(no subject)
[The pre-Socratics'] doctrine is hylozoistic, dynamistic, evolutionistic, deterministic, and sometimes (as in Heraclitus) pantheistic. Of all the philosophers of this school Anaxagoras is by far the most notable, for he alone achieved the idea of an independent Divine Mind as the original mover and ruler of the world.
Why does Anaxagoras' theory of a separate Divine Mind make him the most notable? Because it's the most similar to the dominant modern Western religious idea? Why not say he's most notable because of his atomism? You could say that Parmenides is the most notable because of his proto-Kantian challenge; or that Empedocles is the most notable because he explains the platypus.
There's one thing that bugs me about this site, and that's that it's smugly biased towards theism of the Judaeo-Christian variety. It insists repeatedly that ancient cultures received an ancient revelation and so were monotheistic before they degenerated into polytheism, which... what?
But the essays and descriptions are good nonetheless, so I'll keep at it. I'll just rant and complain about it every time its biases run up against my own. ;-P
Why does Anaxagoras' theory of a separate Divine Mind make him the most notable? Because it's the most similar to the dominant modern Western religious idea? Why not say he's most notable because of his atomism? You could say that Parmenides is the most notable because of his proto-Kantian challenge; or that Empedocles is the most notable because he explains the platypus.
There's one thing that bugs me about this site, and that's that it's smugly biased towards theism of the Judaeo-Christian variety. It insists repeatedly that ancient cultures received an ancient revelation and so were monotheistic before they degenerated into polytheism, which... what?
But the essays and descriptions are good nonetheless, so I'll keep at it. I'll just rant and complain about it every time its biases run up against my own. ;-P