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Single Idea 404

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / d. The unlimited ]

Full Idea

The non-limited is the original material of existing things; their source is also that to which they return after destruction, according to necessity; they give justice and make reparation to each other for injustice, according to the arrangement of Time.

Gist of Idea

Things begin and end in the Unlimited, and are balanced over time according to justice

Source

Anaximander (fragments/reports [c.570 BCE], B1), quoted by Simplicius - On Aristotle's 'Physics' 24.13-

Book Ref

'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers', ed/tr. Freeman,Kathleen [Harvard 1957], p.19


A Reaction

Simplicius is quoting Theophrastus


The 7 ideas with the same theme [one basic unknowable substance exists]:

The Boundless cannot exist on its own, and must have something contrary to it [Aristotle on Anaximander]
Anaximander introduced the idea that the first principle and element of things was the Boundless [Anaximander, by Simplicius]
Things begin and end in the Unlimited, and are balanced over time according to justice [Anaximander]
The essential nature, whatever it is, of the non-limited is everlasting and ageless [Anaximander]
Existing things, and hence the Cosmos, are a mixture of the Limited and the Unlimited [Philolaus]
The unlimited has no shape and is endless [Plato]
The basic ideas of fields and particles are merged in quantum mechanics [Rovelli]