![]() ![]() ![]() Piecing together the lives of early philosophers such as Anaxagoras, who is thought to have written just one book, lost to us today, can be a major challenge for historians. This seemingly innocuous belief would ultimately result in Anaxagoras’ arrest and exile.Īnaxagoras crater near the north pole of the moon, imaged by the Lunar Orbiter 4 spacecraft in 1967. He reiterated and expended upon an idea that likely emerged among his predecessors but was not widely accepted in antiquity: that the moon and sun were not gods, but rather objects. But Anaxagoras, who died around the time Plato was born, had a knack for astronomy, an area of study that requires careful observational and calculation to unlock the mysteries of the universe.ĭuring his time in Athens, Anaxagoras made several fundamental discoveries about the moon. Plato eschewed observation and experimentation, preferring to pursue a pure knowledge he believed was innate in all humans. Influenced strongly by the Pythagoreans, Plato posited a mystical universe based on sacred geometric forms, including perfectly circular orbits. ![]() Like Plato, Anaxagoras the scholar did most of his work in Athens, but the similarities between the two men stop there. Streaks of material thrown out during the impact that formed the crater extend 560 miles southward to the rim of another crater, this one named for Plato. The eponym is fitting, as Anaxagoras the man was one of the first people in history to suggest the moon was a rocky body, not all too dissimilar from Earth. Close to the north pole of the moon lies the crater Anaxagoras, named for a Greek philosopher who lived in the fifth century B.C. ![]()
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