Fragments, by Anaxagoras (FREE PDF)

The Fragments of Anaxagoras is a major pre-socratic work, the only remnant of the original book written by the homonymous philosopher. Widely read in classical Athens, it had a relevant influence in the development of philosophy and politics in the city.

Anaxagoras (/nksrs/; Greek: v, Anaxagóras, "lord of the assembly"; c. 500 – c. 428 BC) was a Greek philosopher of the Pre-Socratic period. Anaxagoras arrived at Athens after being born in Clazomenae during the Persian Empire's dominance over Asia Minor. According to Diogenes Lartius and Plutarch, he was accused with impiety in later life and sent into exile in Lampsacus; the allegations may have been political, due to his friendship with Pericles, if not invented by later ancient biographers.

In response to Parmenides' claims about the impossibility of change, Anaxagoras explained the world as a mixture of primary imperishable ingredients, where material alteration was caused by the relative preponderance of one element over the others; in his words, "each one is... most manifestly those things of which there are the most in it."

He developed the notion of Nous (Cosmic Mind) as an organizing force that moved and sorted out the initial homogenous (or nearly so) mixture.

He also presented a variety of unique scientific explanations for natural occurrences, such as the concept of panspermia, which holds that life exists across the cosmos and might be spread wherever.

In addition to attempting to explain rainbows and meteors, he inferred a valid explanation for eclipses and portrayed the Sun as a blazing mass greater than the Peloponnese.

Anaxagoras was born in the early 5th century BCE in the town of Clazomenae, possibly into an aristocratic family. He arrived at Athens either shortly after the Persian war, in which he may have fought, or later in his life, about 456 BCE. He grew close to the Athenian statesman Pericles while in Athens. According to Diogenes Lartius and Plutarch, he was accused with impiety in later life and sent into exile in Lampsacus; the allegations may have been political, due to his friendship with Pericles, if not invented by later ancient biographers. According to Lartius, Pericles testified in Anaxagoras' defense at his trial around the year 450. Nonetheless, Anaxagoras was obliged to flee Athens for Lampsacus in Troad (c. 434 - 433). Around the year 428, he died there. Lampsacus residents created an altar to Mind and Truth in his honor and marked the anniversary of his death for many years. They wrote above his tomb, "Here Anaxagoras, who in his pursuit for truth reached heaven itself, is laid to rest."

Anaxagoras brought philosophy and the spirit of scientific inquiry to Athens from Ionia. According to Anaxagoras, everything has been in some form since the beginning, but they began as infinitesimally minuscule bits of themselves, unlimited in number and intricately linked throughout the cosmos. Everything existed in this mass, but in a jumbled and unrecognizable state. There were an endless number of homogenous (ὁμoιoμερῆ) and heterogeneous pieces.

Mind or Reason (νοῦς) was responsible for the job of organization, the separation of similar from unlike, and the summation of the entire into totals of the same name. The mind is no less limitless than the chaotic mass, but it stood pristine and autonomous, a finer texture, identical in all its expressions and everywhere the same. This subtle agent, endowed with all knowledge and power, is seen governing over all forms of life. Motion is its earliest manifestation, and the only one described by Anaxagoras. It provided distinctness and actuality to aggregates of similar elements.

Decrease and increase reflect a new aggregation (σὐγκρισις) and disruption (διάκρισις). The initial intermixture of things, however, is never completely overcome. Each object comprises portions of other things or heterogeneous materials, and it is what it is solely because of the predominance of certain homogeneous parts that define its character. The things we see in our world are the result of this process.

According to Plutarch, "Anaxagoras is claimed to have foreseen that if the celestial bodies were to be loosened by some slip or earthquake, one of them may be pulled away, and plummet and tumble down to earth."

His studies of celestial bodies and meteorite impact lead him to develop new ideas of the universal order and forecast meteorite impact. Pliny attributed his prediction of the meteorite's fall in 467 to him. He was the first to explain eclipses correctly, and he was both famous and notorious for his scientific beliefs, which included statements that the Sun is a lump of red-hot metal, the Moon is earthy, and the stars are molten stones.

He believed the Earth was flat and floated on'strong' air underneath it, and that perturbations in this air occasionally generated earthquakes. He proposed the concept of panspermia, which holds that life exists across the cosmos and might be disseminated wherever.

He sought to provide a scientific explanation for eclipses, meteors, rainbows, and the Sun, which he depicted as a flaming mass greater than the Peloponnese; he also claimed that the Moon had mountains and that it was inhabited. He claimed that the celestial bodies were masses of stone ripped from the Earth and burned by fast rotation. His beliefs regarding eclipses, the Sun, and the Moon may have been influenced by observations of the 463 BCE eclipse, which was visible in Greece.

Plutarch claims that Anaxagoras was the first Greek to undertake the task of squaring the circle, which he worked on while imprisoned.

