ANAXIMENES

Anaximenes (599 B.C. - 524 B.C.) was the third and last of the important Greek philosophers of the Greek city named Miletus. The other two were Thales and Anaximander. According to Theophrastus, Anaximenes was an associate, and possibly a student, of Anaximander.

Anaximenes was perhaps the first philosopher to insist on an underlying physical law governing the universe. In his attempt to present a rational, scientific view, in the form of describing a natural process as responsible for making a world, and by reducing qualitative differences to quantitative differences, Anaximenes was only partially free from mythological beliefs. However, he provided a pattern to be followed by the natural philosophers in the development of science.

In short, Anaximenes is best known for his doctrine that air is the source of all things. In this way, he differed with his predecessor Thales, who thought that water is the source of all things, and Anaximander, who thought that all things came from an unspecified boundless stuff. But, note that each one of these three great thinkers broke with the tradition of their time and culture of attributing natural causes to myths or religious beliefs.