Anaximander

Question 1

Anaximander was hanging about ______ during ______.

Answer 1

Anaximander was hanging about Miletus during 610 - 540 BCE.

Question 2

Anaximander was the pupil of who?

Answer 2

Anaximander was the pupil of Thales.

Question 3

What did Anaximander consider to be the first principle?

Answer 3

Anaximander said that a certain nature, the limitless, is the principle of the things which exist. From it come the heavens and the worlds in them. It is eternal and ageless, and it contains all the worlds. He also calls it time, since the generation and the destruction of the things which exist are determinate.

Question 4

Anaximander on the earth:

Answer 4

The earth is aloft, not supported by anything but resting where it is because of its equal distance from everything. Its shape is rounded, circular, like a stone pillar. Of its surfaces, we stand on one while the other is opposite.

Question 5

Anaximander of the heavenly bodies:

Answer 5

The heavenly bodies are a circle of fire, separated off from the fire in the world and enclosed by air. There are vents - tubular channels - at which the heavenly bodies appear: hence eclipses occur when the vents are blocked, and the moon appears now waxing and now waning according to the blocking or opening of the channels.

Question 6

Anaximander on animals:

Answer 6

Animals come into being evaporated by the sun. Men originally resembled another type of animal, namely fish.

Question 7

Anaximander on wind, rain, and lightning:

Answer 7

Winds occur when very fine vapors of air are separated off, collect together and move. Rain comes from vapor drawn up from the earth by the sun. Lightning occurs when wind breaks out and parts the clouds.

Question 8

The things from which existing things come into being are also the things into which they are destroyed in accordance with what must be. For…

Answer 8

For they give justice and reparation to one another for their injustice in accordance with the ordering of time.