Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500-428 BCE) (jan 13, 500 BC – jan 13, 428 BC)
Description:
AnaxagorasPresocratic philosopher who taught Pericles and Euripides at Athens, leaving fragments of his philosophical work. Despite his rejection of a fundamental distinction between appearance and reality and adoption of an atomistic natural philosophy, Anaxagoras was the first philosopher in the Western tradition to draw a substantial distinction between inert and chaotic matter on the one hand and mind as an active principle and source of order on the other hand. This view had a significant influence on the philosophy of Plato.
Recommended Reading: Malcolm Schofield, An Essay on Anaxagoras (Cambridge, 1980).
Added to timeline:
Date:
jan 13, 500 BC
jan 13, 428 BC
~ 72 years