Ebook: Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology

»This essay has grown out of a study of the poem of Parmenides which was begun a number of years ago. I had come to the conclusion that Parmenides’ argument was to be understood only against the background of a new rational view of the physical universe, a view which was not his own creation, but which permitted him to take for granted such basic conceptions as the true Nature of things (φύσις) and the ordered structure of the World (κόσμος). What I have tried to do here is to reconstruct this pre-Parmenidean view, proceeding on the assumption that its source must be located in sixth-century Miletus. This assumption is implicit in all the ancient accounts of the origins of Greek philosophy, and seems to be justified by the radical contrast between the physical ideas of Homer and Hesiod on the one hand, and those of Anaximander and Anaximenes on the other.

The view of the historical development presented here differs from the traditional scheme in only two respects. I have discounted the originality of Pythagoras as a figment—or at least an exaggeration— of the Hellenistic imagination. In other words, so far as the study of nature is concerned, I have treated the Italian school as an offshoot of the Ionian philosophy and not as its rival. Furthermore, the scale on which the three Milesians are depicted is not as uniform as it generally appears. In the monumental style of ancient historiography, the Milesians are presented as three statues of the same size and rank, standing at the head of a long gallery of peers. I have tried to adjust the magnitude of the figures to the importance of their role in the history of ideas. Thales and Anaximenes still have their respective places next to Anaximander, as his precursor and disciple. But they are dwarfed by the comparison to the master.

Another deviation from the usual treatment is dictated by the scope of the essay. In dealing with Heraclitus and Parmenides (and, even more, with their successors) I have largely neglected the fundamentallv new ideas which are their characteristic achievement. Since this is not a history of early Greek philosophy but a study of the Milesian cosmology, later thinkers must be regarded here primarily as the heirs and debtors of the Milesians.«
(from the preface)