
Kozmosu Akıl düzenler. Felsefeyi Atina'ya o getirdi ve güneşin bir tanrı değil, kızgın bir kaya olduğunu söylediği için sürgün edildi.
Anaksagoras İonya'dan Atina'ya geldi ve orada yaşayıp ders veren ilk filozof oldu. Sonsuz sayıda tohumun her şeyi oluşturduğunu ve kozmosu Nous'un (Akıl) harekete geçirdiğini öne sürdü. Perikles'in dostuydu. Atinalılar, güneşin bir tanrı değil, kızgın bir metal kütlesi olduğunu öğrettiği için onu dinsizlikle yargıladı. Suçlu bulundu ve sürgüne gönderildi. Son yıllarını Lampsakos'ta geçirdi.

“Her şey bir aradaydı. Sonra Akıl geldi ve onları düzene soktu.”
“Güneş, Mora'dan daha büyük, sıcak bir taştır.”
“Zihin sonsuz ve kendi kendinin efendisidir, hiçbir şeye karışmaz. Her şeyin en incesi ve en safıdır, her şey hakkında tüm bilgiyi ve en büyük gücü taşır.”
“Güneş, Peloponez'den daha büyük, ateşten bir taş kütlesidir.”
İyonya'dan Atina'ya gelip orada ders veren ilk filozof oldu. Perikles'in yakın arkadaşıydı.
Around 480 BCE, Anaxagoras left Clazomenae on the Ionian coast and settled in Athens — the first philosopher, as far as we know, to make the city his permanent home. Athens was not yet the intellectual center it would become. He helped make it one. He brought with him the habits of Ionian inquiry: careful observation, skepticism toward myth, a belief that the world could be explained on its own terms. He would stay for roughly thirty years.
By around 460 BCE, Anaxagoras was at the center of the most important intellectual circle in Athens. Pericles was his student and friend — close enough that his enemies later used Anaxagoras as a weapon against him. Euripides may have learned from him. The tragedian's plays carry traces of his ideas: the role of mind in ordering chaos, the indifference of the cosmos to human hope. Anaxagoras taught that Nous — mind — had set the original whirl of matter in motion, then stepped back. The universe runs on its own. He watched it with clear eyes.
Güneşin bir tanrı değil, sıcak bir kaya olduğunu söylediği için dinsizlikle suçlandı. Mahkûm edilip Atina'dan sürüldü. Perikles onu kurtaramadı.
Around 450 BCE, Anaxagoras was put on trial in Athens for impiety. The charge centered on his claim that the sun was not the god Helios but a mass of incandescent rock, larger than the Peloponnese. The moon, he said, was made of earth and reflected the sun's light. These were not casual observations — they were a direct challenge to the religion of the city. The trial was also political. His friendship with Pericles made him a convenient target. He was convicted.
Convicted and driven from Athens around 450 BCE, Anaxagoras settled in Lampsacus, a city on the Hellespont. The citizens there welcomed him. He spent his final years teaching, and the community honored him after his death with an annual school holiday for children — a gesture that outlasted most monuments. When asked how he felt about leaving Athens and facing death, he reportedly said the road to the underworld is the same from everywhere. He had thought about the sky long enough. He was ready.
Anaksagoras, tüm kozmosu tek bir maddi başlangıçtan açıklama projesini Miletoslulardan miras aldı.