Apeiron is The meaning and interpretation of the term "apeiron"

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

Students of philosophy have probably heard the term "apeiron". The meanings of words from philosophical science are not clear to everyone. What is it? What is the origin of the term, what does it mean?

Definition

Apeiron in philosophy is a concept that was introduced by Anaximander. It means an infinite, indefinite, unlimited primary substance. According to this ancient Greek philosopher, apeiron is the basis of the world, which is forever moving. It is matter that does not possess any qualities. He believed that everything appeared by separating opposites from this matter.

What is a primordial substance?

Primary matter in a broad philosophical sense is the basis of everything that exists in the world. It is often identified with substance. Even in ancient times, philosophers thought that the basis of everything that exists is one primary element. Most often these were natural elements: fire, air, water and earth. Some have suggested that the celestial substance is also the first substance.

This theory was in all philosophical teachings. The sages always held thatat the heart of everything are some elements or elements.

Philosophical steps

According to the order adopted in the history of philosophy, Anaximander is spoken of after Thales. And only then is it about Anaximenes. But if we mean the logic of ideas, then the second and third should be placed on the same level, since in the theoretical-logical sense, air is just a twin of water. The thought of Anaximander must be raised to another level - to the most abstract form of primordial matter. This philosopher believed that apeiron is the beginning of all beginnings and the principle of all principles. This term is translated as "infinite".

Anaximander

Before considering this most important and very promising idea of Greek philosophy in more detail, a few words about its author should be said. With his life, as well as with the life of Thales, only one approximately exact date is associated - the second year of the 58th Olympic Games. According to some sources, it is believed that Anaximander was then 64 years of age, and that he died soon. This date is distinguished due to the fact that, according to the old legend, it was the year in which the philosophical work created by Anaximander appeared. Despite the fact that it favored the prose form, the ancients testify that it was written in a very pretentious and grandiloquent manner, which brought prose closer to epic poetry. What does it say? That the genre of writing, which was scientific and philosophical, quite strict and detailed, was born in a difficult search.

Respect inpeople

The image of a philosopher fits perfectly into the type of an ancient sage. He, like Thales, is credited with many very important practical achievements. For example, evidence has survived to this day, which says that Anaximander led a colonial expedition. Such eviction to the colony was a common thing for that era. To do this, it was necessary to select people, equip them. Everything had to be done quickly and wisely. It is likely that the philosopher seemed to people just such a person who is suitable for this purpose.

Engineering and geographic achievements

Anaximander is credited with a large number of engineering and practical inventions. It is believed that he built a universal sundial, which is called "gnomon". With their help, the Greeks calculated the equinox and solstice, as well as the time of day and seasons.

Also, the philosopher, according to doxographers, is famous for his geographical writings. It is believed that he was one of the first to try to depict the planet on a copper plate. How he did this is unknown, but the very fact that the idea arose to represent in the drawing something that cannot be seen directly. These were a scheme and an image that are very close to the scope of the world by the thought of philosophy.

Astronomical knowledge

Anaximander was also passionate about the science of the stars. He offered versions about the shape of the Earth and other planets. For views on astronomy, it is characteristic that he names a number of figures that refer to the luminaries, the magnitudes of the Earth, other planets and stars. There is evidence that the philosopher claimed that the Sun and the Earth are equal. In those days there was no way to test and prove it. Today it is clear that all the figures he named turned out to be far from the truth, but, nevertheless, an attempt was made.

In the field of mathematics, he is credited with creating an outline of geometry. He summed up all the knowledge of the ancients in this science. By the way, everything he knew in this area has not survived to this day.

Philosophical views

If during the following centuries the glory of Anaximander as a philosopher was debunked, then the step that he took towards changing the idea of the original principle has retained the status of a great and extremely promising intellectual achievement to this day.

Simplicius testifies that Anaximander considered the beginning and element of all things infinite matter - apeiron. It was he who first introduced this name. He believed that the beginning was not water or some other element, but some infinite nature that gives rise to the firmaments and the cosmos that are in them.

