Anaxagoras was the first of the pre-Socratic philosophers, who visited Athens in 494 BC, transmitting there the richness and the originallity of Ionian School of philosophy. As a philosopher he taught Archelaus of Athens, Euripides the tragedian, and the demagogue Pericles with whom he remained a friend. He remained a resident of the city of Athens for at least thirty years.
According to Anaxagoras, the Mind (nous) is infinite and self-powered. Mind is the supreme principle, the greatest power, that is mixed with nothing but it exists alone itself by itself, whereas all other entities include a portion of everything.Mind is the purest of all entities, with a unique authenticity.
It is said that Anaxagoras was the first philosopher who elevated spirit above matter, whereby he started a new era in theology, which is not an isolated opinion since, e.g., Eusebius says that
Anaxagoras and his school were the first in Greece that talked about God. Anaxagoras was the author of a lost work On nature. The work was written in a beautiful and sublime style. As Plato and others relate, it was well-known and popular in Athens in the fifth century BC. Socrates knew the work well. Certain fragments and the major ideas of the work have been passed on by ancient philosophers and doxographers: Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Aetius, Hippolytus, and Simplicius.
In Lampsakos during his last years, Anaxagoras is supposed to have said that the Athenians missed him more than he missed them. He died in 428 BCE, much honored by the Lampsakenes.
Anaxagoras (500 BCE – 428 BCE)
