KD McMahon
Philosophy
Anaximander
• Sought the Urstoff like his contemporaries.
• Decided it could not be any one particular kind of matter, such as
water, because change was seen as a conflict of opposites, or the
encroachment of one element at the expense of another 
therefore the Urstoff is indeterminate, more primitive than opposites.
It is the material cause. It is infinite, it is from that which all the
heavens and worlds arise.
• The encroachment of one element on another is represented as
instances of injustice. The determinate elements make reparation for
their injustice by being absorbed again into the Indeterminate
Boundless.
• There is a plurality of existent worlds which are innumerable and
perishable. There is an eternal motion, vortex, in which determinate
elements are separated off.
• Life comes from the sea, and by means of adaptation to
environment the present forms of animals were evolved
[Anaximander presents a theory of evolution which is very similar to
Darwin. It is difficult to see why biologists insist on making Darwin a
revolutionary thinker. It is more likely that rather than being a man
ahead of his time, the time (scientific, political, etc.) was ready to
receive him.]
Philosophy: Anaximander
1
KD McMahon