Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae was an important philosopher and scientist Natural presocrático who lived and taught in the city of Athens for about thirty years. He gained fame due to his different materialistic views , particularly his claim that the sun was a fiery rock. This caused him to be charged with some impiety charges , and he was sentenced to death by the Athenian court. He managed to evade the death penalty by leaving Athens, and spent his remaining years of life in exile . It was widely recognized by two theories . First, he speculated that in the physical worldeverything contains a portion of everything else. His observation of how nutrition works in animals led him to the conclusion that for the food that an animal eats to become bone, hair, meat, it must already contain a large number of components . The second theory of significance is the postulation of Anaxagoras of the Mind (Nous) was the theory that acted as the initiating and governing principle of the cosmos.

✅ Biography of Anaxagoras

The exact chronology of Anaxagoras is unknown , but most accounts place his life dates between 500 and 428 BC. Anaxagoras was born in Ionia , in the city of Clazomenae, a port city on the coast of present-day Turkey . As such, he is considered the geographical and theoretical successor to the early Ionian philosophers , particularly Anaximenes . Eventually Anaxagoras made his way to Athens and is often credited with making it the home of philosophical speculation andwestern physics . Anaxagoras remained in Athens for some thirty years, according to most accounts, until he was accused of impiety and sentenced to death . Instead of enduring this grief, Anaxagoras, with the help of his friend and student, Pericles , went to Lampsacus, in Asia Minor, where he took refuge and lived until his death.

Anaxagoras thought

His thinking was based on the belief he had that almost all things made up of similar parts , that these parts were not subject and that, on the contrary, everything was mixed, with the exception of intelligence , since this was pure and without mix . He believed in the principle of unity and the indeterminate . His great contribution through philosophical thought was having introduced the Nous into the explanation of the universe as a motive force that moved everything that existed. This entity known as Nous was above all, it was infinite and autonomous and could not be mixed with anything.

Theory

Anaxagoras theory conceives the nous as the only origin of the universe and as the cause of existence , trying to explain the everyday things that occur in the world. On the other hand, he made part of his explanation of reality to the concept of nous or intelligence , which, being an extremely subtle “fluid”, is achieved by filtering between matter causing it to achieve movement. The nous manages to enter some things and not others, and with this theory it manages to explain the existence and origin of animate and inert objects .

Contributions of Anaxagoras

The ideas that Anaxagoras inherited from us are based on the idea of ​​the infinite , which exists in all things, the need for men to acquire intelligence in order to introduce order into the indefinite through movement and impersonal character. of universal intelligence , of which all understandings are a part. The principle, conceived by Anaxagoras , is a moving soul of the world that works by a series of mechanical effects . The moral doctrine that Anaxagoras gave us is reduced to these two points: the contemplation of nature, and resignation to the general order. of the world.

Arche

His arche was based on the existence of a great multitude of seeds in all things. The difference between the things that exist is in the spermata or in the seeds which marked a limit in the history of philosophy .

Phrases

• If you cheat on me once, it’s your fault; if you fool me two, it’s mine.
• The intelligence is the purest of all things. He has a total knowledge of everything and is the maximum force.
• The spirit rules the universe.
• Intelligence knows all things and ordered all the things that are going to be and those that were and those that are now and those that are not.
• It is necessary to suppose that in everything that is combined there are many things of all kinds, and seeds of all things, that have different shapes and different colors and flavors.

Plays

The most important work of Anaxagoras was Peri physeos , whose meaning is ” On nature “, however, only a few fragments have managed to be rescued and have lasted throughout time. He did research about nature based on experience, memory and technique. Through his works he explained the eclipses and the respiration of fish and about the anatomy of the brain .