DOI: 10.53084/2220-9050.2025.31.1.001

P.G. Yeltchenko
Syntaxis and Cosmos: Philosophical Poetics of Symmetrical Space in the Saying of Anaximander (Fragment DK 12 B1 = Simplic. Phys. 24)

Abstract: Following the wise precept of Carl Jaspers that every reasoning must proceed from the origin (literally “to be original” in the sense of German “ursprünglich”), we are going to plunge ourselves into the history of interpretation of the Anaximander’s B1 fragment (the famous Spruch des Anaximander). As a point of departure, we will take two arguably the most renowned and at the same time different approaches, that of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger, although right at the beginning making it clear that both of them represent an experience of conceptual, philosophical or psychological rather than strictly philological reflection on the text.
Further on, with the aim of analysing formal aspects of the fragment (i.e. symmetrical interrelations, which are, as we presume, are to be found in its syntax and stylistics), we will consider the legitimacy of even stating a question of aesthetics when dealing with a text of an archaic, preplatonic thinker. After that, we are going to take a look at the problem of extracting the author’s ipsissima verba from doxographically transmitted context from the standpoint of syntactical symmetry of the whole saying as a possible argument for including the second of the two sentences, in which Simplicius reproduces Anaximander’s thought in his commentary to Aristoteles’ Physics.
The main part of our humble inquiry is dedicated to analysis of various linguistic phenomena corresponding to criterion of proportionality on both syntactic and semantic levels of the text (general theme and specific subject of the statement as a whole and of each of its clauses in particular; oxymorons, periphrases, alliterations, conceptual correspondences). The entire procedure, especially in its conclusive phase, is followed by an ever-present interest to self-sufficient philosophical dimension of Anaximander’s aesthetics.

Keywords: Antiquity, preplatonic philosophy, περὶ φύσεως, early Greek thinkers, Anaximander, Spruch des Anaximander, ontology, genesis

To cite this article: Yeltchenko P.G. Syntaxis and Cosmos: Philosophical Poetics of Symmetrical Space in the Saying of Anaximander (Fragment DK 12 B1 = Simplic. Phys. 24). Aristeas XXXI (2025): 16–28.

References:
Burnet J. 1920: Early Greek Philosophy. 3rd edition. London.
Colli G. 1978: La nascita della filosofia. Milano.
Diels H. (ed.) 1882: Simplicii in Aristotelis physicorum libros octo commentaria. Vol. 9. Berlin.
Heidegger M. 2010: Der Spruch des Anaximander. In: Heidegger M. Gesamtausgabe III. Frankfurt am Main.
Jaeger W. 1953: Die Theologie der frühen griechischen Denker. W. Kohlhammer.
Jaeger W. 1973: Paideia. Die Formung des griechischen Menschen. Berlin. Marx K., Engels F. 1971: Werke. Band 13, 7. Auflage. Berlin.
Nietzsche F. 1988: Die Philosophie im tragischen Zeitalter der Griechen. In: Friedrich Nietzsche. Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe. I. Berlin; New York.
Sassi M.M. 2009: Gli inizi della filosofia in Grecia. Torino.
Vernan J.-P. 1988: Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs. Études de psychologie historique. Paris.
Vernan J.-P. 2007: Les origines de la pensée grecque. Œuvres. Religion. Rationalité. Politique. Paris.

Author:
Pavel G. Yeltchenko