1884); Goebel and Garnsey, Outlines of Classification and Special Morphology (Oxford, 1887); Strasburger, Noll, Schenck, and Schimper, A Text Book of Botany, translated by Porter (New York, 1898); Vines, Students' Text Book of Botany (New York, 1895).
AN'AXAG'ORAS (Gk. 'AvainyOfm) (c. 500-
428 B.C.). The last great philosopher of the
Ionian School. He was born between 500 and
496 B.C. at Clazomenie, in Ionia, the son of Hege-
siluilus. His faniily was wealthy and distin-
gxiished, so that the young Anaxagoras was able
to devote himself to intellectual pursuits. Soon
after the Persian Wars he moved to Athens,
where he lived and- taught many years, thus
transplanting philosophy from Ionia to Attica,
Axhicli was destined to be its home for many
centuries. Among his pupils were some of the
most distinguished Athenians, Pericles, Euripi-
des, possibly Socrates and Archelaus. But after
about thirty years' residence lie was charged
with impiety toward the gods, apparently by the
opponents of Pericles, who took advantage of
Anaxagoras's novel explanations of natural phe-
nomena to injure the statesman through his
friend. The eloquence of Pericles, however, se-
cured a reduction of the sentence from death to
banishment for life, and Anaxagoras, after some
wanderings, settled at Lampsacus, on the Hellespont. where he died in 428 B.C.
The teachings of Anaxagoras cannot be exactly determined in all points. Of his work On Nature, in which he set forth his system, we have only fragments. But it is clear that he made a distinct advance over the earlier Ionian philosophers in that he defined a new principle, intelli- gence or mind (vovq), as operating on matter, thus introducing a dualistic explanation of the universe in contrast to the materialistic monism of his predecessors. This dualism was further developed by Plato and Aristotle. The varied processes of change, growth, and decay were ap- parently explained to be the combining and sepa- rating of matter under the directing influence of intelligence. It was taught that matter is single in its nature, and consists of an infinite number of invisible atoms inconceivably small (dTTtpfiaTa, "seeds," named o^wiofitpf/ by Aris- totle): these in their original condition make the unformed primitive material, possessing no char- acteristics. When acted on by intelligence, they form individual objects we see about us; i.e., bars of gold, or iron, or copper are made up of the same material, but in each case intelligence has caused a result different from the others; and further, the processes of change produced by the spiritual principle are what we call natural phenomena. Intelligence acts from a point, the pole, setting the "seeds of matter" into spherical motion. By this movement the lighter parts are separated from the heavier, the former to be the clear, glowing upper air (ether), the latter to gather in the centre, and, by cooling, to become water, land, stones, and minerals. The heavenly bodies are masses of stone cast from the revolv- ing earth into the fiery ether, where they are heated and continue their courses, the sun being a mass larger than the Peloponnesus. Anaxa- goras's notions with regard to the moon's light, the cause of the rainbow, of winds, and of sound were fairly accurate. Plants, the lower animals, and man owe their existence and continued life to the Supreme Intelligence which resides in
them. In his doctrine of atoms, his "seeds," Anaxagoras approaches the teaching of the Atomic School. (See Democritus.) Naturally Anaxagoras did not conceive the nature of his spiritual principle clearly enough to be able to explain details satisfactorily, as Aristotle remarks in his Metaphysics; but his great service was that he turned philosophy from thought about things to the consideration of thought itself, and made that one of the most important subjects of speculative inquiry thereafter. Anaxagoras was also classed by Eudemus among the Greek geometricians. Plutarch ascribes to him a work on the quadrature of the circle, and asserts on the authority of Vitruvius that he wrote a theory on perspective. Consult Zeller, Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie (Leipzig, 1893). The fragments are edited by Schaubach (Leipzig, 1827); Schorn (Bonn, 1829); Ritter and Preller, Historia Philosophiæ (seventh edition, Gotha, 1888); and Lange, History of Materialism, Eng. trans. (Boston, 1886).
AN'AXAR'CHUS (Gk. 'Avafnp,rof, Anaxar-
clios). A native of Abdera, who accompanied
Alexander in the Asian expedition, and was
highly prized by him as a counselor and friend.
He was cruelly put to death by the Cyprian
prince Nicocreon. Consult Zeller, Gcschichte
der gricchischcn Philosophic (Leipzig, 1893).
ANAX'IMAN'DEK ((;k. •Al^aii^mr6pn^, An-
aximandros) (610-54G B.C.). A Greek mathe-
matician, astronomer, and philosopher. He was
born at Miletus, the son of Praxiades, and was
a disciple and friend of Thales, whom he suc-
ceeded as the head of the Ionian School. He is
said to have discovered the obliquity of the eclip-
tic, and certainlj' taught it. He appears to have
been the first to introduce in Greece the gno-
mon (an instrument for determining the sol-
stices) , and the poios (sun-dial). The invention
of geographical maps is also ascribed to him.
According to Simplicius and Diogenes, Anax-
imandcr approximated the size and distances of
the planets, constructed astronomical globes, and
wrote a work on geometrj' in ])rose. He seems to
have conceived of the universe as a number of
concentric cylinders, of which the outer is the
sun, the middle the moon, and the innermost the
stars. Within these all is the cylindrical earth.
As a philosopher, he speculated on the origin
(17 apxi?, he arche) of the phenomenal world: and
this principle he held to be the infinite or inde-
terminate {TO aTTcipuv, to apeiron) . This indeter-
minate principle of Anaximander is generally
supposed to have been much tlie same with the
chaos of other philosophers. From it he con-
ceived all opposites, such as hot and cold, dry
and moist, to proceed through a perpetual mo-
tion, and to return to it again. Of the manner
in which he imagined these opposites to be
formed, and of his hypothesis concerning the
formation of the heavenly bodies from them,
we have no accurate information. It would
seem, however, that he did not believe in the
generation of anything in the proper sense of
the word, but supposed that the infinite atoms
or units of which the apxv, or primary
matter, is composed, merely change their relative
positions in obedience to a moving power resid-
ing in it. Consult Zeller, Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie (Leipzig, 1893).
AN'AXIM'ENES (Gk. 'Avaitpernc). A Greek historian, born in Lampsacus, Asia Minor, in the fourth century B.C. He was a pupil of Zoilus
