Anaximander

It has been suggested that Apeiron (cosmology) be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

This article is about the Pre-Socratic philosopher. For other uses, see Anaximander (disambiguation).

Western Philosophy Pre-Socratic philosophy
Detail of Raphael's painting The School of Athens, 1510–1511. This could be a representation of Anaximander leaning towards Pythagoras on his left.[1]
Name	Anaximander (Άναξίμανδρος)
Birth	c. 610 BC
Death	c. 546 BC
School/tradition	Ionian Philosophy, Milesian school, Naturalism
Main interests	Metaphysics, astronomy, geometry, geography
Notable ideas	The apeiron is the first principle
Influences	Thales of Miletus
Influenced	Anaximenes, Pythagoras

Anaximander (Ancient Greek: Ἀναξίμανδρος) (c. 610 BC–c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia. He joined the Milesian school and studied the teachings of its 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 According to available historical documents, he is the first philosopher known to have written down his studies^[2], although only one fragment of his work remains.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.

Biography

Anaximander, son of Praxiades, was born in Miletus during the third year of the 42^nd Olympiad (610 BC).^[4] According to Apollodorus, Greek grammarian of the 2^nd century BC, he was sixty-four years old during the second year of the 58^th Olympiad (547 BC-546 BC), and died shortly afterwards.^[5]

Very few documents provide details on his life. Fragments that refer to him deal with his work, except for the very short description provided by Diogenes Laertius. Diogenes explains that Anaximander was a pupil of Thales, founder of the Milesian School of philosophy. He succeeded him as master of the School where his work influenced Anaximenes and Pythagoras. According to the Suda, Thales was also a relative, probably his cousin or uncle,^[6] but no other text provides any information about his family life.

Establishing a timeline of his work is now impossible, since no document provides chronological references. Anaximander would have reached the pinnacle of his career around the time of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. Themistius, a 4^th century Byzantine rhethorician, mentions that he was the "first of the known Greeks to publish a written document on nature" and therefore his texts would be amongst the earliest written in prose, at least in the Western world. By the time of Plato, his philosophy was almost forgotten, and Aristotle, his successor Theophrastus and a few doxographers provide us with the little information that remains.

The 3^rd century Roman rhetorician Aelian depicts him as leader of the Milesian colony to Apollonia on the Black Sea coast, and hence some have inferred that he was a prominent citizen. Indeed, Various History (III, 17) explains that philosophers sometimes left the contentment of their thoughts to deal with political matters. It is very likely that leaders of Miletus sent him there as a legislator to create a constitution or simply to maintain the colony’s allegiance.

In Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (II, 2), Diogenes Laertius reports an amusing anecdote regarding his personality: learning that children were mocking him when he was singing, Anaximander replied that he should learn to sing better for the children.

Theories

Apeiron

Main article: Apeiron (cosmology)

The antipope Hippolytus of Rome (I, 5), and later 4^th century Byzantine philosopher Simplicius of Cilicia, attribute to Anaximander the earliest use of the word apeíron (ἄπειρον/infinite or limitless) to designate the original principle. He is the first philosopher to employ, in a philosophical context, the term arkhế (ἀρχή), 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, air for Anaximenes, fire for Heraclitus), 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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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, a Roman Catholic philosopher and theologian) 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:^[9]

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.

This concept of returning to the element of origin was often revisited afterwards, notably by Aristotle (Metaphysics, I, 3, 983 b 8-11; Physics, III, 5, 204 b 33-34) and by the Greek tragedian Euripides ("what comes from earth must return to earth", Supplices, v. 532). It is even echoed in the Judeo-Christian phrase, "For dust you are and to dust you will return".

Cosmology

Map of Anaximander's universe

Anaximander's bold use of non-mythological explanatory hypotheses considerably distinguishes him from previous cosmology writers such as Hesiod. It confirms that pre-Socratic philosophers were making an early effort to demythify the genealogical process. His major contribution to history was writing the oldest prose document about the Universe and the origins of life; for this he is often called the "Father of Cosmology" and founder of astronomy. However, pseudo-Plutarch (the name given to unknown authors whose works are attributed to the Greek biographer Plutarch) (I, 7) states that he still viewed celestial bodies as deities.

