Saturday, 22 November 2014

ANAXAGORAS



NAME: MUOGBO MICHAEL IZUCHUKWU
COURSE: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
COURSE CODE: SS/PHL/105
LECTURER: DR RONALD O. BADRU
DATE: JANUARY, 2013
CRITICALLY EXAMINE THE METAPHYSICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS OF ANAXAGORAS.
INTRODUCTION:
Philosophy as a discipline started from the west in the ancient Greek world, during the 6th century B.C to 4th century A.D (600B.C-400A.D). Etymologically, philosophy means lover(s) of wisdom. Philosophers starting from the onset of philosophy have been trying to identify the ultimate element(s) of reality.
  Anaxagoras just like his predecessors has his philosophical reflections to prove his points with regards to philosophy. Anaxagoras was part of the pluralists, who held and believed that reality is a composition of more than one “Element or Entity”. They are numerous.
Anaxagoras was the son of Hegesibulus and was born around 500B.C at Clazomenae. He was from Asia Minor and the first philosopher to settle at Athens. He later left Athens when he was prosecuted for impiety for his statement that the sun is a hot stone and the moon made of earth.
  Anaxagoras was Anaximenes’ disciple and among the disciples of Anaxagoras were Pericles and Euripides. Anaxagoras was the first western philosopher to rise above the level of matter to the level of immaterial and spiritual being in his postulation, and was the first to postulate the existence of ‘Atom’.[1]
  According to Anaxagoras, there is a particle of everything in everything except in the mind because it is not an individual thing to be found in everything. Here is a critical examination of Anaxagoras’ philosophy under three thematic concerns:
1.      The method and content of his philosophy.
2.      Evaluation: the merits and demerits of his philosophy.
3.      Conclusion.

THE METHOD AND CONTENT OF ANAXAGORAS' PHILOSOPHY
[2]Anaxagoras’ method of philosophy consists of his systematic, rigorous, and critical thoughts about philosophy and the cosmos in general. His style of reflection was not poetry but concise prose, not mysticism but rigorous science.
Anaxagoras’ philosophy is a composition or rather consists of metaphysical and epistemological facts. Anaxagoras just like his predecessor, Empedocus tried to reconcile the opposed positions of Heraclitus and Parmenides. Empedocus solution to this problem did not satisfy Anaxagoras, so he made a deeper metaphysical reflection to postulate that the elements postulated by Empedocus are combination of several other innumerable, infinite, and indestructible particles of indivisible units (Atom).
According to Anaxagoras, everything is the combination of the particles of everything, so he claimed that every substance contains a portion of every other substance but he clarified that out of these substances, one must dominate and that existents are named according to the particle that dominates in it. For example: a paper is called a paper because the particle of paper dominates in it, if the paper is burnt it will turn to ash why? This is because ash is the present particle dominating but according to Anaxagoras that doesn’t mean the particle of paper there is totally destroyed, it is still part of the constitutive elements.
The particles as postulated by Anaxagoras are infinitely divisible; there can always be a smaller but there can never be a smallest. He said that matter is composed of infinite material particles with each having its own properties. The particle combines and separates to bring about change in the dominating particle and the cause of the combining and separating off is the rotation of the heavenly bodies.
Anaxagoras postulated that the principle responsible for the rotation of the heavenly bodies is the Nous (a Greek equivalence of mind, intelligence, consciousness). According to Anaxagoras, the Nous is distinct from other things, it is the free source of all movement, and it has the knowledge of all things in the past, present and future. The Nous gives order to things that were to be, things that were now, and things that will be, it is responsible for the rotation of the heavenly bodies that brought the combining and separating off of the particles.[3]

EVALUATION: MERITS OF ANAXAGORAS’ PHILOSOPHY
        The merits of Anaxagoras’ philosophical reflection consists of his systematic method of clarifying the change and permanence positions of Heraclitus and Parmenides  when he said there is no absolute generation or destruction, and this implies that things are not totally change and also not totally permanent.
Another merit of Anaxagoras’ reflection is that he tried to be specific about the principle responsible for the other in the cosmos; the things he postulated and that he said is the Nous.
Anaxagoras was so rigorous in his reflections that he rose above the level of matter to the level of immaterial entity and that merited him a record of the first western philosopher to rise above the level of matter in his reflections.
DEMERITS OF ANAXAGORAS’ PHILOSOPHY
In spite of the merits of Anaxagoras’ philosophy above, I can still argue rationally that it still have some weaknesses. Anaxagoras was so careless about his choice of words; he used material qualifications like finest and purest for the Nous being an immaterial entity.
Anaxagoras made a complication of his words when he said “there is a particle of everything in everything except the mind”. As a philosopher who knows the principles of logic, Anaxagoras suppose to know that when he used the word every, it refers to the whole so there should be no exception.
Yet another complication in Anaxagoras’ philosophy is when he said that the particles are infinitely divisible and he also said that everything is ultimately made up of indivisible units (Atom).
CONCLUSION
Anaxagoras as earlier discussed is a pluralist who held that the constitutive elements of things are innumerable. In his metaphysics, Anaxagoras said there is a particle of everything in everything except the mind. Anaxagoras said that there is no total generation and no total destruction; he suggested that they should be referred to as commingling and dissociation.
There is order and chaos in the cosmos and according to Anaxagoras these are brought about by the Nous. The Nous according to Anaxagoras is the finest and purest of all, it has power over all things, and it is the motivational force that brought about separation of everything out of the original mixture. Anaxagoras’ theory of Mind provides the first hint of mind-matter dualism.
From the positions of Anaxagoras discussed above, I can deduce that Anaxagoras held that things are rather transformed instead of destroyed or generated and that nothing is new in existence. This is his reason for saying that the Greek philosophers did not have a correct notion of generation and destruction.


[1] The Cambridge Dictionary Of Philosophy, Second Edition; Cambridge University Press, 1998. General editor: ROBERT AUDI.
[2] The concise encyclopedia of WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, third edition: Routledge publication, 2005. Edited by Jonathan Ree and J.O. Urmson.
Basic Teachings Of The Great Philosophers: Anchor Books, Doubleday publications, 1989. By S.E Frost, JR, Ph.D.

[3] History of Ancient Philosophy: Urbaniana University Press, Bangalore 1998, by Dario Composta. Pg.75-77.

1 comment: