"Anaximander denied the fundamental substance to be... any of the known substances. He taught that the primary substance was infinite, eternal and ageless and... encompassed the world. This... is transformed into the various substances... Theophrastus quotes from Anaximander: "Into that from which things take their rise they pass away once more... for they make reparation and satisfaction to one another for their injustice according to the ordering of time." In this... the antithesis of Being and Becoming plays the fundamental role. The primary substance, infinite... ageless... undifferentiated Being, degenerates into... forms which lead to endless struggles. ...Becoming is ...a ...debasement of the infinite Being—a disintegration into the struggle ultimately expiated by a return into that ...without shape or character. The struggle ...is the opposition between hot and cold, fire and water, wet and dry, etc. ...[T]emporary victory ...is the injustice for which they ...make reparation in the ordering of time. ...[T]here is "eternal motion," the creation and passing away of worlds from infinity to infinity."
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Philosophers from GreeceNatural philosophersPhysicists from GreeceAstronomers from GreecePresocratic philosophers
Original Language: English
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Sources
Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy (1958) pp. 60-61.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anaximander
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Anaximander
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