Anaximander was the first to conceive a mechanical model of the world. In his model, the Earth floats very still in the centre of the infinite, not supported by anything. It remains "in the same place because of its indifference", a point of view that Aristotle considered ingenious, but false, in On the Heavens (II, 13). Its curious shape is that of a cylinder^[10] with a height one-third of its diameter. The flat top forms the inhabited world, which is surrounded by a circular oceanic mass.

Such a model allowed the concept that celestial bodies could pass under it. It goes further than Thales’ claim of a world floating on water, for which Thales faced the problem of explaining what would contain this ocean, while Anaximander solved it by introducing his concept of infinite (apeiron).

Illustration of Anaximander's models of the universe. On the left, daytime in summer; on the right, nighttime in winter.

At the origin, after the separation of hot and cold, a ball of flame appeared that surrounded Earth like bark on a tree. This ball broke apart to form the rest of the Universe. It resembled a system of hollow concentric wheels, filled with fire, with the rims pierced by holes like those of a flute. Consequently, the Sun was the fire that one could see through a hole the same size as the Earth on the farthest wheel, and an eclipse corresponded with the occlusion of that hole. The diameter of the solar wheel was twenty-seven times that of the Earth (or twenty-eight, depending on the sources)^[11] and the lunar wheel, whose fire was less intense, eighteen (or nineteen) times. Its hole could change shape, thus explaining lunar phases. The stars and the planets, located closer,^[12] followed the same model.^[13]

Anaximander was the first astronomer to consider the Sun as a huge mass, and consequently, to realize how far from Earth it might be, and the first to present a system where the celestial bodies turned at different distances. Furthermore, according to Diogenes Laertius (II, 2), he built a celestial sphere. This invention undoubtedly made him the first to realize the obliquity of the Zodiac as the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder reports in Natural History (II, 8). It is a little early to use the term ecliptic, but his knowledge and work on astronomy confirm that he must have observed the inclination of the celestial sphere in relation to the plane of the Earth to explain the seasons. The doxographer and theologian Aetius attributes to Pythagoras the exact measurement of the obliquity.

Multiple worlds

According to Simplicius, Anaximander already speculated on the plurality of worlds, similar to atomists Leucippus and Democritus, and later philosopher Epicurus. These thinkers supposed that worlds appeared and disappeared for a while, and that some were born when others perished. They claimed that this movement was eternal, "for without movement, there can be no generation, no destruction".^[14]

In addition to Simplicius, Hippolytus (Refutation I, 6) reports Anaximander's claim that from the infinite comes the principle of beings, which themselves come from the heavens and the worlds (several doxographers use the plural when this philosopher is referring to the worlds within,^[15] which are often infinite in quantity). Cicero writes that he attributes different gods to the countless worlds.^[16]

This theory places Anaximander close to the Atomists and the Epicureans who, more than a century later, also claimed that an infinity of worlds appeared and disappeared. In the timeline of the Greek history of thought, some thinkers conceptualized a single world (Plato, Aristotle, Anaxagoras and Archelaus), while others instead speculated on the existence of a series of worlds, continuous or non-continuous (Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Empedocles and Diogenes).

Meteorological phenomena

Anaximander attributed some phenomena, such as thunder and lightning, to the intervention of elements, rather than to divine causes.^[17] In his system, thunder results from the shock of clouds hitting each other; the loudness of the sound is proportionate with that of the shock. Thunder without lightning is the result of the wind being too weak to emit any flame, but strong enough to produce a sound. A flash of lightning without thunder is a jolt of the air that disperses and falls, allowing a less active fire to break free. Thunderbolts are the result of a thicker and more violent air flow.^[18]

He saw the sea as a remnant of the mass of humidity that once surrounded Earth.^[19] A part of that mass evaporated under the sun's action, thus causing the winds and even the rotation of the celestial bodies, which he believed were attracted to places where water is more abundant.^[20] He explained rain as a product of the humidity pumped up from Earth by the sun.^[4] For him, the Earth was slowly drying up and water only remained in the deepest regions, which someday would go dry as well. According to Aristotle's Meteorology (II, 3), Democritus also shared this opinion.

