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Anaxagoras

5th-century BC Greek philosopher

  • Fame72.4
  • Momentum10.0
  • Turkey rank#53
Source-basedStable
  • Fame72.4
  • Momentum10.0
  • Turkey rank#53
  • Academics rank#110
  • Wikipedia18.9K
Lived -500–-428, aged 72Turkey
Turkey flagTurkeyAcademicsAcademic
  • Wikipedia
    80 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Rank in Turkey
    #53
    Academics
  • Era
    -500–-428
    Aged 72
Summary
Updated 2026-06-08

He said the sun was a burning rock bigger than the Peloponnese — and got charged with impiety for it. Anaxagoras brought natural philosophy to Athens, then paid the price when reason crossed ritual.

Biography

About

Born around 500 BC in Clazomenae under Persian rule, Anaxagoras made his way to Athens and planted the seeds of materialist thought in the city's intellectual soil. Responding to Parmenides' denial of change, he proposed Nous — Cosmic Mind — as the force ordering all things. He worked out a correct mechanism for eclipses, floated the idea that life might exist throughout the universe (panspermia), and suggested the sun could be just another star. His claim that the sun was a fiery mass larger than the Peloponnese landed him in court on charges of impiety. He left Athens and spent his final yea…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras
saidundated
All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small too was infinite.
— Frag. B 1, quoted in John Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, (1920), Chapter 6.
Anaxagoras
saidundated
Mind is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone itself by itself.
— Frag. B 12, quoted in John Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, (1920), Chapter 6.
Anaxagoras
saidundated
Thought is something limitless and independent, and has been mixed with no thing but is alone by itself. ...
— Frag. B12, in Jonathan Barnes, Early Greek Philosophy (1984), p. 190.
Anaxagoras
saidundated
The sun provides the moon with its brightness.
— Fragment in Plutarch De facie in orbe lunae, 929b, as quoted in The Riverside Dictionary of Biography (2005), p. 23
Anaxagoras
saidundated
[W]e may assume [Anaxagoras] belonged to a family which had won distinction in the State.
— by John Burnet Quotes are from 2nd edition, Ch. VI. Anaxagoras of Klazomenai pp. 290-318.
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
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By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
72.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum10.0
Historical24.7
Now attention30.2
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
Global rank
—
Country rank
#53
Category rank
#110
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence