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THE FIVE
ELEMENTS
by ENRIQUE AND LUIS
Index.
1.
– Introduction.
2.
– Historical context.
3.
– The Water. Tales of Mileto.
4.
– The Fire. Heraclito of Ephesus.
5.
– The Air. Anaximenes.
6.
– The Earth.
7.
– The Ether. Aristotle.
8.
– Bibliography.
1. Introduction.
In this work we show the story of the beginning of the world for the Greek
philosophers. They tell about the four elements: the water, the fire, the earth and the air,
and later they show a fifth element, the ether.
Here we tell that concepts have the philosophers about its element. We begin
with the Water by Tales of Miletus; the Fire by Heraclito of Ephesus; the Air by
Anaximenes and the Earth, this it hasn’t got a philosopher. The earth is next to the other
elements, but it isn’t told by any philosopher. And finally we find the ether that although it
isn’t put as beginning. It’s view for a lot of authors and especially by Aristotle.
2. Historical context.
In this historical context we look a lot of events, mainly wars and conquests:
- The Medical Wars: They began around the 500 b.C. The great Persian Empire
it has a lot of small Greek cities in Asia. In the 490 b.C. it was the first invasion, its name
was ‘the Marathon’s battle’. In the 480 b.C was a second invasion under the new Persian
king, Jerjes. As a consequence of this war it was formed an army that it had the most
powerful infantry of Sparta and the great fleet of Athens. After the Greek forces won to
Persia in the sea, in Salamina (480 b.C.), and the next year, in earth, in Orchestra.
These victories gave to Sparta and Athens the power of Greek.
- Athenian Empire: Around the 450 b.C. the wars ended, and in Athens was the
democracy. From the 462 b.C. until their death, Pericles gave to Athens a very important
politics’ power and Athens had a great prosperity and fortune.
- The Peloponeso’s War: Their origin was in Corinth, where were the interests of
Athenians and Peloponnesians. In 431 b.C Sparta declared the war. The main reason
was the fear of Sparta to lose the control on its own allies. Sparta was strong in land and
Athens in sea. The war began and finished with the defeat Athenian in the sea in 404
b.C
- The great Macedonia: The defeat of Athens didn't bring the peace, in
consequence it gave a lot of wars in Tebas. It was in decadence and Macedonia took the
power with the king Fillip II, in the battle of Queronea (338 b.C.). Two years later Fillip II
was murdered and its son, Alejandro Magnus took the throne.
3. The Water. Tales of Mileto.
Tales was born in 640 b.C. in Mileto. He was the founder of the ionic school. He
said that the water is the beginning, reason and substance of all the things. The water
is the most important to all the things for its functioning. The water gives life to all the
animals and plants. You can find it in the blood of the animals and in the sap of the
plants.
Tales thought these things:
a) The Earth floats in the water or is under this element.
b) If there wasn’t water, the Earth won’t exist.
The water is the material beginning of the things. It was admitting the
existence of an intelligence or mind, which is a principal force for the beings formed
by the water.
Tales was considering the nature encouraged by an internal and essential
force, the divine world. The Tales’s gods are personification of the forces and of the
phenomenon of the nature. The Tales's hypothesis brings over of the water as
beginning and substance of the things, it was continuing later by Hipon. He was
born in Samos but he was living in Athens in time of Pericles. Hipon was a bad
philosopher.
4. The Fire. Heraclito of Ephesus.
This philosopher was born in Ephesus in 500 b.C. Heraclito thought that the fire was
the beginning of everything and the nature was composed of fire. Without the fire there isn’t
life. He thought the following hypotheses:
1- The common substance and the basic element of all the things is the fire. A substance
that is the beginning and way of all the things
2- All the things are transformations and derivations of this primitive fire, and, they become
the ethereal fire.
3- These transformations are independent from the gods and from the men. They are
universal, they extend all the things without exception. The fire has several
transformations: the primitive fire in air, in water, in earth, etc. The stone and the metal
in water; the water in steam; the steam in air; the air in fire; etc. In conclusion there is a
cycle where the primitive fire is the first one.
