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"Anaximander"
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The Metaphysical Turn in the History of Thought: Anaximander and Buddhist Philosophy
The present study, primarily of a theoretical nature, endeavors to accomplish two distinct objectives. First and foremost, it endeavors to engage in a thoughtful examination of the metaphysical significance that Anaximander’s philosophy embodies within the context of the nascent Western philosophical tradition. Furthermore, it aims to investigate how it was contemporaneous Buddhist thought, coeval with Anaximander’s era, that more explicitly elucidated the concept of the “void” as an inherent aspect of authentic existence. This elucidation was articulated through aphoristic discourse rather than being reliant on formal logical reasoning or structured arguments.
Journal Article
Anaximander’s Model and the Measures of the Sun and Moon
This paper proposes a new interpretation of the dimensions of the sun and moon wheels in Anaximander's cosmology. While the traditional reconstruction proposed by Tannery and Diels posits six measures for three different wheels (sun, moon and stars), it will be argued here that Anaximander gave only two basic measurements, one for the moon's wheel (19 times bigger than the earth) and one for the sun's (28 times bigger). These two values can be accounted for by their connection to the lunar month – a graphic representation of the wheels which includes motion accurately reproduces the relative positions of the sun and moon; in fact they are the smallest pair of figures from which a twowheel model can be made that represents the month correctly. Anaximander derived his two parameters by attempting to incorporate basic observational data into a cosmic model.
Journal Article
INFINITE WORLDS IN THE THOUGHT OF ANAXIMANDER
Some classical authors ascribe to Anaximander of Miletus a belief in the existence of infinite worlds. Their testimonies have provoked an extensive discussion on the question of whether Anaximander spoke of successive or coexistent worlds, or perhaps only one world that undergoes changes. Of course, this subject is related to important aspects of archaic cosmologies. First, we need to investigate whether one can even speak of a notion of coexistent worlds prior to atomist theories. Second, the issue of infinite worlds is closely linked to the nature of Anaximander's scheme of the universe and Ionian cosmologies in general. Finally, this matter has a bearing on the subject of the duration or perishing of the world.
Journal Article
An Early Greek Epic
The question (once again) is in what cognitively acceptable way the Alētheia and Doxa sections of the epic should be connected, that is to say in what way Parmenides himself may have envisaged the relation between ontological Truth and mistaken human Opinions. An important distinction is found to obtain between the common run of humankind, ignorant and helpless, and an enlightened human elite. The views of this elite serve as an intermediate between the cognitive condition of humanity in general and the arcane knowledge and ontology of the Alētheia section and help to attenuate the dualism by bridging the gap between ignorance and absolute Truth. There is a significant and crucial interplay between the two sections which works both ways, forward from the Alētheia to the Doxa section and backwards from the Doxa to the Alētheia section. Defining characteristics of the elements per se and of their compounds in the Doxa section are reflections of defining properties of Being in the Alētheia section. Conversely, recognition of these elemental characteristics may point the way back to properties of Being. The argument of the epic from fr. B1 to fr. B19 DK is strictly organized by means of reiterated theses and type-scenes, which lend an overarching unity to the poem. This technique itself is not new, but the contents of these reiterated motifs (such as the mention of humans, of the distinction between Being and not-Being, of name-giving, or of defining properties and characteristics) are original. The reiterated motifs which secure the proofs of the main thesis function as hidden persuaders. The story of the extraordinary journey of the anonymous author to the dwelling of his nameless goddess and the revelation he receives from her have been carefully authenticated and stage-managed to provide divine backing for the stunning doctrines put forward and are also aimed at convincing the audience.
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ON DEBT AND REDEMPTION: Friedrich Nietzsche's Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence
In this essay, I argue that the notion of monetary debt does not displace but merely conceals our deeper, ontological debt to the sources of our being and way of life. I suggest that first Christianity and then modern science attempted to find a means of redemption that could free us from debt, but that both were unable to reconcile the ideas of freedom and indebtedness. I then examine the way in which Friedrich Nietzsche tried to resolve the apparent contradiction of our debt to the past and our freedom to shape the future by developing a new form of redemption rooted in his doctrine of the eternal recurrence.
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ANAXIMANDER AND THE ORDERING OF TIME: METAPHYSICS VIEWED FROM THE MARGINS OF HISTORY
Quine apparently did not envision the possibility of a third alternative, in which philosophers, authentically engaged in doing philosophy, pursue their philosophical inquiries primarily through engaging with its history.4 It is this distinction, between thinking about, and thinking with, that I especially hoped that the MSA membership would highlight during our meeting as a way of doing philosophy, and particularly, of engaging in metaphysical reflection. [...]this is especially apt, since in her book on Heraclitus as well, she characterizes these historical \"first philosophers\" as having substituted rational accounts for myths of origin, searching for first principles that are intelligible rather than inscrutable-and so, as having thereby stood at the boundary of myth, history, and the historical origins of metaphysics.9 Scholars in history and classics, like the famous historians of Greek thought mentioned above, by contrast, intentionally think about the Presocratics-about what they said and when (or even whether) they said it, as well as about how it was received, understood, and transmitted by their audiences.
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Nietzsche's Actuality: Boscovich and the Extremities of Becoming
The problem of persistence and emergence endowed with the limits of “actuality” is examined in the context of Nietzsche's appropriation of both Heraclitus and Boscovich to forge a natural philosophy of becoming. The physics of Boscovich allowed a systematic refurbishment of Heraclitean notions of becoming over being while Heraclitus's tensive dynamic of generation surpassed and overcame the limits of Anaximander's indeterminate. Nietzsche's early investigations bear overt signs of a formative philosophical outlook that seeks to marry the infinite and the sensible in a fashion consistent with his mature concept of becoming.
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