“The boundless is immortal and imperishable, and it governs all things.”
— Anaximander[commonly attributed] Testimony in Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 1.6, and Aristotle, Physics 203b; paraphrase, not verbatim
Commentary
This paraphrase reports the doctrine that the apeiron is immortal and indestructible and that it encompasses and directs the cosmos, a view that makes the first principle divine in a physical sense. The language of immortality recalls the Greek description of gods, and it has led some interpreters to read Anaximander's principle as a kind of divinity. G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and M. Schofield note that the attribution of divine language to the apeiron is disputed, and that the doxographers may have assimilated Anaximander to later theological vocabulary. Charles Kahn argues that the immortality of the boundless follows from its role as the source of things that come to be and pass away, a structure visible in the verbatim fragment. Jonathan Barnes cautions that the claim of divinity may be a later interpretation of a purely physical principle. W. K. C. Guthrie treats the immortality of the apeiron as a philosophical step toward the idea of a permanent substrate. The sentence is a paraphrase of doxographical testimony and should be labelled accordingly.
Commentary
This paraphrase reports the doctrine that the apeiron is immortal and indestructible and that it encompasses and directs the cosmos, a view that makes the first principle divine in a physical sense. The language of immortality recalls the Greek description of gods, and it has led some interpreters to read Anaximander's principle as a kind of divinity. G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and M. Schofield note that the attribution of divine language to the apeiron is disputed, and that the doxographers may have assimilated Anaximander to later theological vocabulary. Charles Kahn argues that the immortality of the boundless follows from its role as the source of things that come to be and pass away, a structure visible in the verbatim fragment. Jonathan Barnes cautions that the claim of divinity may be a later interpretation of a purely physical principle. W. K. C. Guthrie treats the immortality of the apeiron as a philosophical step toward the idea of a permanent substrate. The sentence is a paraphrase of doxographical testimony and should be labelled accordingly.