4- The fire is God and it’s the first substance of the world, it remains eternally.
5- When the world is ended by the combustion, only it will remain God. It is the divine and
eternal fire in its primitive state. Later it appear a second world and it end, later a third,
during the eternity.
6- The plant, animal and human life are different manifestations of the primitive fire. The
good and evil; the life and the death
7- The human soul is the best creation of the primitive fire. So it must be said of the gods,
geniuses and demons that populate the world.
8- Besides the senses, the human soul has the reason, which is similar to the divine
reason (the primitive fire).
9- The man can perceive the real things, which are eternal and permanent in the things.
5. The Air. Anaximenes.
Anaximenes thought that the air was the beginning of the nature. If there isn’t air,
nothing wouldn’t be alive.
The nature of the air according to Anaximenes:
1. The air has an indefinite extension and it’s something that there is in all the things
2. It’s an invisible air. It can adopt different forms as condensed air
3. The air is the only material reason of the movement.
4. Anaximenes thought that the fire, the winds and the clouds were derivations of the
air.
5. The air has a divine character and it is immortal and eternal. The gods come from
the air.
Why
Anaximenes chooses the air and not other element as water, fire or
earth?
Anaximenes said that the air was the breath of the world. It was the soul of all the
things. As a result, it was
The air hasn’t got any contrary element and it is near of the indefinite. In addition, the
air stays around the Universe.
The air as breath of the world
Anaximenes thought that our soul (the air) unites us, the same thing that the air
unites the world.
The air and the cosmos
There are two interpretations:
1. The air (the breath) is in all the world, the same thing that our soul is in our body.
Anaximenes thought that the soul has the body and it penetrates it completely.
2. The air is the life and the dead of the man. Also it appears and it is the reason and
substance of all the things.
The air is the vitality beginning of the man. We can find air in the world as wind.
Finally, we can say that the air-wind-breath is the most important element for the life. In
consequence, Anaximenes's conception about the air as original beginning might be
summarized in: the original beginning is the air. It actuates in the universe of a way similar
the pneuma (breath - life) in relation with the body.
6. The Earth.
The Earth doesn't have a philosopher. It always appears next to the three elements:
water, fire and air, but it never appears alone.
In consequence it doesn't have a philosopher or we haven’t been able to find him.
We only know that the earth is a fundamental element and that without the earth, the
life couldn’t exist. Although some philosophers thought that the earth is a derivation of their
element. But it isn’t right. Without the earth it doesn’t exists the seas, the mountains, the
vegetation, etc. In conclusion the earth is the base for all the things.
7. The Ether. Aristotle.
Aristotle shows the fifth element (the ether) compatible with the theory of the four
elements. The ether is necessary for the movement, and the four elements are the
combination of fundamental qualities.
Aristotle considered the ether an eternal body. Their story history is as certain as the
story history of the four elements.
The fifth essence is the eternal sphere of the cosmos and it can be the light or the
payee of the light. Then it’s the substance of the soul or the essential of each individual
substance (their fifth essence). But it can be everything, the Universe or the macro-cosmos
or the opposite, the micro-cosmos, the being or Christ.
The ether has an extraordinary relationship with the light and the soul. This
relationship begins in the concept of the alive heat. It’s the creator of the life and it cannot
be in the four elements, but it’s who creates the animals.
The ether is the seed of everything, the vital force. It is a celestial element and in
conclusion it’s the light or the payee of the light in the cosmos and in the soul.
8. Bibliography.
We are used internet and we visited theses web pages:
http://www.elementsboston.net/philosophy/
http://hippias.evansville.edu/
http://www.geocities.com/nautaretis/Griegos.html
http://www.geocities.com/nautaretis/FiloGrec.html#Top
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/AGEDE/ItE
These books and encyclopaedias:
SARPE encyclopaedia.
‘The Greek life’ by LA VERDAD
And finally we used the photocopies and notebook of the class.