The four essays on Anaximander that can be found below are meant to be provocative and controversial....but at the same time stimulating and partly new in their implications...
As a foundational base, I invite you to read the notes on Anaximander that can be found on Wikipedia....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaximander...
Or in any of the other articles that can be found on the internet today that will give you a basic understanding of his philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/anaximan/
I have taken what was written in these articles, expanded on them, connected them to the evolutionary development of dialectic philosophy and psychology over some 2550 years, particular since Hegel published his famous philosophical treatise, 'The Phenomenology of Spirit (Mind) in 1807, and the developments that happened both in philosophy and then clinincal psychology from then to 2010 today.
Some readers might think that I have gone too far in stretching Anaximander's philosophical ideas to today's philosophy and psychology; others may see the associations I make quite easily and 'go with my flow'...
You can read the Anaximander essays either from top to bottom or bottom to top keeping in mind the dates they were written because the essays are not necessarily presented in chronological order. There is a certain overlap or redundancy in these essays as I strive to convey my message as simply and clearly as possible in slightly different ways. The redundancy may not necessarily be a bad thing as what I am not able to effectively communicate in one essay you may be able to pick up better in one of the other essays.
What I am trying to show above all else is that there is a 'geneological dialectical philosophy tree' that starts in Anaxamander's philosophy (even before that in ancient Greek mythology) and emphasizes the idea of 'bi-polar opposites' and this idea runs for about 2565 through both Western and Eastern philosophy to the present.
In clinical psychology diagnoses and circles, we hear the very common diagnostic term these days -- 'bi-polar disorder' which used to go by the previous name of 'manic-depression'.
It is this associative connection between ancient Greek mythology, Anaxamander's ancient pre-Socratic philosophy, and today's clinical psychology diagnostic terms, concepts, and the phenomena they are meant to represent that I am aiming to bridge in the four or more essays that you can read below.
This 'philosophical and psychological associative link' from Ancient Greece to the present will take us through the philosophies of Heraclitus, Lao Tse, Plato, Spinoza, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Sartre, Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida, as well as through the psychologies of Freud, Jung, Adler, Klein, Fairbairn, Berne, Perls, Masson, and others...
It is a long road, a long geneological path...
And it starts in ancient Greek mythology,
And then branches out into the philosophy of Anaximander,
And those that follow him,
As I start to layout in the four Anaximander essays below...
I find it a fascinating, exciting journey...
I hope you will too...
-- dgb, Jan. 16th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations,
-- Are Still in Progress...
