Concept
Water (classical element)
Overview
classical element in philosophy and cosmology
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Water (classical element) is discussed.
Heaven, the highest of them, was without form so long as "darkness" filled it, because it was the source of light. The formlessness of water, which holds the middle place, is called the "deep," because, as Augustine says (Contr. Faust. xxii, 11), this word signifies the mass of waters without order. Thirdly, the formless state of the earth is touched upon when the earth is said to be "void" or "invisible," because…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
names the idea; states what it is
In the real process of nature they, however, found by experience that the crystal dissolved gives water, and in the crystal, water is lost and solidifies, or becomes the so-called water of crystallization; they found that the evaporation of the earth is not to be found as moisture, in outward form in the air, for air remains quite pure, or hydrogen entirely disappears in pure air; they have sought in vain to find…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Thus the two paths of metamorphosis of the fire run continuously side by side, upwards and downwards, to and fro, from fire to water, from water to earth, from earth back again to water, from water to fire. Whereas Heraclitus is a follower of Anaximander in the most important of these conceptions, _e.g.,_ that the fire is kept up by the evaporations, or herein, that out of the water is dissolved partly earth, partly…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays Collected Works, Volume Two
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Man cannot live for more than a few minutes without air, but he can live for a few days without water. And in the absence of other food, he can subsist on water alone for many days. There is more than 70% of water in the composition of our food-stuffs, as in that of the human body. Even though water is so indispensable, we take hardly any pains to keep it pure. Epidemics are as much the outcome of our indifference…
Mahatma Gandhi, A Guide to Health
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; opens on it
Water which is mingled with fire is called liquid because it rolls upon the earth, and soft because its bases give way. This becomes more equable when separated from fire and air, and then congeals into hail or ice, or the looser forms of hoar frost or snow.
Plato, Timaeus
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed Water (classical element)
- Anaximander
- Thales of Miletus
- Aristotle
- Chrysippus
- Nicole Oresme
- Pherecydes of Syros
- Empedocles
- Hippo (philosopher)
Related ideas
- Gregory Vlastos
- Emotion
- Hinduism
- Hindi
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- India
- Intuition
- Jainism
- Plato
- Jīva (Jainism)
- Hindu philosophy
- Aristotle
- Universe
- University of Chicago
- Wicca
- Western esotericism
- Timaeus (dialogue)
- China
- Alchemy
- Classical element
- Fire (classical element)
- Air (classical element)
- Earth (classical element)
- Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)
Place in the tradition
Part of Anaximander.
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