Chapter 12

Other Ionic Thinkers

We have now considered the three chief thinkers of the Ionic
School. Others there were, but they added nothing new to
the teaching of these three. They followed either Thales or
Anaximenes in stating the first principle of the world either
as water or as air. Hippo, for example, followed Thales, and
for him the world is composed of water, Idaeus agreed with
Anaximenes that it is derived from air. Diogenes of Apol-
lonia is chiefly remarkable for the fact that he lived at a
very much later date. He was a contemporary of Anaxago-
ras, and opposed to the more developed teachings of that
philosopher the crude materialism of the Ionic School. Air
was by him considered to be the ground of all things.

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