ANCPHIL - Feb 29, 2016

Anaxagoras
- friend of Pericles (one of the greatest
statemens of athens
- was an atheistic scientist figure
- had to flee when Pericles experienced his
downfall because if not he would be
placed on trial for impiety
o was politically motivated
- Talks about an “original mixture” – the
first pluralist (along with Empedocles and
the atomists)
- “Original Mixture” – made up of infinitely
small seeds – (Seeds: “homoeomerous”),
is very uniform – uniformity is something
he inherited (Parmenides)
- Although Parmenides had conflicting
views with the pluralists, they still
incorporated his ideas
o There should always be something
considered “what-is” – cannot be
created and cannot be destroyed
o Anaxagoras’ “what-is” – the original
mixture
- Seeds – all things that can possibly exist,
infinitely small and there is no way you
can recognize one seed from the other
(different characteristics for each seed)
- “infinite smallness” – if there’s no infinite
smallness, and “everything contains
everything else”—then “everything” will
be infinitely large (if without infinite
smallness) - gold contains a lot of gold,
but it has more gold than everything else
aside from gold
- Nous – (mind) – the only thing that is not
contained in the original mixture (since it
is all powerful), if Nous is included in the
original mixture, then it will lose its
power (it would be among everything
else)
- How does mind separate from everything
else? – through movement (rotatory), it
has the power, it decides everything and it
has power over everything
- With the aid of rotatory movement, things
begin to be separated of (things begin to
exist)
- Anaximander – talks about rotatory
movement as well –things are separated
off from the apieron and the opposites
begin to exist (therefore the penalty
begins) – he has no ‘Nous’
- Seeds are “portions” not parts – is a
mixture of “portions” – when there’s a
mixture of seeds, you do not see them
anymore, but they’re there (seeds inside
 the original mixture) – but are still
uniform
- Aristotle liked Anaxagoras – he says that
Anx had an efficient cause (which was the
Nous)
- Nous is separate – it has power over
everything -- “Mind” with a capital M,
whereas mind is something contained
within animate objects
- Opposites are contained inside the
original mixture—opposites are not really
separate from each other. Why? Because
they exist
- Opposites are not really separate from
each other – Heraclitus
- Fire – important to Anaxagoras because
“Aither” emitted from under the earth
naturally goes up and therefore the cause
why heavenly bodies are there (this is
naturally true, anything hot finds its way
to the top)
- That’s why there’s always an opening at
the higher parts of a building, its so that
the heat can go up and escape (so that it’s
not too hot)
- Air and Aither – anaxagoras’ version of
Air and Fire
- Original mixture is uniform, the seeds are
dissimilar, infinitely small, has shade
 color and flavor—but then, the original
mixture doesn’t have color because it’s
uniform
- You don’t talk about seeds as “parts” but
“portions”
- The OM has everything that can
“potentially exist” – containts in potential
all the finished things in the universe
- The largest proportion is the thing that
“exists” – ex. Gold—there is more Gold in
gold than everything else, there is more
Wheat in wheat than in everything else
- The seeds are the originative substances
of the world—but w/o the Nous, nothing
happens
- The mind is the shaping force, the original
mixture is the “matter”
- Anaxagoras was the first to start the
“infinite smallness” idea, how things will
eventually become too big if there was not
a limit to how infinitely small it is
- The “portions” are blended smoothly
- It might be possible that the “Mind” is
material – talks about it that is has to be
separate from the original mixture, b/c if
it is included it loses it’s power. If he
thinks that way, there is a possibility that
the Nous may be something material
- If we talk about OM, these are the raw
materials of everything that exists
- If the Mind loses it’s power, it has no
control over anything—there’s a
possibility that it is not something
metaphysical (in the way we think of the
mind today) it may also be something
material as well, something that did not
originate from the original mixture
- Two things that can be considered “what-
is”—(1) the original mixture (2) the Mind
(Nous)
- Although he uses the Parminedean idea of
“what-is”, he doesn’t agree that there is
only one “what-is” b/c the mind itself is
also uncreated and indestructible
o One is controlled by the other
- There is no birth or death, only
combination and division/separation (ex.
There is already the qualities of a baby in
the sperm—therefore it just becomes a
bigger version of itself, seeds already
contain seeds, therefore it just
grows/divides to become independent
seeds)
- Your body is a composition of everything
else, and when people die, “everything”
else simply separates and goes back to the
original mixture
 - Combination and separation is his way of
describing alteration “change”, there is no
such thing as birth and death

Fragments
- F10 – talks about the vortex, being a
product of this rotation (reminded
through Anaximander)
- F1 – describes the original state
- F2-F3 – talks about the infinitude of
mixture (inexhaustible source)
- F4 – everything are compounds of what
was present in the original mixture
- F5 – there are more worlds than our own
(also from the original mixture)
o He’s not only talking about a different
world, he also talks about different
universes (might be one of his
thought experiments) – but all just
comes from the original mixture
- F6 – reminds us of Heraclitus, talks about
connectedness
- T2,T3 – reminds us of Parmenides
- T5 – Empedocles is mentioned in
comparison to Anaxagoras – the earth is
flat and stays suspended
- T7 –Theophrastus says that Anaximander
and Anaxagoras, things are attracted to
 one another, what Is gold becomes gold,
what is earth becomes earth
- T11 – from Aristotle, anaxagoras and
Democritus that the milky way is the light
of certain
- T12 – talks about plants
- T13 – talks about animals
- F19 – greek usage of “destruction” and
“generation” is incorrect—it is more of
combination and separation/dispersal

Perception for Anaxagoras – why are we capable

of perceiving things? (refer to T16)

- because we have “everything else” – like

is attracted to like – if we contain flesh
and bones and everything else—and
pieces of wood also contains dominantly
what they are—then it becomes possible
for us to perceive other objects
- like can “know” like

we’ll talk about Satan read empidocles and the

atomists, then Protagoras and gorjas? Then
socarates then quiz