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Anaxagoras was born at Clazomenae on the Ionian coast. He was the first philosopher to settle in Athens, staying there 20 years under the patronage of Pericles. he died in Lampsacus c. 428.
Basic biographical information is offered by Diogenes Laertius ([12a1]). A claim that he wrote up an early map of the world is recorded ([Agathemerus]). Anaximander is reported to have written a book, On Nature, and a fragment from this book — the oldest fragment of philosophy in the west — is recorded in Simplicius ([12b1]). Anaximander’s ontology is described in several passages in Aristotle’s Physics ([Physics, i.4] [Physics, iii.4] [Physics, iii.5]), and his cosmology in Aristotle’s On the Heavens ([12a26]) and in Hippolytus ([12a11]). He also offered an evolutionary account of the origin of living beings ([12a10] [12a18] [12a30]).
Simplicius, Physics, 24, 13.
Aristotle, Physics, iii.4-5; On the Heavens, ii.13, 295b10.
pseudo-Plutarch, Stromateis, 2.
Hyppolytus, Ref., i.6.7.
Aetius, II-III.
Censorinus, de die natura, v,7.
plus many others (see Kirk & Raven).
Aristotle, Metapysics, i.3, 984a5
Aetius, i,3,4
Diogenes Laertius, ii.3
Theophrastus ap. Simplicium, Physics, 24,26
(and many more)
Founder of the Cyrenaic school
Born c.450-445, died c.404/3 [Nails].
Taught Zeno of Citium.
Heraclitean, and a teacher of Plato (Aristotle, Metaphysics, 987a32-b1).
"You can't step in the same river once."
Born c. 470 (in Croton or Tarentum). He is attributed as being the first to author a book among the Pythagoreans (On Nature).
Born in the 440's? [Nails] He appears as a character in Plato's Gorgias — represented there as impulsive and immature, but also as having already written a book, so he is an adult.
The traditional birth-year given to Thales — around 625 — is based on Apollodorus (as reported in Diogenes); but since he routinely estimated the birth-year by subtracting 40 years from some important accomplishment (thus, when the philosopher was “flourishing”), this date is quite soft. He was traditionally one of the Seven Sages of Greece [glossary].
The fragments concerning Thales involve the nature of the philosopher ([11a9] [11a10]), the eclipse that he foretols, his engineering feats, and his political acumen ([Herodotus]), his view of water as the underlying reality ([11a12] [11a14]), and his animism ([11a22]).
Thales is not recorded as having written anything, and no fragments of a text are extant.
[full]
Diogenes, Lives of the Philosophers, i.13, 22. [text]
Herodotus, Histories, i.74-75, 170. [text]
Plato, Theaetetus (174a). [text]
Aristotle, On the Heavens, ii.13 (294a13-35). [text]
Aristotle, On the Soul, i.2 (405a20-22), i.5 (411a7-8). [text]
Aristotle, Metaphysics, i.3 (983b6-27). [text]
Aristotle, Politics, i.11 (1259a5-18) [text].
Simplicius, Physics, 23, 29
Seneca, Questions on Nature, iii.14.
Eduard Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy.
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Copyright ©2006 Steve Naragon (Manchester College)
Last modified: 5/27/2007
Please send comments and questions to:
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