A STEP FORWARD IN GREECE 



phy quickly found that its powers of perception 

 were very limited. Hence none of the early 

 Grecian philosophers could offer any other solu- 

 tion of the world problems than very daring 

 hypotheses. It is characteristic of all these think- 

 ers that they complain about the untrustworthi- 

 ness of human sense perceptions. 



Anaximander assumed that innumerable world 

 bodies developed by the rotation of matter and 

 by condensation of gaseous substances. The 

 earth, according to him, came into existence in 

 the same way. Thus he anticipated the nebular 

 theory of Kant, who 2,400 years later, in 1755 

 A. D., published his " Natural History and The- 

 ory of Heaven." And Anaximander is not only 

 the prophet of Kant and Laplace in cosmogony. 

 We also find him hinting at biological ideas, 

 which were later developed by Lamarck and Dar- 

 win. He asserts, for instance, that the first liv- 

 ing beings of the earth were produced by the 

 influence of the sun on water, and that animals 

 and plants gradually evolved out of those primi- 

 tive living forms. Man, according to him, de- 

 veloped out of fish-like animals. 



About loo years after Anaximander, similar 

 thoughts were expressed by Heraklitos. He 

 claimed that a continuous process of development 



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