Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/109

54 explanation explains nothing, because it lays down, as the ground of the explanation, the very thing to be explained. The finite has to be accounted for. But it is certainly not accounted for when we say that the finite accounts for it. It is obvious, therefore, that the finite must be an outcome from the infinite, that is, its ground or principle must be the negative of the finite. The negative is a very important element of conception; it is essential to the very constitution of reason. Affirmation seems to be the moving principle of intelligence; but the power of negation is equally necessary; without this, intelligence could not work—all would be a blank. Anaximander seems to have been the first thinker who recognised the power and significance of the negative. His  is the negative of the finite. But he does not carry out his own principle. The finite being convertible with the material, the right inference would have been, that the infinite, being the negative of the finite, was also the negative of the material, was the non-material; but Anaximander falls short of this conclusion. His , though the negative of the finite, is still regarded by him as some sort of formless or unlimited matter.

 

25. Of the life of Anaximenes, the third philosopher of the Ionic sect, we have little or no record. He was probably twenty or thirty years younger than 