In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae. His first principle, the thing that organized everything else, was the nous or the mind. He thought that in the beginning, there was an original mixture of unchanging seeds that a mind set in motion and began to organize. Anaxagoras was born in Asia Minor and moved to Athens, becoming one of the first philosophers to establish Athens as a hub of philosophy. In fact, Anaxagoras is a philosophical grandfather to Socrates through his student Archelaus. Socrates learned from Archelaus who learned from Anaxagoras.
Books Referenced:
Early Greek Philosophy - Translation by Jonathan Barnes - Penguin Classics
The First Philosophers - Translation by Robin Waterfield - Oxford World’s Classics
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers - Diogenes Laertius - Loeb Classical Library
