Anaxagoras
Everything contains a share of everything, and a cosmic Mind set the original mixture in motion and ordered it.
Placement
Brought philosophy to Athens; an ordering Mind (Nous) sets the world in motion.
Key ideas
- Nous
- In everything there is a share of everything
Influence
Influenced by 2
Anaximenes
influenced by disputed
Anaxagoras kept Anaximenes’ flat earth riding on air; the ancient tradition that makes him Anaximenes’ pupil is chronologically doubtful. Aristotle, De caelo II.13, 294b13–21; Diogenes Laertius II.6; SEP “Anaxagoras”
Evidence: AI draft
Anaximenes › c. 586–526 BCE
Parmenides
influenced by
Anaxagoras accepted Parmenides’ principle that nothing comes to be or perishes and reinterpreted change as the mixing and separating of ever-existing stuffs (DK 59 B17). Anaxagoras, DK 59 B17; SEP “Anaxagoras”
Evidence: AI draft
Parmenides › c. 515–450 BCE
Influenced 1
Socrates
influenced ✓
In Plato’s Phaedo Socrates recalls being excited by Anaxagoras’ claim that mind orders all things, then disappointed that he explained nothing by what is best (97b–99d). Plato, Phaedo 97b–99d; SEP “Anaxagoras”
Socrates › 470–399 BCE
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Lucretius
criticised by
Lucretius rejected Anaxagoras’ ‘homoeomeria’ – bone made of tiny bones, blood of tiny drops – and his denial of void and of a limit to division. Lucretius, De rerum natura I.830–920
Evidence: AI draft
Lucretius › c. 99–55 BCE
Position
Like Empedocles, Anaxagoras accepted that nothing truly comes to be or perishes. He held that “in everything there is a portion of everything”: all kinds of stuff are infinitely divisible and mixed together, and things are named after what predominates in them. Order came into this original mixture through nous, mind, which set it in a rotating motion and separated things out; mind alone is unmixed, knows all and rules all. According to Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates was first excited by this idea, then disappointed that Anaxagoras used mind merely as a mechanical starting point rather than explaining why things are as it is best for them to be.
Life & context
Anaxagoras came from Clazomenae in Ionia and moved to Athens, where he lived for some thirty years as the first philosopher to work there and as a friend of Pericles. Accused of impiety – reportedly for calling the sun a glowing stone – he left for Lampsacus on the Hellespont, where he died. Fragments of his book survive.
Main works
- On Nature (c. 460 BCE, fragments)
As of November 2026 · Sources · Improve this page · How Agora is made