Anaxagoras, << `an` ak SAG uhr uhs >> (500?-428 B.C.), was an early Greek philosopher. He argued that, in the beginning, the world was a uniform mixture of all the things that would later emerge during its development. Thus, nothing really comes to be or perishes in the world, and all change is merely rearrangement of the original components. He also argued that matter is infinitely divisible, and that everything has a tiny portion of everything else in it. A thing appears to be the thing that makes up its largest part. Anaxagoras introduced Mind as a cosmic principle. He regarded Mind as composed of exceptionally fine and pure matter. Its primary function was to initiate a rotary motion in the original mixture of the world. The rotary motion led to the separation of the various parts. Anaxagoras was born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor (now part of Turkey) but spent much of his life in Athens.
See also Pre-Socratic philosophy .
