Breathe in, breathe out. Let us breathe with relief: the pneuma unifies us humans and the universe, guiding us wisely. That is of course, if you believe ancient philosophers. The blurred figures of a few, semi-legendary great thinkers active in the 6th century BC in Greek cities on the Aegean coasts of Asia Minor loom over the beginnings of the philosophical reflection of our cultural milieu. Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes (all three of Miletus), Xenophanes of Colophon, and Heraclitus of Ephesus gave rise to intelligent reflection upon the world and human existence. What they also have in common is their search for the basic element, the so-called arche, from which everything in existence originated, and which is present in everything. To put it in slightly simpler terms and to avoid complex discussions, this element was, for example, water for Thales and fire for Heraclitus. Here, however, we are interested in Anaximenes, about whom we know little more than that he was most likely a pupil of Anaximander and was active in Miletus. Anaximenes was the author of a philosophical tractate praised for its clarity and simplicity of argument, but unfortunately this text has not been preserved. Of his views, we know only as much as his contemporaries have recorded. If that were Aristotle or Cicero, it wouldn’t be so bad. However, as we are forced to rely on accounts by Christian writers (e.g. Augustine), it is not so great – they clearly intended to ridicule the ancient teachings, and thus mercilessly simplify and primitivize Anaximenes’s work. So, while there are many uncertainties, one thing seems certain: Anaximenes recognized that air is the primordial element. In the state of perfect dispersion, invisible, rarefacted it turns into fire, and condensed it produces fog, clouds, water and so on. The process continues until the air is condensed enough to form solids. In these latter solid forms, it can be sensed and is visible. In our philosopher’s opinion, the density of materials was influenced by temperature and humidity, while movement was responsible for creative mechanisms. If one thinks of ‘gas’ instead of ‘air’, one can understand the ingenuity of his intuitions – he did in fact discover the mechanic of how gas works. Using modern terminology, we would say that Anaximenes believed that the forms of matter depended on pressure, temperature, humidity and motion (i.e. the mixing of various components). Anaximenes did, however, move even further in his speculations. In his opinion, air, or the primordial element, had divine features. After all, it was eternal, infinite, always in creative movement, creating everything. Even the gods of the Greek pantheon were derived from it!
Cosmic breath
It is not entirely clear what term the philosopher used to describe his super-element. Perhaps he even used two: aer and pneuma. It seems that he used the former in reference to the elementary, invisible, creative principle of everything, and the latter to name a certain form of already thickened air that holds the world together. One of the ancient authors conveyed the following ambiguous sentence of Anaximenes: “Just as our soul [psyche], being air [aer] holds us together, so do breath [pneuma] and air encompass the whole world.” For centuries, scholars have been striving to correctly interpret the thought contained in these words. Perhaps the philosopher wanted to convey that both man and the universe are, respectively, a
