Abstract
Of all the authors who refer to Anaximander, Aristotle was closest to the Milesian in time and, therefore, his reports must be considered important.
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Notes
- 1.
Aristotle, Met. 983b6 and 983b21 = DK 11A12 = Gr Ths15 = TP1 Th29 (partially). Translation slightly adapted.
- 2.
Aristotle, Phys. 207b34–209a11 = DK 12A14 = TP2 Ar4, not in Gr. Translation after Seligman (1962, 25) and Wöhrle, who also inserted the explanatory words between brackets.
- 3.
Aristotle, De caelo 295b12 = DK 12A26 = Gr Axr21 = TP2 Ar6.
- 4.
Aristotle, Phys. 187a12–23 = DK 12A16 and DK 12A9 = Gr Axr13 = TP2 Ar1.
- 5.
Cf. Aristotle, Phys. 187a14 = DK 12A16 and 12A9 = Gr Axr13 = TP2 Ar1.
- 6.
Aristotle, Phys. 203a16–17 , not in DK, Gr, and TP. Translation Wicksteed and Cornford.
- 7.
Simplicius, In Arist. Phys. 9.149.11–27 = TP2 Ar168; Philoponus, In Arist. Phys. 16.90.15–20 = TP2 Ar206, 16.93.13–19 = TP2 Ar207, and 16.93.20–27 = TP2 Ar208, all not in DK and Gr.
- 8.
Wicksteed and Cornford I, (1957, 41), note c.
- 9.
Cf. Aristotle, Met. 988a30 and Met. 989a14 .
- 10.
Cf. Kahn (1994, 44–45).
- 11.
KRS (2007, 112).
- 12.
Conche (1991, 94).
- 13.
Cf. Seligman (1962, 37).
- 14.
KRS (2007, 112).
- 15.
See DK 12A16 and Diels’ remark: “falsch aus Arist. De caelo Γ 5.303b12”.
- 16.
Aristotle, De caelo 303b10 = DK 63 = TP2 Ar7, not in Gr. Translation Wicksteed and Cornford, somewhat adapted.
- 17.
Aristotle, Phys. 205a24–27 , not in DK, Gr, and TP2. Translation Wicksteed and Cornford, somewhat adapted. The last line of this passage is somewhat strange, since Aristotle in 204b28ff = DK 12A16 = Gr Axr17 = TP2 Ar3, quoted below, also mentions fire as one of the elements that would the others destroy if it were boundless. Here, however, fire is excluded, just like earth, which is not even mentioned in 204b28ff. Sachs (1995, 86) places the whole passage from “This is the reason” to “up or down”, which Wicksteed and Cornford put between square brackets, elsewhere, namely just before 205a20 , after a passage in which Aristotle discusses the places of the parts in relation to the whole.
- 18.
Aristotle, De gener. et corr. 332a18–25 = Gr Axr11 (translation slightly adapted) = TP2 Ar12. The passage containing the first sentences is not quite clear. What is probably meant is that something between water and air is denser than air but finer than water, and that something between air and fire is finer than air but denser than fire. Cf. Wicksteed and Cornford’s translation.
- 19.
For ancient times, see, e.g. Simplicius, In Arist. Phys. 9.479.30–480.8 = TP2 Ar176 and 9.484.5–14 = TP2 Ar177, not in DK and Gr.; for modern times see, e.g., Wöhrle (2012, 17 n. 1): “Wir dürfen wohl ohne besondere Bedenken an Anaximandros denken und die gesamte folgende Partie (…) als eine Polemik gegen diesen Denker verstehen.”
- 20.
Aristotle, Phys. 204b22–33 = DK 12A16 = Gr Axr17 = TP2 Ar3. Translation adapted and completed, partly after Wicksteed and Cornford. The last line does not feature in DK and Gr. The argument is repeated In Arist. Phys. 205a24 , not in DK, Gr, and TP. The historical ramifications of this argument are discussed in Couprie (1998).
- 21.
Cf. Aristotle, Met. 1025b28 , 1086b9 , and Eth. Nic. 1096b33 .
- 22.
Aristotle, De gener. et corr. 328b32–329a13 = TP2 Ar11, not in DK and Gr, translation Forster, slightly adapted.
- 23.
KRS (2007, 112).
- 24.
Cf. Seligman (1962, 41).
- 25.
Aristotle, Met. 1069b18–24 = DK 59A61 = TP2 Ar5, not in Gr. The first words do not feature in DK. Translation Tredennick.
- 26.
Jackson (1903, 139–144). See also Conche (1991, 95) n. 9.
- 27.
Aristotle, Phys. 203a1–4 . Translation Wicksteed and Cornford (1957), slightly adapted.
- 28.
Aristotle, Phys. 203b4 .
- 29.
Aristotle, Phys. 203b6–15 = DK 12A15 = Gr Axr16 = TP2 Ar2. Translation slightly adapted. Graham translates καθάπερ λέγομεν as “as we say”, whereas these words obviously refer back to τοῦ δὲ ἀπείρου οὐκ ἔστιν ἀρχή a few lines earlier. Wöhrle translates it as “wie schon eben gesagt”. Graham translates ἀλλ′ αὕτη τῶν ἄλλῶν εἶναι δοκεῖ as “this seems to be a source of everything”, whereas we think it has to be “the source” because it is obviously the only source. Graham translates εἶναι δοκεῖ as ‘seems to be’ whereas we think ‘is apparently’ provides a better meaning. Wöhrle writes: “vielmehr möchte man meinen, daß umgekehrt dieses das Prinzip alles konkreten darstelle”.
