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Anaximenes was a presocratic philosopher from Miletus, Asia Minor and a student of Anaximander.
According to the meagre sources of his life he flourished around the mid 6th Century BCE and dies around 528. Like his teacher he was given to quasi-scientific explanations of the world.
In fragmentary reports from other philosophers, Anaximenes is said to have held that condensation and evaporation of vapor or mist produces the physical world of earth, water, and fire. He believed that air was the source of all things. This was in contrast with Thales who believed that water was the source, and Anaximander who believed that the Boundless was the true origin. He held that everything at one time was air.
Air can be considered to be neutral stuff that is found everywhere, hence available to participate in physical processes. It is also associated with the soul and portrayed as the breath of life, hence with life and intelligence.
Anaximenes may have thought of air as capable of directing its own development to some extent, as our soul controls our body, giving the air divine attributes.
Anaximenes provides an interesting account of natural change. He reasons that air differs in essence in accordance with its rarity or density. When it is thinned it becomes fire, while when it is condensed it becomes wind, then cloud, when still more condensed it becomes water, then earth, then stones. Everything else comes from these.According to Anaximenes, the earth was formed from air by a 'felting' process. It is a flat disc. Due to evaporations of the earth, fiery bodies arise which come to be the heavenly bodies (planets). The earth floats on a cushion of air. The heavenly bodies (at least the sun and moon) seem also to be flat bodies that float on streams of air. In one account the heavens are like a felt cap that turns around the head. The stars may be fixed to the surface like corks. In another account the stars are like fiery leaves floating on the air. Furthermore, the sun does not travel around the earth but circles around it and is hidden by the higher parts of the earth at night.
Anaximenes further believed that wind breaking out of clouds caused lightning and thunder, and earthquakes were caused by the earth drying out and cracking following the moistening rains. However, There is no independent evidence to support these interpretations.
Anaximenes influence upon later theorists may extend to Diogenes of Apollonia who makes air the basis of his explicitly monistic theory and Hippocrates treatise 'On Breaths' uses air as a central concept in a theory of diseases.
SOURCES:
www.iep.utm.edu/a/anaximan.htm
