His infinitely divisible things, infinite in number, were originally all together.
In this sense Anaxagoras may be regarded as the author of the first molecular theory of matter. Nevertheless, as often as this process of subdivision was repeated, the resulting product always emerged as a unit of matter, however infinitesimally small it might be. All the things that were together were infinite not only in number but also in smallness: "Of what is small, there is no smallest part, but always a smaller." By contrast with the thinkers who maintained that matter consisted of those smallest units which were the atoms or indivisible particles, Anaxagoras believed in the infinite divisibility of matter. He was the first philosopher to declare the number of separate things to be infinite (the universe as a whole having already been described as infinite).Įach of Anaxagoras's infinitely numerous separate things could be divided and further subdivided endlessly. In direct opposition to this perpetually static monism, Anaxagoras propounded a constantly changing pluralism. It started with this assertion: "All things were together, infinite in number." This abrupt beginning was intended as a blunt contradiction of an earlier contention that the universe was "one continuous whole, which was not in the past," there being only an everlasting unchanging present. His book, written in prose, was entitled About Nature. Anaxagoras's views are preserved only in excerpts and summaries, more or less authentic.