Anaximander of Miletus

Therefore, according to ancient biographers, Anaximander - student, friend and relative of Thales. Like Anaxagoras, was engaged in natural astrology. In 547/546 he. published the first rannenauchny prose treatise "On Nature", whose main content is cosmogony, cosmography, the etiology of meteorological phenomena.

In cosmology Anaximander obschemiletskogo proceeds from the notion of "infinite ambient" - spatially infinite solid continuum, "ambient" Space outside after his birth and absorbing it after the death. Nature of "ambient" Anaximander was not clear already ancient readers of his book, perhaps because of the archaic style. Ancient historians of philosophy pointed out that the initial of all things, according to Anaximander, is apeiron ( "infinite"). But the term "Apeiron" non-genuine; Anaximander used the adjective "infinite" as one of the attributes of "eternal and ageless nature", "embraces all the sky (worlds) and spaces (spaces) in them". Anaximander thought "eternal nature" as a "mixture" of all the qualitatively different substances, in anticipation of the concept of matter, Anaxagoras

. Cosmogony of Anaximander: the first phase - a "selection" of the ambient world of the embryo (similar to the eggs of the world), the second phase - a "division" and the polarization of opposites (wet cold core and a fiery hot "core") and the third phase - the interaction and control of hot and cold engenders designed space,
. In the only surviving fragment of Anaximander gave the first formulation of the law of conservation of matter

. In cosmography Anaximander developed the first geometrical model of the universe (graphically illustrated celestial globe), it originated from the geocentric hypothesis and the theory of the spheres "in astronomy, related to the opening of the southern celestial hemisphere.
. Anaximander created the first map, sundial and some astronomical instruments (in particular, he first established the gnomon, indicating the days of equinox and solstice).
. Anaximander also calculated the distance from Earth to the stars and the moon and the sun: according to his scheme, it was 9, 18 and 27 Earth radii, respectively
. Such a strange position - the star below the Moon and the Sun (Wed. with Zoroastrian ideas) - was prompted, perhaps, theoretical considerations: the hottest (the sun) was to be above all else, and the coldest (stars) - lowest since the fire is always upwards. According to Pliny, Anaximander predicted the earthquake in Lakedemonii.

The doctrine of Anaximander on the origin of the "first people" from another animal species (type of fish) makes his ancient predecessor of Darwin. In honor of Anaximander called minor planet (asteroid) number 6006.