Chrysippus’ doctrine of the four elements: its place in the Stoic theory of the conflagration and its origins in Anaximenes

  • Ricardo Salles
    Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México rsalles[at]unam.mx

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.
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Salles, R. (2015). Chrysippus’ doctrine of the four elements: its place in the Stoic theory of the conflagration and its origins in Anaximenes. Azafea: Revista De Filosofía, 17(1), 33–50. https://doi.org/10.14201/12436

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Author Biography

Ricardo Salles

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Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas de la Universidad Autónoma de México. Circuito Maestro Mario de la Cueva s/n Ciudad Universitaria C.P. 04510 Coyoacán, México, D.F.
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