Anaximander (Anaksimandros)

Anaximander, Anaksimandros, of Miletus, ca. 610-OK. 540 years. BC. e. Greek philosopher. Considered a disciple and follower of Thales. The first of the Greeks wrote proizaicheskoy philosophical work entitled On the Nature, which persisted in only one differently interpreted fragment. This work is in the II. BC. e. Apollodorus knew, and before him, obviously, read Aristotle and Theophrastus. A. was the creator of the first nemifologicheskoy cosmogony. The beginning of the world (arche) is in A. eternal and immeasurable boundlessness (apeiron), corresponding to the Chaos of Hesiod (?).

From the infinity can be produced an infinite number of worlds, which, however, should be killed and re-dissolved in it. From in perpetual motion infinity appeared couple of opposites - heat and cold, which gave rise to the ground, surrounded by layers of water, air and fire. Subsequently, a layer of water partially evaporated, and the scattering layer of air fire caused the birth of celestial bodies. A break with traditional religious beliefs, though - as it seems - was convinced of the divine essence of infinity. A. also wrote about the birth of organic life (terrestrial animals evolved from sea, and people - from the fish). A. drew the first map of the earth and the sea (her then perfected Hecataeus of Miletus) and made the first model of the world. Land he considered lying in the center of the universe fixed cylinder, the upper surface of which is inhabited world (Ecumene). A. invented the sundial, he also studied the remoteness, size and trajectory of the stars.