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Some Thoughts on ΤO Υ∆ΩΡ of Thales and ΤO AΠΕΙΡΟΝ of Anaximander 245

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Some Thoughts on ΤO Υ∆ΩΡ of Thales and ΤO AΠΕΙΡΟΝ of Anaximander 245 some thoughts on ΤO Υ∆ΩΡ of thales and ΤO AΠΕΙΡΟΝ of anaximander 245 SOME THOUGHTS ON ΤO Υ∆ΩΡ OF THALES AND ΤO AΠΕΙΡΟΝ OF ANAXIMANDER Paul F. O’Rourke Brooklyn Museum It is a privilege for me to offer this short article dering undue emphasis on certain given points. to the gentleman honored by this volume. Over a Attempting to establish precisely what these two number of years, Jack and I have happily shared men were trying to say may often seem an exercise thoughts on points of common interest and even in “looking through a glass darkly.” had the good fortune to collaborate with another Looking backwards from Aristotle through scholar and friend on an article on a fragment of Plato and the later Presocratics to their forebears Late Egyptian sculpture.1 I take particular plea- in Thales and Anaximander is not an exercise sure in contributing an essay that discusses a pos- in abject futility, however, and one can appreci- sible point of conjunction of Egyptian and Greek ate some sense of where each of these two men thought, a matter of great interest to Jack. stands in that tradition. A more intriguing ques- Standing as they do at the beginning of the tion arises when we ask not what they were pre- Greek philosophical tradition, Thales and Anaxi- cursors to, but what traditions they themselves mander present myriad problems for the histo- were adopting or adapting.4 rian of philosophy. Their writings, long lost, if Let us begin by outlining the basic cosmological ever extant,2 have come down to us in ancient theories of each of these thinkers and the routine commentaries that are often concerned with the problems one encounters in such an exercise. writings and ideas of other philosophers who lived For the cosmology of Thales, two passages in generations after these two early thinkers. It is dif- Aristotle form our only sources. They inform us ficult—in many places impossible—to determine that in Thales’ vision: (1) water is the principle of if the words attributed to them are direct quotes or all things5 and (2) the earth floats on water.6 vague paraphrases. In addition, the doxographi- In his attribution to Thales that τὸ ὕδωρ (water) cal tradition3 routinely presents the ideas of these is the ἀρχή of all things, Aristotle used the word ἡ two philosophers in a terminology that was not ἀρχή in his sense of “original constituent mate- of their making, quite possibly—even probably— rial” that persists as a substratum into which all distorting their original line of reasoning and ren- will eventually return.7 We are further informed 1 J. Josephson, P. O’Rourke, and R. Fazzini, “The Doha into which it is finally destroyed, the substance persisting but Head: A Late Period Egyptian Portrait,” MDAIK 61 (2005), changing in its qualities, this they declare is the element and 219-241. first principle of existing things—Over the number, however, 2 See G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven, and M. Schofield, The Preso- and the form of this kind of principle they do not all agree; cratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of but Thales, the founder of this type of philosophy, says that Texts (Cambridge, 1993), 86-88, on the likelihood or not it is water.” See Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, The Presocratics, that Thales produced written work. 88-89. 3 For the ancient commentators included under this 6 Aristotle, de Caelo 294a 28f.: “Others say that the earth rubric, see Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, The Presocratics, rests on water. For this is the most ancient account we have 4-6. received, which they say was given by Thales the Milesian, 4 In the study of Homeric poetry, a similar situation that it stays in place through floating like a log or some other obtains. See G.S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary. Volume I: such thing…” See Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, The Presocrat- Books 1-4 (Cambridge 1995, rep.), xvii: “The Homeric epics ics, 88-89. are in any event a special case, since they stand at the begin- 7 For the discussion of Aristotle’s assessment of Thales’ ning of known Greek literature and the influences on them theory, see Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, The Presocratics, are hard, if not impossible, to gauge; while literature and 88-98, esp. 93-94. See also J. Barnes, The Presocratic Phi- culture after them were so manifestly affected by the epic losophers 1 (London, 1979), 9, where he translates ἡ ἀρχή background that tracing influence at every point becomes as “material principle.” In both of these works, the authors self-defeating.” are citing Aristotle, Metaphysics 983b 