Anaxagoras biography summary rubric

Biography

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae was described by Proclus, the last major Greek philosopher, who lived around 450 AD as (see for example [4]):-

After [Pythagoras] Anaxagoras of Clazomenae dealt with many questions in geometry...

Anaxagoras was an Ionian, born in the neighbourhood of Smyrna in what today is Turkey.

We know few details of his early life, but certainly he lived the first part of his life in Ionia where he learnt about the new studies that were taking place there in philosophy and the new found enthusiasm for a scientific study of the world.

Ancient greek philosophers book

He came from a rich family but he gave up his wealth. As Heath writes in [4]:-

He neglected his possessions, which were considerable, in order to devote himself to science.

Although Ionia had produced philosophers such as Pythagoras, up to the time of Anaxagoras this new study of knowledge had not spread to Athens.

Anaxagoras is famed as the first to introduce philosophy to the Athenians when he moved there in about 480 BC.