Anaximander of Miletus

Born some time around 610 BC. Died some time around 546 BC (age ~56).

Anaximander was a successor of Thales of Miletus. He was regarded in his day as a scientist and politician. He is credited with creating a map of the Black Sea, and with leading a colony to Apollonia.

Anaximander accepted the assertion of Thales that the world is ultimately composed of a single element. However, he disagreed that water was this element. Instead, Anaximander asserted that this element was indeterminate, but that it was eternal, ageless, and more primative than any other. The visible elements, naturally paired as opposites, take turns encroaching upon each other and then receding (e.g. fire encroaches on water, causing Summer, then recedes, causing Winter). This endless motion results in infinite worlds.

Anaximander noted that man is unique amongst all creatures due to how long our young need to suckle and be protected. He posited that mankind, as it is now, could not have survived in an earlier state of civilization. Using this reasoning, he asserted that man was born of another species, coming originally from the sea. Thus, he proposed an early form of the Theory of Evolution.

Anaximander’s contribution to philosophy is his attempt to explain how the world came to be. He is the first recorded Greek to attempt to scientifically connect philosophy to the world of our experience.

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