Anaxagoras (500-428 BC)
Biography
World explanation
Interesting facts
He believed there are not only 4 elements, but innumerable
variety, which he calls “seeds.”
Objects are a combination of all variety of seeds and some of them are dominant.
First philosopher to distinguish between mind and matter
Born into a wealthy aristocratic family
Objects can change their characteristics as mixture of seeds changes.
The philosopher doesn't believe there is a "smallest part" of an object
showed no interest in money, but devoted his life to philosophy
To the question "Why is it better to be alive than not to be alive, Anaxagoras says that being alive enables people to study the heavens and the whole universe
He did not take great pride in being Greek like many people in Ancient Greece
No value of "love ad strife"
"Citizen of the Unierse"
A great vortex that operates continually causes the reordering of the "seeds"
He abided to Parminedes Law that "Somthing cannot arise from what it is not"
The mind is the cause of vortex
Mind has control over everything- animated objects and the cosmos as a whole
As Aristotle says "Anaxagoras plausably says that the flesh from the food is added to our flesh."
An interesting form of "seeds" cause by frequency(vortex)
From Clazomenae, but lived in Athens
Agrees with Empedocles that change is a process in which more basic unchanging realities are being combined and separated.