Anaximenes

Question 1

Anaximenes was a younger contemporary and pupil of…

Answer 1

Anaximenes was a younger contemporary and pupil of Anaximander, and like him a Milesian. 548 - 6 BCE

Question 2

Anaximenes believed the first principle was…

Answer 2

Anaximenes believed the first principle was limitless air, from which what is coming into being and what has come into being and what will exist and gods and divinities come into being, while from these things its offspring comes everything else.

Question 3

The form of air is this:

Answer 3

The form of air is this: when it is most uniform it is invisible, but it is made apparent by the hot and the cold and the moist and the moving. It is always in motion; for what changes would not change were it not in motion. As it is condensed and rarefied it appears different: when it is diffused into a more rarefied condition it becomes fire; wind, again, is air moderately condensed; condensed it is water, and then earth; and when it is as dense as possible it is stones.

Question 4

Anaximenes on earth:

Answer 4

Anaximenes believed the earth is flat and rides on air; in the same way the sun and the moon and the other heavenly bodies, which are all fiery, ride the air because of their flatness.