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.
Nice
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