Anaximenes brief biography

Without recognizing Anaximenes's influence on Plato, and simply focusing on Anaximenes's influence on Aristotle, Anaximenes's contributions to scientific thought are not fully recognized. Aristotle interpreted Anaximenes's theory as all substance being different manifestations of air. It was Plato's interpretation of Anaximenes's theory that recognized the fundamental changes of air into other substances.

Because Plato's theory does not recognize Anaximenes's by name, some scholars have doubted that Plato's theory was actually influenced by Anaximenes. The proponents of the influence have written that the uniqueness of Anaximenes's theory and obvious similarities to Plato's theory prove the connection. Because none of Anaximenes's work exists today, there is controversy over the amount of influence Anaximenes's had on Plato.

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Anaximenes brief biography

He is the third and the last of the Milesian philosophers. Only a few sources survive for his life and activities. He wrote a book in prose probably within the same framework of natural philosophy as that of Anaximander. Anaximenes speculated on cosmology, cosmogony and meteorology. The Air For Anaximenes, in contrast to Anaximander, the source of all things is not an indefinite and unlimited apeiron but the air aer : a definite material substance.

Hot and cold do not have an ontological or material status but they are due to rarefaction and condensation. For Anaximenes the earth is flat and rides on a cushion of air. Some scientific discoveries are also ascribed to Anaximenes: that rainbows are created as light shines through condensed air misthow the moon reflects sunlight, and others.

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