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M etaphysics, philosophy of nature, ancient G reek philosophy [Greek, from a , not + peras , limit or boundary, hence unbounded, infinite] The unbounded was contrasted with peras or kosmos (world), which was widely believed by the Greeks to be bounded. The Milesian philosopher Anaximander took the unbounded to be the first principle or ultimate generative force for all the things and events in the world. The apeiron is immortal and imperishable, unbounded both in space and in time, and does not have the characteristics of ordinary elements and their composites. Aristotle interpreted the apeiron of Anaximander as a material cause, analogous to Thales' water or Anaximenes' air. But because apeiron appears to be more abstract than other material elements, what Anaximander meant by this term has been a subject of debate. Pythagoreans took apeiron and peras as two principles from which the world evolved and considered peras to be good and apeiron to be evil. Parmenides believed that what is cannot be incomplete and infinite and thus confined his ontology to peras and denied apeiron . For Anaxagoras , mind is apeiron , which is infinite or indefinite in extent. “[Anaximander] said that the apeiron was the principle and element of things.” Simplicius, Physics ... log in or subscribe to read full text