- 30.
See especially Kahn (1958).
- 31.
In Phys. 204a8–9 , Aristotle explicitly states: “it is impossible that there should exist an ‘unlimited’ sejunct from objects of sense, and constituting a self-existing ‘infinite’” (translation Wicksteed and Cornford). Cf. Kahn (1958, 20–22).
- 32.
Cf. Barnes (1982, 35), Burnet (1930, 57) and Gottschalk (1965, 40).
- 33.
Simplicius, In Arist. Phys. 9.29.22 ; 9.109.20 = DK30 B2 = Gr Mls10. The translation of the last line is from KRS (2007, 393), in contrast to Graham: “For it is not possible for something to be always which does not altogether (πᾶν) exist.”
- 34.
Aristotle, Phys. 186a10–16 = DK 30A10, not in Gr.
- 35.
Cf. Kahn (1958, 22–24).
- 36.
Plato, Phdr. 245d . Translation Fowler.
- 37.
According to Diogenes Laertius (DL IX.24 = DK 30A1 = Gr Mls1), Apollodorus situated Melissus’ acme to the time of the 84th Olympiad (i.e. 444–441 BC).
- 38.
Kahn (1958, 19).
- 39.
An extensive discussion of both arguments is found in Couprie (1989, 42–66).
- 40.
DK 12B3. Cf. Kahn (1958, 22).
- 41.
Cf. Fehling (1994, 79): “Wer, wie üblich, gelernt hat, daß nur einer, nämlich Anaximander, ‘das Apeiron’ als Anfang gesetzt habe, wird sich wundern.”
- 42.
Cf. Barnes (1982, 35–36).
- 43.
Aristotle, Phys. 203b16–20 = DK 12A15 = Gr Axr16 = TP2 Ar2. Translation slightly adapted.
- 44.
Cf. Barnes (1982, 30), Kahn (1994, 38) and Kraus (1950, 366–367).
- 45.
Aristotle, Phys. 208a8 = DK 12A14 (partially) = TP2 Ar4, not in Gr. Translation Wicksteed and Cornford. They add “without end”, which may cover what Aristotle means even though it does not appear in his text.
- 46.
Aetius, Plac. I.3.3 = DK 12A14 = Gr Axr18 = TP2 Ar53. This is Pseudo-Plutarch’s version; for that of Stobaeus, see TP2 Ar148.
- 47.
Simplicius, In Arist. De caelo 7.615.13 = DK 12A17 = TP2 Ar192, not in Gr (our translation). Cf. In Arist. Phys. 9.464.19–465.17 = TP2 Ar175, not in DK and Gr.
- 48.
Kahn (1994, 38 and 237).
- 49.
Dührsen (2013, 272–273), cf. Lebedev (1978) and Fehling (1994, 76–86).
- 50.
Aristotle, Phys. 204a20 . Translation Wicksteed and Cornford, slightly adapted.
- 51.
Aristotle, Phys. 204a25–30 .
- 52.
Aristotle, Phys. 204a30–32 . Translation Wicksteed and Cornford, slightly adapted: they translate ἀρχή as ‘element’. See also 207b34–37 = TP2 Ar4, not in DK and Gr.
- 53.
Aristotle, Phys. 202b30–36 .
- 54.
Aristotle, Phys. 203a1–18 = DK 58B28 (only the first half); not in Gr and TP2. Translation Wicksteed and Cornford.
- 55.
Aristotle, Met. 987a13 = DK 58B8 = Gr Phs48.
- 56.
Aristotle, Phys. 203b14 = DK 12A15 = Gr Axr16 = TP2 Ar2.
- 57.
Cf. De Vogel (1957, I, 7). See also Wicksteed and Cornford 220, note b: “the physicists have an unlimited something”.
- 58.
Lebedev (1978, I, 53), the quotation is from the English Summary.
- 59.
Fehling (1994, 80).
- 60.
Fehling (1994, 84).
- 61.
Dührsen (2013, 272) points to Homer, Od. XIV, 12 : τὸ μελάν δρυός, “the black of the oak”, meaning its bark.
- 62.
Cf. Kahn (1994, 169–170).
- 63.
The substantivized τὸ θεῖον also appears in an aphorism ascribed to Thales, but sounding as if it were Anaximander’s: “what is the divine? That which has no origin and no end” (DL I.36 = DK 11A1[36] = TP1 Th237[36], not in Gr).
- 64.
The term τὸ γόνιμον not only occurs in the doxography on Anaximander, but is also used by Simplicius (In Arist. Phys. 9.36.8–14 = TP1 Th411 = TP2 Ar165, not in DK and Gr) in connection with Thales.
- 65.
Cf. Havelock (1983, 64).
- 66.
Aristotle, Phys. 203b16 = DK 12A15 = Gr Axr16 = TP2 Ar2, our italics. Translation slightly adapted; our italics.
- 67.
On the other hand, a few lines further on (Phys. 203b19–20 ), Graham translates “(…) there is something infinite from which what comes to be is subtracted”, as if the text there reads τι ἄπειρον instead of ἄπειρον.
- 68.
Aristotle, Phys. 203b4–5 = TP2 Ar2, not in Gr. Translation Wicksteed and Cornford, slightly adapted.
- 69.
Cf. Fehling (1994, 81): “Aber ehe man einem Ding ein Attribut gibt, muß es einen Namen haben.”
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Kočandrle, R., Couprie, D.L. (2017). Apeiron According to Aristotle. In: Apeiron . SpringerBriefs in Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49754-9_3
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