Arche

Arche (/ˈɑːrki/; Ancient Greek: ἀρχή) is a Greek word with primary senses "beginning", "origin" or "source
of action" (εξ’ ἀρχής: from the beginning, οr εξ’ ἀρχής λόγος: the original argument), and later "first
principle" or "element". By extension, it may mean "first place, power", "method of government", "empire,
realm", "authorities" (in plural: ἀρχαί), "command".[1] The first principle or element corresponds to the
"ultimate underlying substance" and "ultimate undemonstrable principle".[2] In the philosophical language
of the archaic period (8th to 6th century BC), arche (or archai) designates the source, origin or root of things
that exist. In ancient Greek philosophy, Aristotle foregrounded the meaning of arche as the element or
principle of a thing, which although undemonstrable and intangible in itself, provides the conditions of the
possibility of that thing.[3]

Contents
Mythical cosmogonies
Arche in Ancient Greek philosophy
See also
References

Mythical cosmogonies
In the mythical Greek cosmogony of Hesiod (8th to 7th century BC), the origin of the world is Chaos,
considered as a divine primordial condition, from which everything else appeared. In the creation "chaos" is
a gaping-void, but later the word is used to describe the space between the earth and the sky, after their
separation. "Chaos" may mean infinite space, or a formless matter which can be differentiated.[4] The notion
of temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the religious conception of
immortality.[5] The conception of the "divine" as an origin influenced the first Greek philosophers.[6]

In the Orphic cosmogony, the unaging Chronos produced Aether and Chaos and made in divine Aether a
silvery egg, from which everything else appeared.[7]

In the mythological cosmogonies of the Near East, the universe is formless and empty and the only existing
thing prior to creation was the water abyss. In the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish, the primordial
world is described as a "watery chaos" from which everything else appeared. Something similar is described
in Book of Genesis where the spirit of God is moving upon the dark face of the waters.[8]

In the Hindu cosmology, which is similar to the Vedic cosmology, in the beginning there was nothing in the
Universe but darkness. The self-manifested being created the primordial waters and established his seed into
it. This turned into a golden egg (Hiranyagarbha) from which everything else appeared.[9]

Arche in Ancient Greek philosophy

The heritage of Greek mythology already embodied the desire to articulate reality as a whole and this
universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first projects of speculative theorizing. It appears that the
order of "being" was first imaginatively visualized before it was abstractly thought.[10] In the ancient Greek
philosophy, arche is the element and the first principle of existing things. This is considered as a permanent
substance or nature (physis) either one or more which is conserved in the generation of rest of it. From this
all things first come to be and into this they are resolved in a final state. This source of entity is always
preserved. (Aristotle-Metaph.A, 983, b6ff). Anaximander was the first philosopher that used arche for that
which writers from Aristotle onwards called "the substratum" (Simplicius Phys. 150, 22).[11] The Greek
philosophers ascribed to arche divine attributes. It is the divine horizon of substance that encompasses and
values all things.

Thales of Miletus (7th to 6th century BC), the father of philosophy, claimed that the first principle of all
things is water,[12] and considered it as a substance that contains in it motion and change. His theory was
supported by the observation of moisture throughout the world and coincided with his theory that the earth
floated on water. His ideas were influenced by the Near-Eastern mythological cosmogony and probably by
the Homeric statement that the surrounding Oceanus (ocean) is the source of all springs and rivers.[13]

Thales' theory was refuted by his successor and esteemed pupil, Anaximander. Anaximander noted that
water could not be the arche, because it could not give rise to its opposite, fire. Anaximander claimed that
none of the elements (earth, fire, air, water) could be arche for the same reason. Instead, he proposed the
existence of the apeiron, an indefinite substance from which all things are born and to which all things will
return.[14] Apeiron (endless or boundless) is something completely indefinite and Anaximander was
probably influenced by the original chaos of Hesiod (yawning abyss). He probably intended it to mean
primarily "indefinite in kind" but assumed it also to be "of unlimited extent and duration".[15] The notion of
temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the religious conception of
immortality and Anaximander's description was in terms appropriate to this conception. This arche is called
"eternal and ageless". (Hippolitus I,6,I;DK B2)[16]

Anaximenes, Anaximander's pupil, advanced yet another theory. He returns to the elemental theory, but this
time posits air, rather than water, as the arche and ascribes to it divine attributes. He was the first recorded
philosopher who provided a theory of change and supported it with observation. Using two contrary
processes of rarefaction and condensation (thinning or thickening), he explains how air is part of a series of
changes. Rarefied air becomes fire, condensed it becomes first wind, then cloud, water, earth, and stone in
order.[17][18] The arche is technically what underlies all of reality/appearances.

See also
Anarchism
Apeiron
Archetype
Material monism
Quantum chromodynamics soup

References
1. ἀρχή (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aa
lphabetic+letter%3D*a%3Aentry+group%3D318%3Aentry%3Da%29rxh%2F), A Greek-English
Lexicon
2. Peters Lexicon:1967:23
3. Barry Sandywell (1996). Presocratic Philosophy. Vol 3 (http://www.books.google.com/books?id
=k561uXI-uPgC&printsec). Routledge New York. pp. 142–144
 4. This is described as a large windy-gap, almost unlimited (abyss) where are the roots and the
ends of the earth, sky, sea and Tartarus: online The Theogony of Hesiod (http://www.sacred-te
xts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.htm). Translation H.G.Evelyn White (1914): 116, 736-744
5. William Keith Chambers Guthrie (2000). A History of Greek Philosophy (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=ogUR3V9wbbIC&pg). Cambridge University Press. p 83
6. The phrase: "Divine is that which had no beginning, neither end" is attributed to Thales
7. G.S.Kirk,J.E.Raven and M.Schofield (2003). The Presocratic Philosophers (http://www.books.g
oogle.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC&printsec). Cambridge University Press. p.24
8. William Keith Chambers Guthrie (2000). A History of Greek Philosophy (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=ogUR3V9wbbIC&pg). Cambridge University Press. p 58, 59
9. Matsya Purana (2.25-30)online (http://www.bharatadesam.com/spiritual/matsya_purana.php);
The creation
10. Barry Sandywell (1996). Precocratic Philosophy vol.3 (http://www.books.google.com/books?id
=k561uXI-uPgC&printsec). Routledge New York. p.28,42
11. William Keith Chambers Guthrie (2000). A History of Greek Philosophy (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=ogUR3V9wbbIC&pg). Cambridge University Press. p 55, 77
12. <DK 7 B1a.>
13. G.S. Kirk, J.E. Raven and M. Schofield (2003). The Pre-socratic Philosophers (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC&pg). Cambridge University Press. p 89, 93, 94
14. Simplicius, Comments on Aristotle's Physics (24, 13).<DK 12 A9, B1>
15. G.S.Kirk, J.E.Raven and M.Schofield (2003). The Pre-socratic Philosophers (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC&pg). Cambridge University Press. p 110
16. William Keith Chambers Guthrie (2000). A History of Greek Philosophy (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=ogUR3V9wbbIC&pg). Cambridge University Press. p 83
17. Daniel.W.Graham. The internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Anaximenes (http://www.iep.utm.e
du/anaximen/).
18. C.S.Kirk, J.E.Raven and M.Schofield (2003). The Pre-socratic Philosophers (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC&pg). Cambridge University Press. p 144

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