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Current essay deals with issue of relation between science, culture and philosophy in the doctrine of Anaximander who is known as the pre-Socratic philosopher. Besides this, we would try to find parallels and succession between Anaximander and Darwin as we believe that they do exist.
Anaximander philosophy of universe (cosmogony) can be described as essential departure from then dominant mythological approaches to understanding the creation of the world. He was one of the first proponents of science as the positive and pragmatic knowledge needed for understanding the world and manipulating different things and processes. He claimed that the nature is ruled by the same laws as scientific spheres. Everything that breaks the balance of natural laws does not existing for a long time since it is abnormal (Park, 2005).
As in the case of other Ancient Greek philosophers his scientific interests can be described as syncretism since they combined different spheres of knowledge and unified it in philosophical tradition. This can be understood also as one of the most crucial factors of his desire to make philosophy dependent on scientific truths rather than mythological revelations and traditions. One of the major contributions to astronomy was Anaximanders research of mechanics of the celestial bodies in their relation to Earth. What concerns physics, he thought that apeiron is indefinite and eternal sources of material existence of things. Besides this, his good knowledge of theoretical and practical geometry helped him to create world maps which was a great progress in the development of ancient geography.
As these examples show, Anaximanders own positive scientific interests were among the crucial driving forces of his advocacy of science and departure from Myth and tradition. This is not to say that mythological motives do not play any role in his philosophy. They do but unlike other philosophers of that time Anaximanders shows that they should be used as cultural categories but not as map for the scientific development.
As the abovementioned facts show, Anaximander asserted the importance of real physical forces and implemented mythological explanation only in the case when he didnt possess necessary knowledge for understanding material substances. Therefore, there is no denying the importance of the fact that Anaximander can be considered as the first positive scientist. Moreover, as Sagan (1985) shows Anaximander is famous for being the first person to conduct real scientific experiment based on theory, hypothesis and organization.
Anaximander predicted some major findings of the future since. This mainly concerns his philosophy of life origin where he rightly claims that animals had sprang out of sea long ago. He thought that the first creatures were trapped in the spiny bark which then would break (Russell, 1946). As the 3rd century Roman scientist Censorinus states: Anaximander of Miletus considered that from warmed up water and earth emerged either fish or entirely fishlike animals. Inside these animals, men took form and embryos were held prisoners until puberty; only then, after these animals burst open, could men and women come out, now able to feed themselves (Russell, 1946, p. 76).
Another important idea concerns human beings as Anaximander claims that given human inability to protect themselves in the infant conditions they would have survived in the primordial times and hence they had changed from then on. Here we come close to the alleged sequence or succession between Anaximander and Darwin. It should be claimed that though Anaximander didnt create a theory of natural selection he may be considered as the proponent of evolution theory.
For instance, as it was noted above, the theory of the aquatic origin of man and life was reconfigured many centuries later in a aquatic-ape hypothesis. These pre-Darwinian theories are ungrounded since they use broad generalization without necessary factual and experimental data. But these ideas show the example of Anaximander phenomenon as he tried to explain the reasons of life not with the help of some speculative claims but with the help of material life itself.
Hence, the history of philosophy shows that evolution theory and natural selection concepts were first develop in crude form by Anaximander who claimed that long period of human infancy can be explained by the fact that no existing animal was our ancestor.
This material approach to life is very strange if we remember that even today in our scientific era people often explain things from some mythical and supranational standpoint avoiding natural scientific explanation. Anaximander as a first scientist to break with still prevailing tradition shows us that our contemporary world is even more mythical than in the era of Anaximander.
References
Park, David. The Grand Contraption, Princeton University Press, 2005.
Russell, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946.
Sagan, Carl. Cosmos, Ballantine Books, 1985.
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