At the time, it seemed unusual to say that the beginning was not qualitatively defined. Other philosophers have argued that he is mistaken because he does not say whether the infinite is air, water, or earth. Indeed, at that time it was customary to choose a certain specific material embodiment of the beginning. So, Thales chose water, and Anaximenes chose air. Anaximander wedged himself between these two philosophers, who give the beginning a definite character. And he argued that the beginning has no qualities. Nonea certain element cannot be it: neither earth, nor water, nor air. Determining the meaning and interpretation of the term "apeiron" then was not an easy task. Aristotle himself could not accurately interpret its essence. He was surprised that the infinite is immaterial.

Anaximander's idea of the beginning

What is "apeiron"? The definition of the concept, which Anaximander first spoke about, can be conveyed in this way: the beginning is material, but at the same time indefinite. This idea was the result of expanding the internal mental logic about the origin: if there are different elements, and if someone consistently raises each of them to the origin, then the elements are equalized. But, on the other hand, preference is always unjustifiably given to one of them. Why, for example, is not air selected, but water? Or why not fire? Maybe it is worth assigning the role of primary matter not to a certain element, but to all at once. When comparing all such options, each of which has a fairly solid foundation, it turns out that after all, none of them has sufficient persuasiveness over the others.

Doesn't all this lead to the conclusion that it is impossible to put forward any of the elements as the first principle, as well as all of them taken together? Despite such a "heroic" breakthrough in philosophy, many scientists will return to the idea of what apeiron means for centuries.

Close to the truth

A very daring step was taken by Anaximanderin order to understand the indefinitely qualityless material. Apeiron is such a material and is, if you look at its meaningful philosophical meaning.

It is precisely for this reason that the uncertainty as the characteristics of the first principle has become a major step forward in philosophical thought in comparison with pulling out only one material principle to the first roles. Apeiron is not yet the concept of matter. But this is the nearest stop of philosophizing before him. That is why the great Aristotle, assessing the attempts of Anaximander, tried to bring them closer to his own time, saying that he, perhaps, was talking about matter.

Result

So now it's clear what this word is - apejron. Its meaning is the following: "limitless", "limitless". The adjective itself is close to the noun "limit" and the particle meaning negation. In this case, it is the denial of boundaries or limits.

Thus, this Greek word is formed in the same way as the new concept of the beginning: through the negation of qualitative and other limits. Anaximander, most likely, did not realize the origins of his greatest invention, but he was able to show that the origin is not some special reality of the material type. These are specific thoughts about the material. For this reason, each subsequent stage of reflection on the origin, which is logically necessary, is formed from philosophical thought by philosophical thought itself. The starting step is to abstract the material. The term "apeiron" most accurately conveys the origin of the philosophical concept of the infinite. And it doesn't matter if it's madewas a philosopher himself or borrowed from an ancient Greek dictionary.

This concept includes an attempt to answer another question. After all, the primary principle was supposed to explain how everything is born and dies. It turns out that there must be something from which everything appears, and into which it then collapses. In other words, the root cause of birth and death, life and non-existence, appearance and destruction must be constant and indestructible, and also infinite in relation to time.

Ancient philosophy clearly separates the two opposite states. What exists now, once appeared and sometime will disappear is transient. Every person and every thing is like that. These are all states that are observed by people. The transient is manifold. Therefore, there is a plural which is also transitory. According to the logic of this reasoning, that which is transient cannot be the beginning, since in this case it would not be the beginning for another transient.

Differing from people, bodies, states, worlds, the beginning never collapses, as other things do. Thus, the idea of infinity was born and became one of the most important for world philosophy, which is composed of the idea of the absence of boundaries in space and of the idea of the eternal, imperishable.

Among historians there is a hypothesis stating that the concept of "apeiron" was introduced into philosophical science not by Anaximander, but by Aristotle or Plato, who retold this doctrine. There is no documentary confirmation of this, but this is not the most important thing. The main thing is that the idea has reached ourtimes.