everything we perceive is derived!.[8] He proposed the theory of the apeiron in direct response to the earlier theory of his teacher, Thales, who had claimed that the primary substance was water!.

For Anaximander, the principle of things, the constituent of all substances, is nothing determined and not an element such as water in Thales' view!. Neither is it something halfway between air and water, or between air and fire, thicker than air and fire, or more subtle than water and earth!.[9] Anaximander argues that water cannot embrace all of the opposites found in nature — for example, water can only be wet, never dry — and therefore cannot be the one primary substance; nor could any of the other candidates!. He postulated the apeiron as a substance that, although not directly perceptible to us, could explain the opposites he saw around him!.

Anaximander explains how the four elements of ancient physics (air, earth, water and fire) are formed, and how Earth and terrestrial beings are formed through their interactions!. Unlike other Pre-Socratics, he never defines this principle precisely, and it has generally been understood (e!.g!., by Aristotle and by Saint Augustine) as a sort of primal chaos!. According to him, the Universe originates in the separation of opposites in the primordial matter!. It embraces the opposites of hot and cold, wet and dry, and directs the movement of things; an entire host of shapes and differences then grow that are found in "all the worlds" (for he believed there were many)!.

Anaximander maintains that all dying things are returning to the element from which they came (apeiron)!. The one surviving fragment of Anaximander's writing deals with this matter!. Simplicius transmitted it as a quotation, which describes the balanced and mutual changes of the elements:[10]

Whence things have their origin,
Thence also their destruction happens,
According to necessity;
For they give to each other justice and recompense
For their injustice
In conformity with the ordinance of Time!.

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This is some obscure stuff!. If Google cannot help you, nothing can!.

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