There is a sense in which the philosophy of The Pre-Socratics -- particularly Anaximander and Heraclitus -- has been undervalued in the history and evolution of Western Philosophy-Psychology. Of the two philosophers, Heraclitus has received the greater respect from a larger subset of academic scholars and influenced, directly or indirectly, the philosophies and cosmic-spiritual-dialectical-holistic perspectives of the likes of Spinoza, Schelling, and Einstein. Anaximander less so, except perhaps among a much smaller group of ancient Greek philosophy historian specialists...
This having been said, I would argue that the whole of Western philosophy-psychology -- particularly Western Dialectic Philosophy-Psychology (meaning 'double-sided causality' as opposed to 'one-sided causality') -- hinges on the foundation of Anaximander's evolutionary, cosmic ideas. Not Heraclitus. Not Socrates. Not Plato -- but Anaximander.
Anaximander's most stunning idea was his idea of 'The Apeiron' which translated from Greek to English is usually translated as The Boundless, or The Limitless. Put in a context of the ideas of the philosophers who surrounded him in time -- Thales before him; Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and The Sophists after him -- Anaximander was the first Western philosopher (at least that we know of, and not counting the mythologists before him) who started to think in terms of polarities, paradoxes, dichotomies...
There are a couple of points I wish to make here. Firstly, there are some interesting parallels between The Pre-Socratic philosophers and the mythologists who preceded them -- both in Greece, and indeed, all over the world.
Secondly, when I titled this section 'The Pre-Socratics and Beyond', I was/am referring to the influence of The Pre-Socratics (as well as the mythologists before them which will be the title of a different section) on the history and evolution of Western Philosophy -- particularly Western Dialectic Philosophy, and even more particularly, Hegelian Dialectic Philosophy, and my 'Post-Hegelian Mutli-Dialectic-Humanistic-Existential' brand of Hegelian philosophy along with the 21st Century 're-awakening' of Hegel's idea of 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' (from his classic book of this name, written in 1807).
This re-awakening of Hegel's idea of The Phenomenology of Spirit I include in my own post-Freudian re-construction of Psychoanalysis that includes elements of 'Pre-Classical, Classical, Object Relations, and numerous outside modifications and derivatives of Psychoanalysis.
Thus, for me, their is a genealogical mythology-philosophy-psychology tree that extends downwards through Western history from Anaximander to Spinoza to Schelling and Fichte to Hegel to Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, to Freud, and all the Post-Freudians, as well as Post-Hegelians (Foucault, Derrida...) that ends in this mythology-philosophy-psychology treatise that I have called Hegel's Hotel: Towards A 21st Century Phenomenology of Spirit.
Let me be quite clear on this next point: There is still an underlying part of me that wants to call this whole treatise: Anaximander's and Heraclitus' Hotel because they, along with the mythologists before them provided the mythological and philosophical foundation for what is being written up here in all the different sections of Hegel's Hotel.
So while other ancient Greek philosophers were trying to 'etiological reduce' the world and/or the cosmos into one 'Primal Element' -- 'water' in Thales' case, 'air' in Anaximenes' case, 'fire' in Heraclitus' case....Anaximander opted to start with the concept and/or the phenomenon of 'The Apeirion' -- meaning again in English 'The Limitless' or 'Boundless'. Similar partly to our idea of 'A Limitless Universe' or perhaps more closer to the concept of 'Black Holes in The Universe'....and paradoxically, every 'Black Hole Containing a New Universe'.....
To be continued...
