Wikipedia:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia/Anaxiphales

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Philosophical Contribution

Anaxiphales of Paestum (ca. 545-470 BCE), was a presocratic philosopher whose distinguishing belief was that time and motion were connected and, by certain interpretations, the same thing.

He is quoted as saying: "As the movement of the heavens are cyclical, so is the passage of Time… some things follow the daily cycles of the sun, some the longer of the moon, or even longer that of the stars or position of the sun at rise and set… and there are still longer cycles that man cannot perceive because of his short life." (Translated by M. Edimont)

Anaxiphales said that if a man could move under the sun at the same speed that it circled the earth, then he would neither grow nor change. For time, he said, is like the flowing of a river, and men flow with the current. If a man were to move along with the sun, it would be akin to swimming against the current, and thus standing still. This assertion is surprising given that other fragments make it clear that it is many cycles which push time forward, not merely that of the sun. Perhaps he considered the cycle as the sun, as the smallest cycle he mentions, to be the primary driving force of time; the sun drives day-to-day time, since its motion ushers in day and night, but the months and years are fueled by larger cycles. This, however, is simply later conjecture, and is not directly supported by sources.

Anaxiphales agreed with Heraclitus's theory that all things were in flux. He claimed that if they were to cease, for then the motions of the heavens would cease. If this happened, time would as well, and man could never tell. So while things can happen, they do happen.

Life

Despite his location recorded in Paestrum, which is in Southern Italy very near to Elea, Anaxiphales followed much more in the tradition of the Ionian philosophers than those of the Eleatic. His main theory deals far more with cosmology and cosmogony than it does the nature or possibility of existence and knowledge, and he follows Thales in his explanation that water is the root of many, if perhaps not all, things. (This is somewhat deceptive, as Anaxiphales did not even believe that water is the reigning element, simply that it is the root of life. He also does not appear to believe that the soul is made of water, as Thales did.)

It is possible that despite being born in Paestrum, Anaxiphales spent much of his adult life in Ionia; there is evidence that he spent at least part of his adult life in Didyma. If he did not live there it is likely that he travelled there. He was known to be a traveler, and frequently expounded the virtues of travel.

He agreed with Heraclitus on many issues, including the proposition that all things are in flux, but appears to have disliked Heraclitus personally (it is unsure whether they had ever met). He is recorded as having scoffed at Heraclitus for staying in his home town his entire life. Heraclitus does not mention Anaxiphales in any surviving fragments of his work. It may be that he did so but the writing has been lost, or it may have been an intentional slight on the part of Heraclitus.

Legacy

Little is known about Anaxiphales’ life except his approximate dates of life, that he was born in Paestrum, and that he spent at least some of his life in Didyma, and that he traveled. He was probably the last in the Ionian school, although in truth he does not seem to particularly belong to any school. Anaxiphales seemed to have something of the Eleatics’ complex search for a unified truth, while unfortunately keeping the methodology of the Ionians. The result is an intriguing theory that seems to have little to back it up besides that it seems to work. The difficulty in wrapping one’s mind around the theory was likely purposeful on Anaxiphales’ part; it would be difficult to refute a theory that one does not fully understand.

There are some who argue that Anaxiphales does not deserve to be classed as a philosopher at all, given that later philosophers tend to gloss over his work, and thus his contributions to Western canon are minimal.

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