Origin of humankind

Anaximander speculated about the beginnings and origin of animal life. Taking into account the existence of fossils, he claimed that animals sprang out of the sea long ago. The first animals were born trapped in a spiny bark, but as they got older, the bark would dry up and break.^[21] As the early humidity evaporated, dry land emerged and, in time, humankind had to adapt. In De Die Natali (IV, 7), the 3^rd century Roman writer Censorinus reports:

Anaximander put forward the idea that humans had to spend part of this transition inside the mouths of big fish to protect themselves from the Earth's climate until they could come out in open air and lose their scales.^[22] He thought that, considering humans' extended infancy, we could not have survived in the primeval world in the same manner we do presently.

Even though he had no theory of natural selection, some people consider him as evolution's most ancient proponent. The theory of an aquatic descent of man was re-conceived centuries later as the aquatic ape hypothesis. These pre-Darwinian concepts may seem strange, considering modern knowledge and scientific methods, because they present complete explanations of the universe while using bold and hard-to-demonstrate hypotheses. However, they illustrate the beginning of a phenomenon sometimes called the "Greek miracle": men try to explain the nature of the world, not with the aid of myths or religion, but with material principles. This is the very principle of scientific thought, which was later advanced further by improved research methods.

Other accomplishments

Cartography

Possible rendering of Anaximander's world map^[23]

Both Strabo and Agathemerus (Greek geographers whose work postdates Anaximander) claim that, according to the geographer Eratosthenes, Anaximander was the first to publish a map of the world. The map probably inspired the Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus to draw a more accurate version. Strabo viewed both as the first geographers after Homer.

Local maps were produced in ancient times, notably in Egypt, Lydia, the Middle East, and Babylon. They indicated roads, towns, borders, and geological features. Anaximander's innovation was to represent the entire inhabited land known to the ancient Greeks.

Such an accomplishment is more significant than it at first appears. Anaximander most likely drew this map for three reasons.^[24] First, it could be used to improve navigation and trade between Miletus' colonies and other colonies around the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea. Second, Thales would probably have found it easier to convince the Ionian city-states to join in a federation in order to push the Median threat away if he possessed such a tool. Finally, the philosophical idea of a global representation of the world simply for the sake of knowledge was reason enough to design one.

Surely aware of the sea's convexity, he may have designed his map on a slightly rounded metal surface. The centre or “navel” of the world (ὀμφαλός γῆς/omphalós gẽs) could have been Delphi, but is more likely in Anaximander's time to have been located near Miletus. The Aegean Sea was near the map's centre and enclosed by three continents, themselves located in the middle of the ocean and isolated like islands by sea and rivers. Europe was bordered on the south by the Mediterranean Sea and was separated from Asia by the Pontus Euxinus (the Black Sea), the Lake Maeotis, and, further east, either by the Phasis River (now called the Rioni) or the Tanais. The Nile flowed south into the ocean, separating Libya (which was the name for the part of the then-known African continent) from Asia.

Gnomon

The Suda relates that Anaximander explained some basic notions of geometry. It also mentions his interest in the measurement of time and associates him with the introduction in Greece of the gnomon. In Lacedaemon, he participated in the construction, or at least in the adjustment, of sundials to indicate solstices and equinoxes.^[25] Indeed, a gnomon required adjustments from a place to another because of the difference in latitude.

In his time, the gnomon was simply a vertical pillar or rod mounted on a horizontal plane. The position of its shadow on the plane indicated the time of day. As it moves through its apparent course, the sun draws a curve with the tip of the projected shadow, which is shortest at noon, when pointing due south. The variation in the tip’s position at noon indicates the solar time and the seasons; the shadow is longest on the winter solstice and shortest on the summer solstice.

