PANDEMONIUM BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS.
Merida, Venezuela, 1999. COPYRIGHT: Franz J. T. Lee.
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HISTORY OF WISDOM VIII
Anaximenes of Miletus
Introductory Remarks
Illustrating the philosophic process of sapientia, of sophía, within the context of the "Pre-Socratic" period, we will now continue with another Milesian hylozoistic thinker, Anaximenes of Miletus. However, our "History of Wisdom" will mainly deal with those "Pre-Socratics", who were illuminating "Society", who intellectually definitely had contributed to the progressive perversion of the original, historic, emancipatory relations; thus we will demonstrate the ancient Greek social transition from History to the Patria, the brutal revolution from natural, earthly "matriarchy" (feminine mythology) to social, divine "patriarchy" (masculine philosophy).
Of course, in this part we are applying our Epistemology and Logical Method; our Philosophy includes idealist and materialist views, but we "superate" ("aufheben") them, by also taking into account "neither materialist nor idealist" approaches; furthermore, we also transcend, we excel all these, and we focus on other mensions and spheres, within the realms of Trialogics, of Nothing, of Chaos.
Certainly, for some readers who are accustomed to formal-logical "reasoning", our thoughts might seem awkward and "chaotic", not worth the name "philosophy"; unfortunately, if this is the case, we have to appeal to intellectual patience, multi-logical endurance and wise sobriety. Who knows, in some brain, perhaps somehow, somewhither, somewhere, sometime, the famous red "Eureka" signal might flicker, the "Groschen", the dime or penny, might fall, and like Caesar crossing the Rubicon, together we might celebrate the transcending jacta est alea (the die is cast)! In any case, due to ideological reasons, as first ontic baby steps we should learn that the "truth nearly always is upside-down", is topsy-turvy, hence the reverse of accustomed "reality" may also occur at any moment; this is also valid for our own views, and because they are neither "right" nor "wrong", we would be the very first ones to learn something "new", something really historic and emancipatory.
Anaximenes of Miletus (585 - 525? B.C.)
Seemingly, Anaximenes made a retrogressive step, however, only to take two scientific paces ahead. He stated that the Arché is aêr, pneuma. Aêr can be translated as both air and mist, as fog, or even as breath, in a wider sense. Again, as we will note, all three Milesian "Fathers of Philosophy" had the social order ("Sozialauftrag") to consolidate a single, concrete, primordial principle for the patriarchal superstructure, for patrian philosophy. All three principles, hydor, apeiron and aêr, are different philosophic appearance forms of the very same thing, of Infinite, Eternal Being-At-Rest. Later, Parmenides of Elea, with his sphairos will solidify, will consolidate this principle as Hen kai Pan, as Unomnia, as One And All.
By means of rarefaction of air, fire develops; through condensation of air, the clouds, water and earth come into being. However, as we stated above, aêr, breath and psyche are synonymous. In this way, Anaximenes gave an explanation of all four elements of ancient Greek panvitalistic Philosophy-Chemistry (water, air, fire and earth).
This Milesian panpsychic luminary made an important contribution to the understanding of Patrian universal motion, of affirmative action, of affirmative ideology, that is, of intensive, internal dialectical development. Although he explained kínesis, motion, yet this was not his main philosophic motive; on the contrary, it belonged to the "social order" of Heracleitus. He specifically concentrated his philosophic endeavours on the spatial-temporal Problem of Motion. Motion should not be, more precisely, Motion should Be, everything should Be-At-Rest.
Hence he ascribed all Motion in the Pan, in the Universe, to internal changes of density within Aêr. The morphé, the form (see: Aristotle) of a thing, of a phainómenon, of a manifestation or of an appearance, is the result of the compactness or looseness of its material (solid) composition, caused by rarefaction or condensation of the Archaic Principle, of Aêr. It is noteworthy that all three Milesians were using dialectical principles, they applied concepts like kataphásis (affirmation), apóphasis (negation), thésis, antíthesis and synthesis. Hylozoism is filled with panvitalistic syzygies, with philosophic conjunction, opposition and union, in other words, with dialectics.
Compression and distension of Aêr create all things, account for the multifarious, multiplex phenomena. Obviously, Anaximenes had already introduced some of the Laws of Hegelian Dialectics, for example, that quantitative changes eventually bring about qualitative transformations.
All three Milesians
taught us that we can think in a "divine" way, without creating fictional
"gods", without "believing" in divinities, that we could transcend in immanence,
and "immanate" in transcendence. They warned us that we should not, by
looking at the multitudinous trees, forget to "see", to think the vast
forest, but also not to forget to see a n d to think, to identify
a n d to differentiate,
an individual tree a n d a different forest. In nuce,
they taught us that: alétheia men hólon, as Hegel
would say, "Das Wahre ist das Ganze", the Truth is the Whole, the
Truth is the Whole Truth, id est, the Truth
a n d The
Non-Truth. We get nowhere, nowhither, with ideology, with all semi-truths
and "white" lies, with ideological education for barbarism, with a slave
mentality.
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