Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:21:20.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

INFINITE WORLDS IN THE THOUGHT OF ANAXIMANDER

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Radim Kočandrle
Radim Kočandrle*
Affiliation:
University of West Bohemia
*
rkocandr@kfi.zcu.cz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Some classical authors ascribe to Anaximander of Miletus a belief in the existence of infinite worlds. Their testimonies have provoked an extensive discussion on the question of whether Anaximander spoke of successive or coexistent worlds, or perhaps only one world that undergoes changes. Of course, this subject is related to important aspects of archaic cosmologies. First, we need to investigate whether one can even speak of a notion of coexistent worlds prior to atomist theories. Second, the issue of infinite worlds is closely linked to the nature of Anaximander's scheme of the universe and Ionian cosmologies in general. Finally, this matter has a bearing on the subject of the duration or perishing of the world.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , December 2019 , pp. 483 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 This article was written with the support of grant project GA CR GA15–08890S. It is a revised version of a previously published Czech article, Kočandrle, R., ‘Anaximandrovy nekonečné světy’ [‘Anaximander's infinite worlds’], Filosofický časopis 4 (2017), 491–512Google Scholar.

2 Couprie, D.L., Heaven and Earth in Ancient Greek Cosmology. From Thales to Heraclides Ponticus (New York, 2011), 223CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kahn, C.H., Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology (New York, 1960), 47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Cornford, F.M., ‘Innumerable worlds in Presocratic philosophy’, CQ 28 (1934), 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Finkelberg, A., ‘Plural worlds in Anaximander’, AJPh 115 (1994), 485–506Google Scholar; Furley, D.J., The Greek Cosmologists. I. The Formation of the Atomic Theory and its Earliest Critics (Cambridge, 1987), 29–30Google Scholar.

5 Burnet, J., Early Greek Philosophy (London, 1930), 58–61Google Scholar; Conche, M., Anaximandre. Fragments et Témoignages (Paris, 1991), 100–26Google Scholar; West, M.L., Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient (Oxford, 1971), 80–1Google Scholar.

6 McKirahan, R., ‘Anaximander's infinite worlds’, in Preus, A. (ed.), Before Plato (Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy 6) (Albany, 2001), 49–65Google Scholar.

7 Freudenthal, G., ‘The theory of the opposites and an ordered universe: physics and metaphysics in Anaximander’, Phronesis 31 (1986), 197–229, at 223–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Hussey, E., The Presocratics (London, 1972), 11–31Google Scholar.

9 Kirk, G.S., ‘Some problems in Anaximander’, CQ 5 (1955), 21–38, at 28–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kirk, G.S., Raven, J.E. and Schofield, M., The Presocratic Philosophers. A Critical History with a Selection of Texts (Cambridge, 2007), 122–6Google Scholar.

10 Gregory, A., Anaximander. A Re-Assessment (London and New York, 2016), 121–42Google Scholar; Kahn (n. 2), 47–53.

11 Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 24.13 = DK 12A9 = DK 12B1. Unless expressly stated otherwise, translations are taken from Graham, D.W., The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy (Cambridge, 2010)Google Scholar. In translations we substitute the term ‘worlds’ for ‘world-orders’.

12 Hippol. Ref. 1.6.1 Marcovich = DK 12A11.

13 Ps.-Plut. Strom. 2, in Euseb. Praep. evang. 1.8.2 = DK 12A10.

14 Aet. Plac. 1.3.3 DK = DK 12A14.

15 Arist. Cael. 303b13.

16 Kahn (n. 2), 49.

17 LSJ s.v. οὐρανός.

18 Arist. Cael. 278b8–21.

19 Kahn (n. 2), 34–5.

20 McKirahan (n. 6), 57.

21 Kirk, Raven and Schofield (n. 9), 116–17, 125.

22 LSJ s.v. κόσμος.

23 Kahn (n. 2), 49–50, 222, 229.

24 Arist. Mete. 355a22–3. Transl. Lee, H.D.P., Aristotle. Meteorologica (Cambridge, MA, 1962)Google Scholar.

25 Hippol. Ref. 1.6.3 Marcovich = DK 12A11.

26 Cornford (n. 3), 9, 11; Gregory (n. 10), 139; Kahn (n. 2), 50–1.

27 Arist. Ph. 250b18–25. Transl. Wicksteed, P.H. and Cornford, F.M., Aristotle. The Physics (Cambridge, MA, 1957–60)Google Scholar.

28 McKirahan (n. 6), 54.

29 Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 1121.5 = DK 12A17. Transl. Bodnár, I., Chase, M. and Share, M., Simplicius, On Aristotle, Physics 8.1–5 (London, 2012)Google Scholar.

30 Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 1121.10.

31 Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 1121.12 = DK 13A11.

32 Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 1121.17.

33 Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 1121.22 = DK 59A64.

34 Cornford (n. 3), 2.

35 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 202.11 = Wöhrle, G. (ed.), Die Milesier: Anaximander und Anaximenes (Berlin and Boston, 2012)Google Scholar (hereinafter TP2) As152.

36 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 615.13 = DK 12A17 = TP2 As162. Transl. R. McKirahan.

37 Arist. Ph. 203b15 = DK 12A15.

38 Arist. Ph. 208a8–11 = DK 12A14.

39 Aet. Plac. 2.1.3 Mansfeld–Runia = DK 12A17 = Stob. Ecl. 1.22.3b = TP2 Ar145. Transl. Mansfeld–Runia (Mansfeld, J. and Runia, D.T., Aëtiana. The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer, II, The Compendium 2 [Leiden and Boston, 2009]Google Scholar).

