Ancient philosophy. Anaxemander - about the boundaries of the world in space and time. /part 3/
Moon phases and eclipses are explained by temporary, partial or total occlusion of the apertures. The highest is the sun, then the moon, and the lowest stars. But all the luminous lights, together with the surrounding air, are brought into motion by the air currents (which are due to Anaximander and the winds). So they revolve around the ground. Against the interpenetration between fire, air and humidity is due to the clouds, which are humidified compressed air containing heavenly fire. It flashes from them in times of lightning and storms. At that time, the breeze blows the clouds, and so it flashes the fire.
In the center of the world, according to Anaxemander, the earth is located. It does not fly up or down, precisely because it is in the center of the world. Initially, it was in a liquid state but gradually dried up, thickened under the influence of fire. Part of the moisture has become and formed the sea, and the other part, having evaporated in the air, forms the winds and the air currents which, as we have said, create the movement of the lights around the earth. As for the size of the earth compared to the heavenly lights, Anaxemander considered that the diameter of the sun was 513 times greater than the diameter of the earth; the diameter of the moon is 19 times larger than the Earth's. The hole through which the sun was seen was thought to be as large as the earth. In these conceptions, some authors see the known premonition, admonition for the law of gravity. And the proportions between the earth and the heavenly lights show a dizzying sight for that time. And even more astonishing is Anaxemander's doctrine of the disappearance of the present world and of the emergence of new worlds.
There is some debate among historians of philosophy, whether Anaxemander has accepted the existence of many worlds at the same time, or has only accepted their consecutive alternation. Indeed, once the inexhaustible and infinite of the infinite is accepted, then the argument becomes insignificant, because then it is equally acceptable for reason, as alternation, as with the existence of the worlds. More important is the very teaching of the creation of the worlds and their return to the limbs of the infinite - a thought that, in a genius, takes Kant into new "Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven" . Do we now want to find out why, according to Anaxemander, the worlds that originated come back to the pre-eminent "apeiron," here the philosopher answers himself through the only saved fragment of his. "In these origins, from which all things are derived, in them they are necessarily destroyed when the time comes, thus, they suffer punishment and receive retribution for their mutual injustice." This idea of the formation of the world with the various things from the primordial uniformity of the infinite, Anaximander connects with one basic and ethical thought which reminds the religious-ethical thoughts of Eastern beliefs.
It was he who perceived the cosmic process as a moral, ethical development. The formation of things as separate from the total infinite mass is a consequence of guilt, and therefore constitutes an injustice which must be retributed by removing this injustice; and this happens, disappearing again all separately, individually, as a product of guilt and re-mingling on the common basis with the infinite.