The Roles of Opposites in Anaximander's and Anaximenes' Works

In Anaximander's work, there are four fundamental opposed elements: fire, water, earth and air, and there is alos an original substance, the Apeiron, of which all things are composed, and from which those four elements are formed. The most important property of these opposites is the definite property. Since the opposites are definite, Anaximander argues that the Apeiron must be indefinite and neutral; that means it cannot be hot nor cold, not wet nor dry since if it had been definite and had had one of the property that the opposites had, it would have destroyed the opposites the by swamping them with its larger quantity. The Apeiron is considered further by Anaximander to possess supernatural characteristics such as eternal, ageless, unlimited and movable. From this extraordinary substance, as seprating-off process was initiated by its mass, and the things that generate hot and colse arose.

These opposite elements are responsible for controlling the atmosphere and other living conditions of the earth. For example, fire helps the habitats to have heat to cook; water is to drink, etc. Besides, they help control the weather such as spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Of course, these opposites can be sensed and found everywhere in the environment around us, and in addtion to their natural characteristics, they can be found in man-made events; for example, a match can initiate a fire, an air-conditioner can give us cold air, etc. For Anaximander, although the two pairs of fundamental elements are opposite to each other, they help maintain the same separating-off process that generated them. For example, from the Apeiron, which is originally a combination of flame and dark mist, things such as the sun, moon, stars and the earth are formed, and then afterward, natural evolutions such as thunder and lightning will result from wind being enclosed in cloud, etc.

However, these pairs of opposite elements when acting against each other , they then "pay penalty and retribution to each other for their injustice" (McKirahan, 5.19, 43). Thus, things that come into being in turn are destroyed, and things that are perished in turn come back into being again. This justice idea that Anaximander conceives is his most peculiar idea compared to the ontological idea of the four opposite elements because it seems to me that this justice idea has a relation with the supernatural Apeiron although they are different things since the Apeiron accounts for what happens to the universe at the beginning of it whereas justice in the maintaining process accounts for the continuing living process of the universe. It seems to me that the Apeiron not only is the cause of the birth to the four opposite elements but also is the mysterious being that helps maintain the evolutions of the natural phenomena of the universe. And the reason why I think so is because the eternal and ageless characteristics of the Apeiron for if the continuing process of the universe is an eternal process except for the mortality of human beings, only the eternal Apeiron can remain forever to control the continual conflicts of the four opposites.

Anaximander's theory of opposite elements has a difficulty to explain for their continuation because they seem to be so opposite that it is hard for them to reconcile themselves without the assistance of the fifth element which seems to be the Apeiron in a material sense since the Apeiron is considered also by Anaximander as an infinite and unlimited substance but not a spiritual substance or a devine being such as God in Christian theology, and since they must pay penalty and retribution for their injustice, things that are terminated by them become being born, and things that are living become extinguished. In addition, Anaximander did not explain very well the process of exchanging from hot to cold or from cold to hot with four elements that seem to be obviously opposite in their characteristics, or why spring and autumn are in between the two extreme seasons of winter and summer. He only says that the injustice that one does to the other would be paid back by a justice that comes in between, but he doesn't say how the elements would change the four seasons. In contrary to Anaximander, Anaximenes' theory of air and the changing process of the element air that causes other elements to form fire, water, earth don't acknowledge the opposite characteristics of these elements, but rather they do not oppose to one another. Anaximenes thinks that they are simply different states of the single elements stuff that is air. Thus, we now explore the differences in Anaximenes' theory compared to the Apeiron and the four elements from Anaximander's theory.

Anaximenes denies the Apeiron that Anaximander conjured because he thought that the Apeiron was unobservable and couldn't be used to explain well the changing process of the seasons of from air to fire, water and earth. So, opposite to the eternal, ageless, neutral Apeiron, Anaximenes deems that air is the main substance from which other substances such as fire, water and earth come from. He "appears to have thought that we ought not postulate the existence of anything that is not required to explain the world and its phenomena, especially when the postulate is unobservable." (Hurley, 3). For Anaximenes, air is the substance "out of which come to be things that are coming to be, things that have come to be, and things that will be," and "For when it becomes condensed and finer, it appears different. For when it is dissolved into what is finer, it comes to be fire, and on the other hand, air comes to be winds when it becomes condensed. Cloud results from air through felting, and water when this happens to greater degree. When condensed still more it becomes earth and when it reaches the absolutely densest stage it becomes stones. (McKirahan, 6.2, 48). Thus, we see that air transforms itself into four different elements, and so these elements cannot be different in characteristics or cannot be absolutely opposite since they all come from one substance, air.

