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Pre-Socratic Natural Philosophy
Anaxagoras
500 BC – 428 BC
“All things were together; then Mind came and set them in order.”
The first philosopher to settle in Athens, Anaxagoras introduced the concept of Nous (Mind) as the organising intelligence behind the cosmos — a leap that influenced Plato and sparked a scientific tradition.
Biography
Anaxagoras (c. 500–428 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Clazomenae in Asia Minor who became the first philosopher to bring the Ionian tradition of inquiry to Athens. He was a close associate of Pericles, the statesman who presided over Athens' golden age.
Against Empedocles' four elements, Anaxagoras argued that every portion of reality contains a portion of everything — what later interpreters called his theory of infinite divisibility of matter. The exception is Nous (Mind), which is unmixed, pure, and the initiating cause of the cosmic rotation that differentiated the original mixture.
He was prosecuted for impiety after claiming the sun was a fiery stone rather than a god, and fled Athens for Lampsacus, where he died.
Important Works
On Nature (fragments)
460 BCFragments outlining the infinite divisibility of matter and Mind as the cosmic organiser.
Key Takeaways
- Nous (Mind) is the sole unmixed reality and the cause of all motion and order in the cosmos.
- Everything contains a portion of everything — no complete separation exists in the material world.
- The sun is a fiery rock larger than the Peloponnese — not a divine being.
- First philosopher to reside in Athens, bringing natural philosophy to the city that would define it.
- His concept of Nous directly influenced Plato's Demiurge and Aristotle's Unmoved Mover.