"The endless sequence of explanation is explicit in Anaxagoras. Even the ingredients that go to make up something and account for its behaviour are themselves composed of ingredients which are themselves again composed of ingredients. [...] In every case, behaviour is a consequence of both the predominant features (which make it seem to be such and such) and also the hidden features (which can make it do otherwise inexplicable things). And this dual explanation will apply as much to the hidden ingredients as to the macroscopic items we encounter in daily life.But still it remains true for Anaxagoras that in principle the material composition (if we could know it in detail) would account for the current behaviour of each item in the world. Unless the thing is alive, that is. For living things, it looks as though the explanation must be supplemented by appeal to another principle, what Anaxagoras called ‘Mind’."
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Authors from GreecePhilosophers from GreeceMathematicians from GreecePhysicists from GreecePresocratic philosophers
Original Language: English
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Sources
Catherine Osborne, Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 4 : Reality and appearance: more adventures in metaphysics
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anaxagoras
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Anaxagoras
griechischer Philosoph und Schulleiter
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