In Ancient Greek quotes usually blend with surrounding text. Consequently, it is uncertain how much is Anaximander's text and what is by Simplicius. Anaximander was the author of the first surviving lines of Western philosophy. He speculated and argued about “the Boundless” as the origin of all that is. He also worked on the fields of what we now call geography and biology. Moreover, Anaximander was the first speculative astronomer. He originated the world-picture of the open universe, which replaced the closed universe of the celestial vault. Now widely available in English for the first time, this is Carlo Rovelli's first book: the thrilling story of a little-known man who created one of the greatest intellectual revolutions

C. M. Bowra (1957) The Greek experience. World publishing Company. Cleveland and New York. p168,169. Nietzsche, Friedrich (1962). Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. Chicago: Regnery. ISBN 0-89526-944-9. Stuart Andrew, Conservative MP for Pudsey, minister for sport, gambling and civil society, and minister for equalities, 52; Harriet Crabtree, director, Inter Faith Network for the UK, 65; Dominic Cummings, political strategist, chief adviser to Boris Johnson (2019-20), 52; Dr Rhys Davies, chairman, Llangollen Musical Eisteddfod (2015-22), 68; Blythe Duff, actress, Taggart (1990-2010), 61; Michael Feast, actor, Velvet Goldmine (1998), 77; The Rt Rev Clive Gregory, area bishop of Wolverhampton (2007-April 2023), 62; Carole Hersee, costume designer, featured in the BBC’s Test Card F (1967-98), 65; Brent Hoberman, entrepreneur, co-founder of Lastminute.com (1998) and Made.com (2010), 55; Yvonne Kenny, opera singer, 73; Terry Kilburn, actor, Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939), 97; Eilish McColgan, middle and long-distance runner, gold medallist, Commonwealth Games 10,000m (2022), 33; Alessandro Michele, fashion designer, creative director at Gucci (2015-22), 51; Steve Morgan, founder (1974) and chairman (2009-19), Redrow, and chairman, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC (2007-15), 71; Lord (Paul) Murphy of Torfaen, Labour MP (1987-2015), secretary of state for Northern Ireland (2002-05) and Wales (1999-2002, 2008-09), 75; Lord Naseby (Michael Morris), Conservative MP (1974-97), chairman of Ways and Means and deputy speaker (1992-97), 87; Donald Sassoon, emeritus professor of comparative European history at Queen Mary University of London, The Anxious Triumph: A Global History of Capitalism (1860-1914) (2019), 77; Rachel Saxby, Conservative MP for North Devon, 53; Dougray Scott, actor, Mission: Impossible II (2000), Snatch (2017), 58; Gerald Seymour, thriller writer, Harry’s Game (1975), The Glory Boys (1976), In at the Kill (2023), 82; Ben Stein, economist, actor and speechwriter for US presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, 79; John Taylor, inventor who developed thermostats for use in electric kettles, 87; Bruno Tonioli, choreographer, judge, Strictly Come Dancing (2004-20), 68; Sir Peter Wright, director laureate, Birmingham Royal Ballet, 97. Robinson, John Mansley (1968). An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy. Houghton and Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-05316-1. Kahn, Charles H. (1960). Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology. New York: Columbia University Press.

Kahn, C.H. Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology. New York 1960 (Indianapolis/Cambridge 1994) In his philosophical work De Divinatione (I, 50, 112), Cicero states that Anaximander convinced the inhabitants of Lacedaemon to abandon their city and spend the night in the country with their weapons because an earthquake was near. [69] The city collapsed when the top of the Taygetus split like the stern of a ship. Pliny the Elder also mentions this anecdote (II, 81), suggesting that it came from an "admirable inspiration", as opposed to Cicero, who did not associate the prediction with divination. Cf. Jacques Derrida, Margins of Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), pp. 66–7; Derrida, " Geschlecht II: Heidegger's Hand," in John Sallis (ed.), Deconstruction and Philosophy (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 181–2; Derrida, Given Time: I. Counterfeit Money (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 159, n. 28.

In 1542 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, abolished slavery by decree in his Leyes Nuevas, although slavery persisted in Spain’s colonies in Puerto Rica and Cuba (until 1873 and 1886); in 1952 Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery The Mousetrap opened at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, starring Richard Attenborough and his wife Sheila Sim; in 1963 the funeral of the assassinated president John F Kennedy took place, with more than 800,000 people lining the streets to watch the procession through Washington DC; in 2016 Fidel Castro died, aged 90: he led Cuba from the 1959 revolution to 2008, defeated the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and presided over the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 ( obituary, November 26, 2016). Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way forcosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includesthe revolutionary ideasthat the Earth floats in a void,that animals evolved, that the world can be understood innatural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. Heintroduced a new mode of rational thinkingwith an openness to uncertainty and the progress of knowledge. Carlo Rovelli suggests that Anaximander took the idea of the Earth's shape as a floating disk from Thales, who had imagined the Earth floating in water, the "immense ocean from which everything is born and upon which the Earth floats." [43] Anaximander was then able to envisage the Earth at the centre of an infinite space, in which case it required no support as there was nowhere "down" to fall. In Rovelli's view, the shape – a cylinder or a sphere – is unimportant compared to the appreciation of a "finite body that floats free in space." [43] Whereas Thales thought the Earth floated in the great Ocean, Anaximander saw the Earth as floating in the infinite. Where Thales conceived of things falling down to Earth, and Earth being above the Ocean, Anaximander saw the Earth as the centre, and that things could fall from any direction. This has been thought a large conceptual advance in cosmology. [44] Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946). Cicero (1853) [original: 44 BC]. On divination. Translated by Charles Duke Yonge– via Wikisource. (I, 50, 112)

Couprie, Dirk L.; Robert Hahn; Gerard Naddaf (2003). Anaximander in Context: New Studies in the Origins of Greek Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-5538-6. At the origin, after the separation of hot and cold, a ball of flame appeared that surrounded Earth like bark on a tree. This ball broke apart to form the rest of the Universe. It resembled a system of hollow concentric wheels, filled with fire, with the rims pierced by holes like those of a flute. Consequently, the Sun was the fire that one could see through a hole the same size as the Earth on the farthest wheel, and an eclipse corresponded with the occlusion of that hole. The diameter of the solar wheel was twenty-seven times that of the Earth (or twenty-eight, depending on the sources) [51] and the lunar wheel, whose fire was less intense, eighteen (or nineteen) times. Its hole could change shape, thus explaining lunar phases. The stars and the planets, located closer, [52] followed the same model. [53] In addition to Simplicius, Hippolytus [55] reports Anaximander's claim that from the infinite comes the principle of beings, which themselves come from the heavens and the worlds (several doxographers use the plural when this philosopher is referring to the worlds within, [56] which are often infinite in quantity). Cicero writes that he attributes different gods to the countless worlds. [57] Carlo Rovelli's first book, now widely available in English, tells the origin story of scientific thinking: our rebellious ability to reimagine the world, again and again.