The greatest advantage of air as can be understood from Anaximenes' statement is that it well explains the process of mutual transactions that change from something that hot as fire to something that cool and hard like stones. Besides, the seasons such as autumn and spring will be easier to explain using the changing air theory. For example, before the hot air in summer meets the cold air in winter, there is a change in the weather that is autumn in which there is a lot or rains falling down because the hot air vapors and becomes water when meets the cold air higher above in the atmosphere. Another advantage is that there is no abstract term such as "justice" involved in the changing process of these material substances as it is supposed in Anaximander's theory that doesn't seem to reconcile rationally all the changes in the four opposite elements.

Another difference in Anaximenes' theory is that air that forms other four substances seem to posess another characteristic, the quantitative characteristic since the rarity and density are quantitative notions. That means that more or less of the air stuff can form other substances such as fire, water and earth. In Anaximenes' theory, only quality characteristics such as hot, cold, damp, wet or dry are mentioned but not the quantities of air such as found in rarity and density. So, see that Anaximenes' air and other elements are related to one another in term of their quantities as things that can be measured.

Now, we know that for Anaximander, the Apeiron, which is the fifth element is the original source of all other four elements while for Anaximenes, air is the original or the basic element that other three elements come from. Besides, the quantity of the air plays an important role in changing it to other elements. Another different aspect between Anaximander's theory and Anaximenes' theory is that Anaximenes' theory is closer to a scientific experiment than Anaximander's theory in dealing with the natural, material world since Anaximenes takes the observable breath as air to be the fundamental and original substance in both natural phenomena and human phenomena because human beings and animals breath air in order to live: "The meaning would then be 'as our soul holds the body together and so controls it, so the originative substance (which is basically the same stuff as soul) holds the world together and so controls it.' (iii) 'The soul, which is breath, holds together and controls the world must also be breath or air, because the world is like a large-scale man or animal." (Kirk, 160). Thus, it seems that Anaximenes comes up with the idea that air is the basic substance from observing the breath coming out of our mouths.

In addition to the perceptible characteristic of air that is different from the unobservable characteristic of the Apeiron, "Anaximenes determined that air is a god and that it comes to be and is without measure, infinite and always in motion." (McKirahan, 6.5, 52), and in this point of view, theory of air become similar or compatible with Anaximander's Apeiron because both air and the Apeiron are infinite, always in motion, eternal and have devine characteristics.

6.6 Just as our soul, being air, holds us together and controls us,
so do breath and air surround the whole kosmos. (McKirahan)

If we compare the above statement of Anaximenes with Anaximander's 5.19, we see that it describes the maintaining process of the universe better and more concretely than the 'justice' concept of Anaximander because air not only controls earthly phenomena but also controls human lives, and air is also conceived by Anaximenes as the human soul, a concept that is neglected in Anaximander's theory; thus, Anaximenes' air is blended in everything and present in every living things.

Despite the fact that like Anaximander's theory of the Apeiron, Anaximenes' air is also supernatural, has spiritual meaning of a soul, his most important view point in the rationally changing process among the four opposite elements is a better view point than Anaximander's opposite view point; especially, the changing process is more observable, more plausible, and can be demonstrated by a simple experiment such as the breathing experiment.

It shows how Anaximenes related two pairs of opposites that appear to be unrelated because when breath is rare, it is warm; then it is densed, it is cold... In this way, Anaximenes advances our understanding of the world by reducing the range of independent phenomena through increasing the number of intelligibly connected features. The world becomes more intelligible as the range of related phenomena is increased ( McKirahan, 50)

The last thing I should mention as a big difference from Anaximander's theory and Anaximenes' theory is the layout of the picture of the whole universe. For Anaximander, the earth has a flat cylinder-shaped form with the sun, the moon and the stars surrounding it, and all of these heavenly bodies are surrounded by the Apeiron whereas for Anaximenes, the earth is standing on a column of air, and the other planets such as the sun, the moon and the stars are in different locations compared to Anaximander's locations.

Futhermore, the development of Anaximenes' theory may have thought to be the view that was obtained first from human observations then was extended to a more universal observation that can be applied to the universe as a whole; thus, it contains the explicit use of the microcosm-macrocosm analogy. It offers us a scientific method or an experimental method in creating an ontological theory regarding material laws and events.

References

Hurley et al. eds. History of Philosophy. New York: Harper Collins Publisher,
1993.

Mckirhan, Richard. Philosophy before Socrates. Indianapolis: Hacket publishing Co., 1994.

Kirk, Raven and Schofield. The Prescoratic Philosophers. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1971.