Editing Anaxagoras (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Jose de Ribera - Anaxagoras.jpg|thumb|''Anaxagoras'' (1636) by [[Jusepe de Ribera]]]]
Anaxagoras wrote a book of philosophy, but only fragments of the first part of this have survived, through preservation in the work of [[Simplicius of Cilicia]] in the 6th century AD.{{efn|Simplicius}}

Anaxagoras's book was reportedly available for a drachma in the [[Ancient Agora of Athens|Athenian]] [[agora|marketplace]].{{sfn|Curd|2019|loc=1}} It was certainly known to [[Sophocles]], [[Euripides]], and [[Aristophanes]], based on the contents of their surviving plays,{{sfn|Curd|2019|loc=1}} and possibly to [[Aeschylus]] as well, based on the testimony of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]].{{sfn|Curd|2019|loc=1}} However, although Anaxagoras almost certainly lived in Athens during the lifetime of Socrates (born 470 BC), there is no evidence that they ever met. In the ''[[Phaedo]]'', Plato portrays Socrates saying of Anaxagoras as a young man: 'I eagerly acquired his books and read them as quickly as I could'. However, Socrates goes on to describe his later disillusionment with his philosophy.{{efn|Plato, ''Phaedo'', 85b}} Anaxagoras is also mentioned by [[Socrates]] during his trial in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology]]''.

He is also mentioned in Seneca's Natural Questions (Book 4B, originally Book 3: On Clouds, Hail, Snow). It reads: "Why should I too allow myself the same liberty as Anaxagoras allowed himself?"

The Roman author [[Valerius Maximus]] preserves a different tradition; Anaxagoras, coming home from a long voyage, found his property in ruin, and said: "If this had not perished, I would have"—a sentence described by Valerius as being "possessed of sought-after wisdom".{{sfn|Curd|2007}}{{efn|Val. Max., VIII, 7, ext., 5: ''Qui, cum e diutina peregrinatione patriam repetisset possessionesque desertas vidisset, "non essem – inquit "ego salvus, nisi istae perissent." Vocem petitae sapientiae compotem!''}}

[[Dante Alighieri]] places Anaxagoras in the First Circle of Hell (Limbo) in his ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' (''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', Canto IV, line 137).

Chapter 5 in Book II of [[De Docta Ignorantia]] (1440) by [[Nicholas of Cusa]] is dedicated to the truth of the sentence "Each thing is in each thing" which he attributes to Anaxagoras.

Anaxagoras appears as a character in the second Act of ''[[Faust, Part Two|Faust, Part II]]'' by [[Goethe|Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]].

[[Friedrich Nietzsche]] also frequently mentions Anaxagoras in the later chapters of his book entitled [[Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks]]. He speaks fondly of Anaxagoras's [[nous]], and defends the idea by claiming philosophers had "failed to recognize the meaning of Anaxagoras's [nous]&nbsp;..." and believed that it was "perfectly sufficient for his insight to have found a motion which is capable of
creating visible order in a thoroughly mixed chaos, by means of a simple continuous action."<ref>{{cite book |last=Nietzsche |title=Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks |pages=115–116 |year=1873}}</ref> Nietzsche believes it is essential to understand Anaxagoras's nous as a sort of act of free will, not determined by any previous action before.