20f. On the appropri- 5 Aristotle, Met. 983b 20f.: “Most of the first philosophers ateness of Aristotle’s use of the term ἡ ἀρχή in describing thought that principles in the form of matter were the only Thales’ work and the problems that have arisen from that use, principles of all things; for the original source of all existing see Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, The Presocratics, 90f. things, that from which a thing first comes-into-being and 246 paul f. o’rourke that Thales posited this theory to explain how the meant by this word, both ancient and modern earth remains suspended in space. According to commentators have generally disagreed.18 Fur- Thales, the earth rests on water. thermore, the statement in Simplicius that “He There seem to be no disputes or questions [Anaximander] says that it is neither water nor about the nature of τὸ ὕδωρ in the ancient com- any of the other so-called elements but some other mentators. The word employed by Thales, τὸ ‘apeiron nature’ from which come into being all ὕδωρ, appears to be a rather generic, non-tech- the heavens and the worlds in them…” is note- nical term.8 In search of an answer to the ques- worthy.19 This alleged denial that the principle is tion of what supports the earth, Thales thought of water20 sounds like a rejection by Anaximander the waters of the sea.9 Water was also moisture, of Thales’ basic premise. a manifestation of the principle of moist things.10 In addition to this ostensible refutation of his As a material element, water was, along with air, predecessor’s view, it has been argued that Anax- earth, and fire, a principle in Aristotle’s sense of imander made an apparent shift from a mate- the term.11 These four elements lie at much of the rial principle like water to what seems to be an heart of the discussion of the nature of things immaterial one21 when he introduced the term τὸ by the Presocratics,12 and were ultimately to be ἄπειρoν, usually translated “the infinite” or “the posited by Empedocles as a quartet of roots that indefinite.”22 It is this point that has received much underlies all things.13 Be that as it may, one can of the attention in subsequent discussions of his still argue that the word τὸ ὕδωρ seems to have philosophy, both those of the ancient commenta- been something of a catchall term for water, at tors and of modern scholars. The fact that Anaxi- least for Thales.14 mander’s successors seem to have returned to the Anaximander, Thales’ successor and pos sibly material realm in which to locate the principle of his student,15 posited that the principle of all all things23 has led some modern commentators to things was τὸ ἄπειρoν.16 This word is a substantive conclude that these thinkers were explicitly reject- formed from the adjective ἄπειρoς, one that has ing his views and that Anaximander was either a range of meanings from “boundless; infinite” too forward thinking for his time24 or even simply to “endless; circular.”17 On what Anaximander confused.25 8 The word τὸ ὕδωρ occurs as early as Homer and Hesiod. 15 Suda s.v. “Anaximander.” See Kirk, Raven, and Scho- It generally seems to mean “water, of any kind, but in Hom. field, The Presocratics, 100-101. rarely of seawater without an epith.,” according to the entry 16 According to the doxographical tradition, for which in H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, Greek-English Lexicon with a see n. 18 below. See as well Hölscher, “Anaximander and the Revised Supplement (Oxford, 1996), 1845–1846. Beginnings of Greek Philosophy,” 317-322. 9 See n. 6 above. 17 Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, 184. 10 Aristotle, Met. 983b 20f.: “…taking the supposition 18 See, for example, Simplicius Physics 24, 13: “….the prin- both from this and from the seeds of all things having a moist ciple and the element of existing things was the apeiron… nature, water being the natural principle of moist things.” He says that it is neither water nor any of the other so-called See Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, The Presocratics, 89. elements but some other ‘apeiron nature’ from which come 11 “The original constituent material of things, which per- into being all the heavens and the worlds in them…” See sists as a substratum and into which they will perish.” This Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, The Presocratics, 106-108. Note statement of Kirk, Raven, and Schofield,The Presocratics, 90, the editors’ avoidance of a translation of the term ἄπειρoν. is based on Aristotle, Met. A3, 983b 6f. So also Diogenes Laertius II, 1: “Anaximander said that the 12 An important study is U. Hölscher, “Anaximander and unlimited is principle and element, not distinguishing it as the Beginnings of Greek Philosophy,” in Studies in Preso- air or water or anything else,” for which see Barnes, Preso- cratic Philosophy 1, ed.
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