However, the invention of the gnomon itself cannot be attributed to Anaximander because its use, as well as the division of days into twelve parts, came from the Babylonians. It is they, according to Herodotus' Histories (II, 109), who gave the Greeks the art of time measurement. It is likely that he was not the first to determine the solstices, because no calculation is necessary. On the other hand, equinoxes do not correspond to the middle point between the positions during solstices, as the Babylonians thought. As the Suda seems to suggest, it is very likely that with his knowledge of geometry, he became the first Greek to accurately determine the equinoxes.

Prediction of an earthquake

In his philosophical work De Divinatione (I, 50, 112), Cicero states that Anaximander convinced the inhabitants of Lacedaemon to abandon their city and spend the night in the country with their weapons because an earthquake was near.^[26] The city collapsed when the top of the Taygetus split like the stern of a ship. Pliny the Elder also mentions this anecdote (II, 81), suggesting that it came from an "admirable inspiration", as opposed to Cicero, who did not associate the prediction with divination.

Interpretations

Bertrand Russell in the History of Western Philosophy interprets Anaximander's theories as an assertion of the necessity of an appropriate balance between earth, fire, and water, all of which may be independently seeking to aggrandize their proportions relative to the others. Anaximander seems to express his belief that a natural order ensures balance between these elements, that where there was fire, ashes (earth) now exist.^[27] His Greek peers echoed this sentiment with their belief in natural boundaries beyond which not even their gods could operate.

Friedrich Nietzsche, in Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks, claimed that Anaximander was a pessimist who asserted that the primal being of the world was a state of indefiniteness. In accordance with this, anything definite has to eventually pass back into indefiniteness. In other words, Anaximander viewed "...all coming-to-be as though it were an illegitimate emancipation from eternal being, a wrong for which destruction is the only penance". (Ibid., § 4) The world of individual objects, in this way of thinking, has no worth and should perish.^[28]

Martin Heidegger lectured extensively on Anaximander, and delivered a lecture entitled "Anaximander's Saying" which was subsequently included in Off the Beaten Track. The lecture examines the ontological difference and the oblivion of Being or Dasein in the context of the Anaximander fragment.^[29] Heidegger's lecture is, in turn, an important influence on the French philosopher Jacques Derrida.^[30]

Works

According to the Suda:^[31]

• On Nature (Περὶ φύσεως / Perì phúseôs)
• Around the Earth (Γῆς περίοδον / Gễs períodon)
• On Fixed Bodies (Περὶ τῶν ἀπλανῶν / Perì tỗn aplanỗn)
• The Sphere (Σφαῖραν / Sphaĩran)

See also

• Milesian school
• Evolutionism

Footnotes

1. ^ This character is traditionally associated with Boethius, however his face offering similarities with a bust of Anaximander, it could be a representation of the philosopher.See http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/SchoolAthens2.htm for a description of the characters in this painting.
2. ^ Themistius, Oratio 36, §317
3. ^ Park, David (2005) The Grand Contraption, Princenton University Press ISBN 0-691-12133-8
4. ^ ^{a b} Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies (I, 5)
5. ^ In his Chronicles, as reported by Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (II, 2).
6. ^ The use of the word συγγενὴς in the Suda may refer to relatives, but in Ancient Greek, it can refer to men of the same race. Thales was about fifteen years older that Anaximander. Even though technically they could be brothers, the Suda says they have different fathers. So Conche concludes it is most likely that Thales was either his uncle or his cousin.
7. ^ Opinion refuted by Pseudo-Plutarch, The Doctrines of the Philosophers (I, 3).
8. ^ Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption (II, 5)
9. ^ Simplicius, Comments on Aristotle's Physics (24, 13):

