Comparison on Infinity

Daniel Leehan
Dr. Tassone
Infinity Section 2
September 21, 2015

Throughout

mankinds

contemplating life and nature.

history,

man

has

been

continuously

Some philosophers would pose questions

such as: Why was the sky blue, why was there death in the world, or why
was there heartbreak? However, there was a bigger question that has been
stumping and has philosophers grasping for answers.

What was this

question? The question was; what is infinity and how does one describe
infinity. Thales of Miletus and Anaximander, Ionian naturalists, were just two
out of many pre-Socratic philosophers that have tried to tackle this mind
boggling concept.

Thales and Anaximander have different views when it

came to the infinite. Thales accepted that there was no aspect of an infinity,
while Anaximander supported that there was an infinity. During the course of
this paper Anaximanders ideals and explanations will strength the argument
that Anaximanders understanding of infinity was more sufficient than that of
Thales.
As mentioned earlier, Thales was a pre-Socratic, Ionian Naturalist,
philosopher who throughout the course of his life constructed theories on
what constitutes the infinite. From a fragmented Testimonial, Thales said;
The first principle and basic nature of all things is water. (Wheelwright,
pg.44/46) Thales also thought that the world the he knew of was flat and
believed that the Earth was a divine organism.

Since the Earth was a divine

organism there must be something that created it. Other statements Thales
said were, All things are full of gods, and the earth rests upon water,
(Wheelwright, pg. 44-45) suggested that everything came from something.

These theories that Thales came up with, made him believe that there is no
infinity everything was finite.
Appose to Thales, Anaximanders notion about infinity was that it was
boundless and comprised of undifferentiated stuff.

Anaximander, having

been Thales apprentice, challenged various theories that Thales composed.

Anaximanders concept of infinity was an enhancement to that of which
Thales theory, which stated that everything in the world was made up of
water.

Anaximander posed the question how can everything arise from

water when there was such diversity in the world. Hence, why there needs
to be a substance that was unlimited which gave rise to a plethora of things.
Anaximander theory was in two parts; 1) it is somehow infinitely mutable
and (2) It is indeterminate, at least in quality. (Cite from power point)
In addition to having polar opposite views on the infinite, Thales and
Anaximander also had opposing views on the Earth. Thales believed that the
Earth was flat raft sitting on water, hence how he thought everything came
from water. Anaximander went a step further proposing that the Earth was
cylindrical shape which floated in space. From an excerpt in the Pre-Socratic,
Anaximander said the Earth can float in the sky because; it is equal distance
from any objects that are on the other sides of the earth. Since it is an equal
space away from other masses, the earth is able to just stand still.
(Wheelwright, pg.52)

The concept of the infinite is still significant today as it was back in

Thales and Anaximanders time.

Today, people still use the parts of the

theories of both Thales and Anaximander, however philosophers today use

more of Anaximander ideals than that of Thales.

Anaximander theories,

although some have their faults, the majority of them were logically thought
out and were able to be understood rather than Thales ideals. In conclusion,
Anaximander laid down the first thoughts of infinity which can be seen to this
day.
Bibliography
Wheelwright, Philip Ellis. The Pre-Socratics. New York: Macmillan; 1966. 4455. Print