Anaxagoras He was a Greek philosopher, Ionian, born in Clazomenae 30 km. west of Smyrna, in present-day Turkey, in 499 BC, he died in present-day Turkey at Lampsakos, Mysia.
Call for applications Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, according to Proculus he was the last great great Greek philosopher.
Born into a wealthy family, he gave up everything to dedicate himself entirely to science. Around 480 BC he went to live in Athens and was the first to teach philosophy to the Athenians. During that time Pericles was in power and they became great friends, which brought him some problems with opponents of Pericles.
Anaxagoras preached the theory that the sun was not a god and that the moon reflected the sunlight. Around 450 BC Anaxagoras was imprisoned for his ideas by opponents of Pericles. “The citizens of Athens passed a law allowing the prosecution of those who did not practice religion and taught theories about things on high. Under this law they persecuted Anaxagoras, who was accused of teaching that the sun was a red-hot stone, and that the moon was earth ”. This teaching was very important and was based on the doctrine of "nous" which was translated as mind or reason. He also said that initially "all things were united", and that matter was a homogeneous mixture.
He always used geometry in the service of astronomy, he was the first to correctly explain the eclipses of the sun and the moon.
While in prison he dedicated himself to solving the squaring of the circle, which would later become fundamental to Greek mathematics. But very few studies were recorded.