   "Ἀναξίμανδρος [...] λέγει δ' αὐτὴν μήτε ὕδωρ μήτε ἄλλο τι τῶν καλουμένων εἶναι στοιχείων, ἀλλ' ἑτέραν τινὰ φύσιν ἄπειρον, ἐξ ἧς ἅπαντας γίνεσθαι τοὺς οὐρανοὺς καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτοῖς κόσμους· ἐξ ὧν δὲ ἡ γένεσίς ἐστι τοῖς οὖσι, καὶ τὴν φθορὰν εἰς ταῦτα γίνεσθαι κατὰ τὸ χρεών· διδόναι γὰρ αὐτὰ δίκην καὶ τίσιν ἀλλήλοις τῆς ἀδικίας κατὰ τὴν τοῦ χρόνου τάξιν, ποιητικωτέροις οὕτως ὀνόμασιν αὐτὰ λέγων. δῆλον δὲ ὅτι τὴν εἰς ἄλληλα μεταβολὴν τῶν τεττάρων στοιχείων οὗτος θεασάμενος οὐκ ἠξίωσεν ἕν τι τούτων ὑποκείμενον ποιῆσαι, ἀλλά τι ἄλλο παρὰ ταῦτα· οὗτος δὲ οὐκ ἀλλοιουμένου τοῦ στοιχείου τὴν γένεσιν ποιεῖ, ἀλλ' ἀποκρινομένων τῶν ἐναντίων διὰ τῆς αἰδίου κινήσεως."

   Punctuation does not exist in Ancient Greek and quotes usually blend with surrounding text. Consequently, deciding where they start and where they end is often difficult. However, it is generally accepted that this quote is not Simplicius' own interpretation, but Anaximander's writing, in "somewhat poetic terms".
10. ^ "A column of stone", Aetius reports in De Fide (III, 7, 1), or "similar to a pillar-shaped stone", pseudo-Plutarch (III, 10).
11. ^ In Refutation, Hippolytus reports that the circle of the Sun is twenty-seven times bigger than the Moon.
12. ^ Aetius, De Fide (II, 15, 6)
13. ^ Most of Anaximander's model of the Universe comes from pseudo-Plutarch (II, 20-28):

    "[The Sun] is a circle twenty-eight times as big as the Earth, with the outline similar to that of a fire-filled chariot wheel, on which appears a mouth in certain places and through which it exposes its fire, as through the hole on a flute. [...] the Sun is equal to the Earth, but the circle on which it breathes and on which it's born is twenty-seven times as big as the whole earth. [...] [The eclipse] is when the mouth from which comes the fire heat is closed. [...] [The Moon] is a circle nineteen times as big as the whole earth, all filled with fire, like that of the Sun".

14. ^ In Comments of Aristotle's Physics (1121, 5-9)
15. ^ Notably pseudo-Plutarch (III, 2) and Aetius, (I, 3, 3; I, 7, 12; II, 1, 3; II, 1, 8).
16. ^ On the Nature of the Gods (I, 10, 25):

    "Anaximandri autem opinio est nativos esse deos longis intervallis orientis occidentisque, eosque innumerabiles esse mundos."

    "For Anaximander, gods were born, but the time is long between their birth and their death; and the worlds are countless."

17. ^ Pseudo-Plutarch (III, 3):

    "Anaximander claims that all this is done by the wind, for when it happens to be enclosed in a thick cloud, then by its subtlety and lightness, the rupture produces the sound; and the scattering, because of the darkness of the cloud, creates the light."

18. ^ According to Seneca, Naturales quaestiones (II, 18).
19. ^ Pseudo-Plutarch (III, 16)
20. ^ It is then very likely that by observing the moon and the tides, Anaximander thought the latter were the cause, and not the effect of the satellite's movement.
21. ^ Pseudo-Plutarch (V, 19)
22. ^ Plutarch also mentions Anaximander's theory that humans were born inside fish, feeding like sharks, and that when they could defend themselves, they were thrown ashore to live on dry land.
23. ^ According to John Mansley Robinson, An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy, Houghton and Mifflin, 1968.
24. ^ As established by Marcel Conche, Anaximandre. Fragments et témoignages, introduction (p. 43-47).
25. ^ These accomplishments are often attributed to him, notably by Diogenes Laertius (II, 1) and by the Roman historian Eusebius of Caesarea, Preparation for the Gospel (X, 14, 11).
26. ^ Da Divinatione (in Latin)
27. ^ Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946).
28. ^ Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1962).
29. ^ Martin Heidegger, Off the Beaten Track (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
30. ^ Cf., Jacques Derrida, Margins of Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), pp. 66–7; Derrida, "Geschlecht II: Heidegger's Hand," in John Sallis (ed.), Deconstruction and Philosophy (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 181–2; Derrida, Given Time: I. Counterfeit Money (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 159, n. 28.
31. ^ Themistius and Simplicius also mention some work "on nature". The list could refer to book titles or simply their topics. Again, no one can tell because there is no punctuation sign in Ancient Greek. Furthermore, this list is incomplete since the Suda ends it with ἄλλα τινά, thus implying "other works".

