The first philosophers of humanity sought to explain the origin of the Earth, the sea, the sky, life and the celestial stars, not using myths or legends. Humanity was beginning to abandon belief in gods.
Anaximander of Miletus (610 – 546 BC) created an extraordinary system of ideas, documented by the Greek playwright Aristophanes (448 – 380 BC), allowing our appreciation and admiration today.
Anaximander was a disciple of Thales of Miletus, 14 or 24 years younger. He was a politician, teacher, administrator and sundial builder. Some say that he was the inventor of solar clocks (gnomons). It's a debatable theory. But he certainly introduced the use of gnomons to Greece.
As a goal, all of humanity's first philosophers (known as pre-Socratics) had to define what was the essential element that formed matter. Tales, defended WATER. Anaximenes, the AR. Pythagoras, NUMBERS. Heraclitus, the FIRE. Parmenides, BEING. Empedocles, FIRE, EARTH, WATER AND AIR. Democritus: the ATOM. Crazy thing, right! This element was called ARCHÉ.
For Anaximander, the primordial element was ÁPEIRON. If we evaluate the word ÁPEIRON, we have: A – a negation prefix, and PARA – limit or edge in Greek. Thus, ÁPEIRON = No limit, no border, infinite. ÁPEIRON is an ethereal, non-visible, infinite and indeterminate substance. Very difficult to imagine. However, that was how Anaximander, without any technological resources, thought.
How did Anaximander propose the creation of the Earth?
For him, our planet was a cylinder whose diameter was 3 times its height.
Imagine ÁPEIRON as an egg. He assumed that opposite elements such as HOT and COLD and also DRY and WET were inside the egg and, due to the eternal movement within it, the opposite elements began to separate. First, the HOT and COLD were separated. And then, the DRY and the WET.
Separated, each element waged perpetual war against its opponent. Sometimes one wins, sometimes another wins. Sometimes HOT wins, sometimes COLD wins. Sometimes the DRY wins, sometimes the WET wins.
This was the explanation for hot days and cold days, dry days and rainy days, cloudless days and cloudy days, days with strong winds and calm days.
Look at the following drawing:
Reproducing Aristophanes' words, we will understand the formation process imagined by Anaximander: “As the cold core differentiates further, the second pair of priority contraries, the Wet and the Dry, become distinct. The Earth's water mass is partially dried by celestial fire. Dry land is different from water and the seas are reduced to their own spaces. At this point, the Hot, already differentiated into fire, serves as the causative agent, evaporating part of the moisture and drying the earth. And so, finally, the four elements come to occupy their respective places. The next phase is the formation of celestial bodies.”
A little more about Anaximander of Miletus
He predicted an earthquake. Cicero (philosopher) recorded that Anaximander visiting Lacedemonia advised the Spartan army to abandon the city. The entire city was destroyed. His prediction must have come about based on the experience he had on the subject, given that Miletus (his hometown) was within a cosmic zone.
He constructed a map of the inhabited Earth, later improved by Hecateo of Miletus. On his world map, Asia and Europe had practically equal segments, all of which were surrounded by the ocean. He relied on reports from seafarers that were abundant in Miletus.
