La doctrina de los cuatro elementos de Crisipo: su lugar en la teoría estoica de la conflagración y sus orígenes en Anaxímenes

Abstract

In the present paper I discuss Chrysippus’ argument for the indestructibility of the cosmos at the conflagration at Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 15.18.1-3. This argument complements another Chrysippean argument for the indestructibility the cosmos (Plutarch, De Stoicorum Repugnantiis 1052C), but it proceeds from a different basis: the theory of the dissolution of complex bodies into the four elements and the theory of the reciprocal change of the four elements. As I shall argue, there are important precedents for this argument in Anaximenes and his theory of change. I conclude by looking at two anti-Chrysippean Stoic arguments for the destructibility of the cosmos at the conflagration.