References

Primary sources

• Aelian: Various History (III, 17)

• Aëtius: De Fide (I-III; V)

• Agathemerus: A Sketch of Geography in Epitome (I, 1)

• Aristotle: Meteorology (II, 3) Translated by E. W. Webster
• Aristotle: On Generation and Corruption (II, 5) Translated by H. H. Joachim
• Aristotle: On the Heavens (II, 13) Translated by J. L. Stocks
• Aristotle: Physics (III, 5, 204 b 33-34)

• Censorinus: De Die Natali (IV, 7) See original text at LacusCurtius

• Cicero: On divination on Wikisource (I, 50, 112)
• Cicero: On the Nature of the Gods (I, 10, 25)

• Diogenes Laertius: Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (II, 1-2) Translated by C. D. Yonge

• Euripides: [The Suppliants (Euripides)|]] (532) Translated by E. P. Coleridge

• Eusebius of Caesarea: Preparation for the Gospel (X, 14, 11) Translated by E.H. Gifford

• Herodotus: Histories (II, 109) See original text in Perseus project

• Hippolytus: Refutation of All Heresies (I, 5) Translated by Roberts and Donaldson

• Pliny the Elder: Natural History (II, 8) See original text in Perseus project

• Pseudo-Plutarch: The Doctrines of the Philosophers (I, 3; I, 7; II, 20-28; III, 2-16; V, 19)

• Seneca the Younger: Natural Questions (II, 18)

• Simplicius: Comments on Aristotle's Physics (24, 13-25; 1121, 5-9)

• Strabo: Geography (I, 1) Books 1‑7, 15‑17 translated by H. L. Jones

• Themistius: Oratio (36, 317)

• The Suda Search for Anaximander online

Secondary sources

• Conche, Marcel (1991). Anaximandre: Fragments et témoignages (in French). Paris: Presses universitaires de France. ISBN 2130437850.  The default source; anything not otherwise attributed should be in Conche.

• Couprie, Dirk L.; Robert Hahn, Gerard Naddaf (2003). Anaximander in Context: New Studies in the Origins of Greek Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791455386. 

• Furley, David J.; Reginald E. Allen (1970). Studies in Presocratic Philosophy, vol. 1. London: Routledge. OCLC 79496039. 

• Heidegger, Martin (2002). Off the Beaten Track. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521801141. 

• Kahn, Charles H. (1960). Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology. New York: Colombia University Press. 

• Nietzsche, Friedrich (1962). Philosophy in the tragic age of the Greeks. Chicago: Regnery. ISBN 0895269449. 

• Robinson, John Mansley (1968). An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy. Houghton and Mifflin. ISBN 0395053161. 

• Ross, Stephen David (1993). Injustice and Restitution: The Ordinance of Time. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791416704. 

• Russell, Bertrand [1946]. History of Western philosophy: and its connection with political and social circumstances from the earliest times to the present day. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671201581. 

• Vernant, Jean-Pierre (1982). The Origins of Greek Thought. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801492939. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

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Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Anaximander

• Philoctete - Anaximandre: Fragments (French) (English)

• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Anaximandre
• Extensive bibliography by Dirk Couprie
• Anaximander select online resources
• Eric W. Weisstein, Anaximander of Miletus (610-ca. 546 BCE) at ScienceWorld.

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