Complete the account of Anaximander’s argument for the apeiron.
If the origin of everything were one of the observable elements, that element would long since have ______ its opposites. The origin must therefore be ______ of them, and Anaximander calls it the ______. This is the first argument in Western philosophy for something ______ on the grounds that the observable candidates fail.
Word bank: overwhelmed · none · apeiron · unobservable · water
Hints
- The argument is about what would have happened by now if one element were fundamental.
- Its conclusion is that the origin cannot be any familiar substance.
Show the answer
If the origin of everything were one of the observable elements, that element would long since have overwhelmed its opposites. The origin must therefore be none of them, and Anaximander calls it the apeiron. This is the first argument in Western philosophy for something unobservable on the grounds that the observable candidates fail.
The argument is genuinely powerful: an unlimited quantity of one element would have swamped the rest long ago, so the origin must be indefinite. Positing an unobservable because the observables fail is a move science has repeated ever since.
Practise The Milesians
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Philosophy I is free to start.
More questions on The Milesians
- What makes the Milesians the first philosophers rather than simply early scientists or theologians?
- Which considerations plausibly supported Thales’ choice of water as the archē?
- Anaximander argued that the earth remains at the centre of things because it is held up by symmetry, having…
- Arrange the Milesian thinkers in chronological order and note how each responds to the one before.
- Sort each explanatory move by whether it is characteristic of mythological or Milesian explanation.
- Thales famously asserted that 'all things are full of gods'. Given the overarching Milesian shift away from…