created 2025-03-12, & modified, =this.modified
NOTE
Elements, I use this word often without really considering the word origin. River and Death
first principle, rudiment or basic matter referring to the ancient concept of the four elements.
We think of logic as being such a sterile, objective and unwavering thing and myth being something loose, and flowery? But in First Principles there’s a connection, or at least a history.
A first principle is a basic proposition of assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.
In mathematics and formal logic, first principles are referred to as axioms or postulates.
In Ancient Greek philosophy, a first principle from which other principles are derived is called an arche and later First Principle and Arche or element. Arche was adapted from the earliest cosmogonies before being formalized as part of metaphysics. The first principle or element corresponds to the ultimate underlying substance and ultimate indemonstrable principle.
holes In the mythological cosmogonies of the Near East, the universe is formless and empty and the only existing thing prior to creation was the water abyss. The primordial world was described watery chaos from which everything appeared (Cosmic ocean myth.) In the mythical Greek cosmogony of Hesiod (8th to 7th century BC), the origin of the world is Chaos, considered as a divine primordial condition, from which everything else appeared. In the creation “chaos” is a gaping-void, but later the word is used to describe the space between the Earth and the sky, after their separation.
Aperion
Anaximander claimed that none of the elements (earth, fire, air, water) could be arche for the same reason. Instead, he proposed the existence of the apeiron, an indefinite substance from which all things are born and to which all things will return. Apeiron (endless or boundless) is something completely indefinite; and Anaximander was probably influenced by the original chaos of Hesiod (yawning abyss). rel: Aperion