The possibility of an armillary sphere and the cosmology of Anaximander

Abstract

The article is devoted to the identification of the fundamental principles of the philosophical explanation of the existence of the Sky – Cosmos – Universe, according to the teachings of Anaximander (c. 611-546 BC). The problem of determining the specifics of the philosophical explanation of the existence of the Sky – Cosmos of Anaximander and its influence on the formation of the structure of the cosmographic and zodiac model is considered. The article also provides answers to the questions: what is the specificity of the philosophical stage of cognition of the Cosmos and its difference from the mythological stage; how the fundamental principles and cosmological model influenced the creation of the early astrometric model of the Sky – Cosmos (armillary sphere). In this paper, for the first time, a comparative analysis of sources related to the subject of research, a method of comparative analysis of models of the Sky–Cosmos–Universe of the pre-theoretical and theoretical period, and a critical analysis of previously published works of domestic and foreign scientists are used. The reconstruction of possible technical prototypes of fragments of the Anaximander cosmological model and self–valuable fragments of the armillary sphere was carried out for the first time; the fundamental principles of the existence of the Sky of the Anaximander Sky-Space model were revealed for the first time. The presented study also shows for the first time the connection between the possibility of creating a mechanical model of celestial circles with figurative descriptions of the sky in ancient literary sources.