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Anaxagoras

Historical Figure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Pre-Socratic philosopher who proposed that mind (nous) ordered the cosmos and that all matter contains infinitesimal portions of everything.

Detailed Definition
Anaxagoras introduced the concept of nous as an intelligent cosmic force, influencing later poetic metaphors for divine order and hidden unity. His idea that all things contain seeds of all other things resonates in poetry exploring interconnectedness and the microcosm-macrocosm relationship.
Example
Example in poetry:
Anaxagoras, who claimed mind (nous) governs the cosmos, is evoked in cosmic poetry: "Before the stars were named, Anaxagoras said a Mind set them spinning—a thought before time"; A poem imagines: "In every seed, a fragment of the whole, as Anaxagoras taught: chiliarchies in a grain of sand"; A haiku-like verse: "Snow falls in order—/ not chaos, but nous, said / Anaxagoras"; A metaphysical line: "Even this sorrow contains a sliver of sun-stuff, per Anaxagoras’ infinite mixture"
Additional Notes
Anaxagoras introduced nous (mind) as the cosmic ordering principle, rejecting mythological causation and proposing that all matter contains infinite, inseparable portions; his idea that perception reveals only partial truths influenced later epistemological skepticism and appears in lyric poetry as a motif of fragmented perception, where poets like Empedocles or later Baudelaire evoke the mind’s struggle to grasp the underlying unity beneath sensory multiplicity.
Also Known As
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae
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