Anaxagoras
500 BCE – 428 BCE · aged 72
5th-century BC Greek philosopher
- Born
- 500 BCE · Klazomenai
- Died
- 428 BCE · Lampsacus
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 500 BCEBornBorn in Klazomenai
- 428 BCEDiedDied in Lampsacus
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (500 BCE – 428 BCE).
- 480 BCEBattle of Thermopylae
- 431 BCE – 404 BCEPeloponnesian War
Biography
Anaxagoras (Ancient Greek: Ἀναξαγόρας, Anaxagóras; c. 500 BC – c. 428 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae at a time when Asia Minor was under the control of the Persian Empire, Anaxagoras came to Athens. In later life he was charged with impiety and went into exile in Lampsacus.
Responding to the claims of Parmenides on the impossibility of change, Anaxagoras introduced the concept of Nous (Cosmic Mind) as an ordering force. He also gave several novel scientific accounts of natural phenomena, including the notion of panspermia, that life exists throughout the universe and could be distributed everywhere. He deduced a correct explanation for eclipses and described the Sun as a fiery mass larger than the Peloponnese, and also attempted to explain rainbows and meteors. He also speculated that the sun might be just another star.
Text from the Wikipedia article Anaxagoras, CC BY-SA 4.0
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