Anaxagoras
~500–428 BCE · Greek (Clazomenae) · Classical Greece
Known for: Said the sun is a hot rock bigger than the Peloponnese — prosecuted for impiety in Athens, saved by Pericles
Anaxagoras proposed that all matter contains a portion of everything (his theory of 'seeds') and introduced Nous (Mind) as the ordering principle of the cosmos. He correctly identified the sun as an incandescent stone and explained eclipses.
He was prosecuted for impiety in Athens and saved by his friend Pericles.
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