Anaxagoras composed a book of philosophy, but only the first portion has remained, thanks to preservation in the work of Simplicius of Cilicia in the sixth century AD.

Anaxgoras' book was reputedly accessible in the Athenian marketplace for a drachma, and it was undoubtedly known to Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes based on the contents of their surviving plays, and presumably to Aeschylus as well, according to Seneca's evidence. Although Anaxagoras almost likely lived in Athens throughout Socrates' (born 470 BCE) lifetime, there is no proof that they ever met.

Plato has Socrates as a young man stating of Anaxagoras, "I eagerly obtained his writings and devoured them as soon as I could." Socrates, on the other hand, goes on to discuss his subsequent dissatisfaction with his philosophy. In Plato's Apology, Socrates mentions Anaxagoras during his trial.

Valerius Maximus, a Roman author, upholds a separate tradition: When Anaxagoras returned home from a long journey and discovered his property in ruins, he replied, "If this had not perished, I would have"—a phrase characterized by Valerius as "full of sought-after knowledge."

Anaxagoras' philosophy has been regarded as an early predecessor of quantum theory due to several key parallels.

Anaxagoras expounded his philosophy in his work "Peri physeos" (On Nature), but only a few fragments of his books have survived.

To explain the plurality of objects in the world endowed with different qualities, he resorts to the assumption that all things would be made up of elementary particles, which he calls "seeds" (spermata, in Greek). Later Aristotle calls these particles by the name of homeomerism (similar parts).

According to Aristotle, Anaxagoras conceives the "nous" as the origin of the universe and cause of existence, but at the same time tries to explain himself and calls to find the everyday things of what happens in the world. On the other hand, he made part of his explanation of reality the concept of nous, intelligence, which, being an extremely subtle "fluid", filters through the nooks and crannies of matter, animating it with its movement. The nous penetrates some things and not others, which explains, following Anaxagoras, the existence of animated and inert objects. Plato in the Phaedo agrees with the statement that the nous is the cause of everything and leads to order and harmony, but disagrees with Anaxagoras' search for material causes.

His doctrine of nous was later critically adopted by Aristotle. The differences between the conceptions of one and the other can be seen with this example: for Anaxagoras, humans could become intelligent because they had hands, while for Aristotle man received hands because he had intelligence.

According to Marcus Tullius Cicero in his book "On the Nature of the Gods", Anaxagoras was a disciple and successor of Anaximenes. And he was the first philosopher to affirm that the Universe was designed and made by the rational power of an infinite mind.3 In this sense, Wilhelm Dilthey has considered him the "founder of monotheism in Europe"

"That cannot be, it is not." This assertion was given to Anaxagoras by Parmenides as the metaphysical underpinning of his teaching. As a result, he faults the Ionic physicists the most for incorrectly speaking about the production and annihilation of things:

"The Greeks make incorrect judgments about growth and destruction. For nothing is created or destroyed until it is mingled with and separated from other things. As a result, they would be correct if they stated the distinction between generation and generation."

What appears to be the creation of new things or the destruction of old ones is, in fact, nothing more than a new mixing, that is, a new division and ordering of metaphysical essential constituents. However, when something ceases to exist (or "dies"), when the first order of the components is dissolved and divided, a new composition is created in the near future. All of them are created using an element template. As a result, Anaxagoras, while describing the shifting dynamics of the universe, rejects that the seeds, since they are true, are malleable. In this way, he seeks to reconcile Parmenides' metaphysics with the Ionians' science.

As a result, Anaxagoras appears to suggest two metaphysical degrees. The initial phase is made up of seeds or actual components. Water, fire, and earth are actual things, as are flesh and bones, and neither heat nor cold are seeds. These components make up the second degree. These things are not metaphysical in the sense that they emerge as specific epiphenomena from temporal mixes of seeds. Thus, creatures, plants, mankind, and celestial bodies are natural composites since they are intentionally formed by the power of nature. They vary from objects created by human art for human use in that there is no teleological explanation for the method by which they were created.

When Anaxagoras rejects generation, he asserts that all things exist in all places.

"They were all invested in the same thing."

There is a piece of everything in the whole."

These claims appear to argue against the elements' omnipresence. As a result, all of the components are present in everything, and each element is present at all times. The interpretation of these rules, while crucial in analyzing Anaxagoras' worldview, is difficult. Because all things are present in all, the elements must unavoidably penetrate each other; as a result, any element might collect the potential of a new shape, as if a new item or quality were produced.

The nature of these essential components is hazy. Most people thought Anaxagoras had elements rather than very small particles or particles.

He therefore doubles the Aristotelian meaning, declaring that all natural things are made up of particles of the same nature. Lucretius refers to this form of explanation as the homoeomeria (ὁμoιομέρεια).