Anaximander

What is infinite is something other than the elements, and from it the elements arise.

Anaximander (Greek: Ἀναξίμανδρος, Anaximandros; c. 610 – c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia; Milet in modern Turkey. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales, succeeding him to become the second master of that school where he counted Anaximenes and arguably, Pythagoras amongst his pupils.

Quotes

• There cannot be a single, simple body which is infinite, either, as some hold, one distinct from the elements, which they then derive from it, nor without this qualification. For there are some who make this (i.e. a body distinct from the elements) the infinite, and not air or water, in order that the other things may not be destroyed by their infinity. They are in opposition one to another — air is cold, water moist, and fire hot—and therefore, if any one of them were infinite, the rest would have ceased to be by this time. Accordingly they say that what is infinite is something other than the elements, and from it the elements arise.
  • As quoted in Physics by Aristotle, as translated by John Burnet

• The Earth is cylindrical, three times as wide as it is deep, and only the upper part is inhabited. But this Earth is isolated in space, and the sky is a complete sphere in the center of which is located, unsupported, our cylinder, the Earth, situated at an equal distance from all the points of the sky.
  • As quoted in "Science Attests the Accuracy of the Bible" in The Watchtower (1 October 1980)

External links

• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Anaximander
• Extensive bibliography by Dirk Couprie
• Fragments in Greek at WIkisource
• Philoctete - Anaximandre: Fragments in Greek, French and English
• Fragments in English