Anaximenes of Miletus

Anaximenes of Miletus

Anaximenes of Miletus

Born

c. 585 BC

Died

c. 528 BC

Era

Pre-Socratic philosophy

Region

Western Philosophy

School

Ionian/Milesian school,Naturalism

Main interests

Metaphysics

Notable ideas

Air is the arche

Influences

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Anaximenes of Miletus (/nksmniz/; Greek: ; c. 585 c. 528 BC) was an Ancient Greek PreSocratic philosopher active in the latter half of the 6th century BC. One of the three Milesian philosophers, he
is identified as a younger friend or student of Anaximander. Anaximenes, like others in his school of thought,
practicedmaterial monism. This tendency to identify one specific underlying reality made up of a material
thing is what Anaximenes is principally known for today.

Anaximenes and the Arche

While his predecessors Thales and Anaximander proposed that the archai (singular:arche, meaning the
underlying material of the world) were water and the ambiguous substance apeiron, respectively,
Anaximenes asserted that air was this primary substance of which all other things are made. The choice of air
may seem arbitrary, but Anaximenes based his conclusion on naturally observable phenomena in the
processes of rarefaction and condensation.[6] When air condenses it becomes visible, as mist and then rain
and other forms of precipitation. As the condensed air cools Anaximenes supposed that it went on to form
earth and ultimately stones. In contrast, water evaporates into air, which ignites and produces flame when
further rarefied. While other philosophers also recognized such transitions in states of matter, Anaximenes

was the first to associate the quality pairs hot/dry and cold/wet with the density of a single material and add
a quantitative dimension to the Milesian monistic system.

The origin of the Cosmos

Having concluded that everything in the world is composed of air, Anaximenes used his theory to devise a
scheme that explains the origins and nature of the earth and the surrounding celestial bodies. Air felted to
create the flat disk of the earth, which he said was table-like and behaved like a leaf floating on air. In keeping
with the prevailing view of celestial bodies as balls of fire in the sky, Anaximenes proposed that the earth let
out an exhalation of air that rarefied, ignited and became the stars. While the sun is similarly described as
being aflame, it is not composed of rarefied air like the stars, but rather of earth like the moon; its burning
comes not from its composition but rather from its rapid motion. Similarly, he considered the moon and sun
to be flat and floating on streams of air. In his theory, when the sun sets it does not pass under the earth, but
is merely obscured by higher parts of the earth as it circles around and becomes more distant. Anaximenes
likens the motion of the sun and the other celestial bodies around the earth to the way that a cap may be
turned around the head.

Other phenomena
Anaximenes used his observations and reasoning to provide causes for other natural phenomena on the
earth as well. Earthquakes, he asserted, were the result either of lack of moisture, which causes the earth to
break apart because of how parched it is, or of superabundance of water, which also causes cracks in the
earth. In either case the earth becomes weakened by its cracks, so that hills collapse and cause
earthquakes. Lightning is similarly caused by the violent separation of clouds by the wind, creating a bright,
fire-like flash. Rainbows, on the other hand, are formed when densely compressed air is touched by the rays
of the sun. These examples show how Anaximenes, like the other Milesian philosophers, looked for the
broader picture in nature. They sought unifying causes for diversely occurring events, rather than treating
each one on a case-by-case basis, or attributing them to gods or to a personified nature.

Legacy
The Anaximenes crater on the Moon is named in his honour.