40 Ps.-Plut. Plac. 2.1 = Dox. (1879), 327.

41 Aet. Plac. 2.1.2 Mansfeld–Runia = DK 11A13b. Adapted transl. by Mansfeld–Runia.

42 Stob. Ecl. 1.22.2. = Dox. (1879), 327.

43 Cf. Cornford (n. 3), 3.

44 Cf. McKirahan (n. 6), 53.

45 Aet. Plac. 1.7.12 DK = DK 12A17 = Stob. Ecl. 1.1.29b = TP2 Ar142.

46 Euseb. Praep. evang. 14.16.6 = TP2 Ar104; Ps.-Plut. Plac. 1.7 = TP2 Ar54.

47 Cf. Kirk, Raven and Schofield (n. 9), 124.

48 Stob. Ecl. 1.22.3c = TP2 Ar146.

49 Aet. Plac. 2.1.4 Mansfeld–Runia = DK 12A17 (transl. Mansfeld–Runia).

50 Aet. Plac. 2.1.5 Mansfeld–Runia.

51 Cic. Nat. D. 1.10.25 = DK 12A17.

52 Cornford (n. 3), 11–12.

53 August. De civ. D. 8.2 = DK 12A17 (transl. R. McKirahan).

54 Kahn (n. 2), 48.

55 DL 9.31 = DK 67A1; Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 202.16 = DK 67A21.

56 Hippol. Ref. 1.13.3 = DK 68A40.

57 Couprie (n. 2), 222–3.

58 Aet. Plac. 2.13.7 = DK 12A18; 2.15.6 = DK 12A18; 2.16.5 = DK 12A18; 2.20.1 = DK 12A21; 2.21.1 = DK 12A21; 2.24.2 = DK 12A21; 2.25.1 = DK 12A22; 2.28.1 = DK 12A22; 2.29.1 = DK 12A22; Ach. Tat. Isagoge 19.16 = DK 12A21; Hippol. Ref. 1.6.4–5 = DK 12A11.

59 DL 9.33 = DK 67A1.

60 Aet. Plac. 2.7.2 = DK 67a22; DL 9.32 = DK 67A1.

61 Gregory (n. 10), 133–4, 255, n. 57.

62 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 511.20 = TP2 As155.

63 Arist. Cael. 295b10 = DK 12A26; DL 2.1 Marcovich = DK 12A1; Hippol. Ref. 1.6.3 Marcovich = DK 12A11; Suda s.v. ᾿Αναξίμανδρος = Alfa 1986.1–6 = DK 12A2; Theon of Smyrna, De util. mat. 198.18 = DK 12A26.

64 Arist. Cael. 295b10 = DK 12A26.

65 Couprie (n. 2), 11.

66 Cornford (n. 3), 2.

67 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 615.13 = DK 12A17 = TP2 As162.

68 Arist. Cael. 303b10–13. Modified transl. Guthrie, W.K.C., Aristotle. On the Heavens (Cambridge, MA, 1986)Google Scholar.

69 Arist. Ph. 203b24–8.

70 Gregory (n. 10), 137–42.

71 Kirk, Raven and Schofield (n. 9), 123.

72 Arist. Cael. 279b12–17 = DK 22A10.

73 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 293.14–15.

74 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 293.16–18.

75 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 293.18–294.10.

76 Arist. Cael. 280a12–14.

77 Arist. Cael. 298b26–34.

78 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 561.1–4.

79 Arist. Mete. 353b6 = DK 12A27.

80 Alex. Aphr. In Arist. Mete. 67.3–11 = DK 12A27.

81 Aet. Plac. 2.4.7 Mansfeld–Runia = DK 12A17.

82 Kočandrle, R. and Couprie, D.L., Apeiron. Anaximander on Generation and Destruction (Cham, 2017), 95Google Scholar.

83 Arist. Ph. 203b6 = DK 12A15.

84 Hippol. Ref. 1.6.1 Marcovich = DK 12A11.

85 Hippol. Ref. 1.6.1 Marcovich = DK 12A11.

86 Arist. Ph. 203b11 = DK 12A15.

87 Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 24.16 = DK 12A9 = DK 12B1.

88 Ps.-Plut. Strom. 2 = DK 12A10.

89 LSJ s.v. αἰών.

90 Ps.-Plut. Strom. 2 = DK 12A10.

91 Hippol. Ref. 1.14.5–6 = DK 21A33.

92 Aet. Plac. 2.24.9 = DK 21A41a.

93 Aet. Plac. 4.5 = DK 21B27; Sext. Emp. Math. 10.314 = DK 21B33; Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 188.32 = DK 21B29.

94 Aet. Plac. 2.4.11 = DK 21A37. Transl. Gregory, A., Ancient Greek Cosmogony (London, 2007)Google Scholar. Cf. Cornford (n. 3), 9; Kahn (n. 2), 51–2.

95 Arist. Mete. 352a17.

96 Graham, D.W., Explaining the Cosmos. The Ionian Tradition of Scientific Philosophy (Princeton, 2006), 51–2Google Scholar.

97 Marcus Aurelius, Ad se ipsum 4.46 = DK 22B76.

98 Clem. Al. Strom. 6.17.2 = DK 22B36.

99 Simpl. In Arist. Cael. 561.1–4.

100 Simpl. In Arist. Ph. 1121.12 = DK 13A11.