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Publications on Anaximander
Many
craters on the moon bear the names of famous philosophers and astronomers. A
modest crater at 66N, 48W, which is not even indicated on many maps of the
moon, has been named after Anaximander.
1. books
- De verordening van de Tijd. Interpretatie en
vertaling van het fragment van Anaximander met een appendix over de
visualisering van zijn wereldbeeld (The Ordinance of Time. Interpretation
and Translation of Anaximander's Fragment, with an Appendix on the
Visualization of his World-Picture), Dissertation Amsterdam, Delft, Eburon 1989.
On front and back of the book you see front and back of a badly damaged statue
that bears the name (An)aximandr(os) and that was found at the Bouleuterion at Miletus.
- Anaximander in Context, New Studies in the
Origins of Greek Philosophy. Albany, State University of New York Press
2003 (together with Robert Hahn and Gerard Naddaf).
One of the many pictures in
this book is my reconstruction of Anaximander's map of the world:
See for reviews of this book:
by Robin Waterfield, http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2002/2002-12-03.html.
A quotation from this review: The reader will see that I think there is
an upward trend in the usefulness of the three monographs contained in this
book. Couprie's is certainly the best.
by Aryeh Finkelberg, Isis, Volume 96, Issue 3,Sep 2005, p.422–424.
A quotation from this review: This (Couprie's) essay is a contribution to
the ongoing discussion of Greek astronomical theories in general and of
Anaximander's seminal ideas in particular, and it will be of interest to both
the professional and the general reader.
by Daniel W.Graham, Ancient Philosophy,Vol.24, 3004, p.449-455.
With some misunderstandings.
- Heaven and Earth in
Ancient Greek Cosmology: From Thales to Heraclides Ponticus. New York etc.:
Springer, 2011. Series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Vol. 374.
2. articles
- “The Visualization of Anaximander’s Universe”.
in: Apeiron, A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science, 1995
(28), no. 3, 159-181.
This picture is a representation of Anaximander's
universe in summer (left) and in winter (right). We see the wheels of sun and
moon circling around the drum-shaped earth. The wheels of the stars (which are,
according to Anaximander, nearest to the earth) together make up a sphere. For
further explanation of these pictures, see my article in The Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
- “Anaximander’s Discovery of Space”, in:
A.Preus (ed.), A.Preus (ed.)Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy VI.
Before Plato. Albany, State University of New York Press
2001, pp.23-48.
- “prēstēros aulos Revisited”, in:
Apeiron, A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science, 34.2001,
no.3, pp.193-202.
In the article prēstēros
aulos Revisited, it is argued that Anaximander compared the light of
the celestial bodies with beams of lightning, and not with the "nozzle of
a bellows", as is commonly thought.
For the full text of the article, click here
- "Greek Influence on the Representation of
the Heaven in Ptolemaic Egyptian Art", paper read at the XVth
International Congress of Aesthetics in Japan (Makuhari), 27-31 August, 2001
(published on the CD-Rom of the Congress: "The Great Book of
Aesthetics, Proceedings", ed. by Ken-ichi Sasaki and Tanehisa Otabe,
Tokyo 2004)
In the paper Greek Influence on the Representation of the Heaven in
Ptolemaic Egyptian Art it is argued these Egyptian representations of
the heaven are possibly influenced by Anaximander's conceptions. The first one
shows a twofold arching Nut (the goddess of the heavens) and a curled earth-god
Geb on the ceiling of a room in the temple of Isis on the Island of Philae. The other one shows a threefold arching
Nut on the ceiling of a room in the temple of Hathor at Dendara.
For the full text of this paper, including
all the pictures, click here.
- Anaximander und die Geschichte des griechischen
Weltmodells: Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Detlev Fehling” (Anaximander and
the History of the Greek World-Picture: A Discussion with Detlev Fehling),
in: Prima Phlosophia 17.2, April-June 2004, pp.127-143.
For the full text of this article (in German), click
here.
- “Anaximander of Miletus”, p. 33–38 in: Meet the Philosophers
of Ancient Greece, ed. by Patricia O’Grady, Aldershot 2005 (together with
Heleen J.Pott)
- "Problems with Amaximander’s Numbers".
Apeiron 42 (2009), p. 167–184.
3.
reviews
- “Imagining the Universe”, Apeiron 2002
(35): 47-59. Review article of Robert Hahn, Anaximander and the
Architects. The Contributions of Egyptian and Greek Architectural
Technologies on the Origins of Greek Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press 2001 (together with
H. J. Pott).
- “Anaximander’s Legacy and the Stability of the
Earth” (review of Carlo Rovelli, Anaximandre de Milet ou la naissance
de la pensée scientifique. Paris, Dunod, 2009), Hyperboreus
2009 (15): 1-10. 2009.
4. Papers
- Anaximander’s Numbers, or the Discovery
of Space, read at the 15th Annual Conference of the Society for Ancient
Greek Philosophy at Binghamton NY, October 25-27, 1996.
- The Translation of Anaximander’s ‘Poetical
Words’, read at the 20th World Congress of Philosophy at Boston Mass., August 10-16, 1998.
This is my translation of Anaximander's fragment:
Whence
things have their origin,
Thence also their destruction happens,
As is the order of things;
For they execute the sentence upon one another
- The condemnation for the crime -
In conformity with the ordinance of Time.