OUT OF THIN AIR

Anaximenes of Miletus lived from 585 BC to 525 BC. He wrote at least one book, which has not reached us, but it is known to us from an extant fragment and obliquely from the description of his style (“he used simple and unextravagant Ionic speech”) by Diogenes Laertius. In Metaphysics, Aristotle makes a note of his major contention: “Anaximenes and Diogenes make air rather than water, the material principle above the other simple bodies.” Considering that Diogenes of Apollonia lived a century later than Anaximenes, it is clear that the prize for the originality of this idea goes to the Milesian.

Here are a few more testimonies concerning Anaximenes:

“Anaximenes, son of Eurystratus, of Miletus, a companion of Anaximander, also says that the underlying nature is one and infinite like him, but not undefined as Anaximander said but definite, for he identifies it as air; and it differs in its substantial nature by rarity and density. Being made finer, it becomes fire, being made thicker it becomes wind, then cloud, then (when thickened still more) water, then earth, then stones; and the rest come into being from these. He too makes motion eternal, and he says that change also comes about through it.” (Simplicius.)

“From it, he said, the things that are and have been and will be, the gods and things divine, took their rise, while other things come from its offspring.” (Hippolytus.)

“It differs in different substances in virtue of its rarefaction and condensation.” (Theophrastus.)

“And the form of the air is as follows. Where it is most even, it is invisible to our sight; but cold and heat, moisture and motion make it visible. It is always in motion; for if it were not it would not change so much as it does.” (Hippolytus.)

“When it is dilated so as to be rarer it becomes fire; while wind on the other hand is condensed Air. Cloud is formed from Air by felting and this still further condensed becomes water. Water condensed still more turns to earth; and when condensed as much as it can be, to stones.” (Hippolytus.)

And now here is the extant fragment accredited to Anaximenes: Air is the nearest to an immaterial thing; for since we are generated in the flow of air, it is necessary that it should be infinite and abundant, because it is never exhausted. The form of the earth is like a table. Earthquakes are caused by the dryness of the air, due to drought, and by its wetness, due to rainstorms… The soul is like air in its nature.

Like Anaximander, Anaximenes turns to his principles to account for various natural phenomena: lightning and thunder result from the wind breaking out of clouds; rainbows are the result of the rays of the sun falling on clouds; earthquakes are caused by the cracking of the earth when it dries out, after being moistened by rains. He gives an essentially correct account of hail as frozen rainwater.

Generally speaking, Anaximenes appears to be a lesser figure than his two great compatriots, and Nietzsche has a valid point to leave him out of his consideration. But in the historical sequence of the pre-Socratics, it is impossible to leave him out of the picture. Without him, there is no such thing as the Milesian triad, to which we are sufficiently, and legitimately, accustomed. It is perhaps because of his lesser prominence that we may try to look at him more attentively than at the rest, both in our points of criticism, but in terms of favorability as well. In this regard, it is worthwhile to examine his thinking more closely, as he poses this intriguing question: Inasmuch as one becomes many, how does ‘becoming’ occur? Is it at all possible that a change in quantity can result in a change in quality? He thought that he found a positive answer in his choice of air as the stuff from which all things originate. He was unquestionably wrong in his answer, but at the same time magnificently right about the question, and posing that question alone makes him worthy of being included in the company of his greater colleagues. Examining his question further, and in-depth, will be my major task in the next stage of work on these comments. In the meantime, this section, covering all pre-Socratic philosophers, both major and minor, cannot be complete without paying enough attention to Anaximenes, who may be called a minor major much more than a major minor, which fact must not be disregarded in his overall assessment.