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Single Idea 22761
[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / D. Scepticism / 2. Types of Scepticism
]
Full Idea
Our lack of sureness in the senses is shown if we take two colours, back and white, and pour one into the other drop by drop, we are unable to distinguish the gradual alterations although they subsist as actual facts.
Gist of Idea
We reveal unreliability in the senses when we cannot discriminate a slow change of colour
Source
report of Anaxagoras (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE]) by Sextus Empiricus - Against the Logicians (two books) I.090
Book Ref
Sextus Empiricus: 'Against the Logicians', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Harvard Loeb 1997], p.47
A Reaction
[Sextus calls Anaxagoras 'the greatest of the physicists'] I'm not sure what this proves. People with bad eyesight can distinguish very little, but that doesn't prove scepticism. And there are things too small for anyone to see.
The
23 ideas
from 'fragments/reports'
21822
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Anaxagoras's concept of supreme Mind has a simple First and a multiple One
[Anaxagoras, by Plotinus]
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17995
|
Basic is the potentially perceptible, then comes the contrary qualities, and finally the 'elements'
[Anaxagoras]
|
20802
|
Snow is not white, and doesn't even appear white, because it is made of black water
[Anaxagoras, by Cicero]
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22761
|
We reveal unreliability in the senses when we cannot discriminate a slow change of colour
[Anaxagoras, by Sext.Empiricus]
|
13784
|
Mind is self-ruling, pure, ordering and ubiquitous
[Anaxagoras, by Plato]
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5118
|
Anaxagoras says mind remains pure, and so is not affected by what it changes
[Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
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2629
|
Anaxagoras was the first to say that the universe is directed by an intelligence
[Anaxagoras, by Cicero]
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7488
|
Anaxagoras was the first recorded atheist
[Anaxagoras, by Watson]
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631
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For Anaxagoras the Good Mind has no opposite, and causes all movement, for a higher reason
[Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
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22727
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Mind creates the world from a mixture of pure substances
[Anaxagoras, by ]
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550
|
Anaxagoras said that the number of principles was infinite
[Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
|
21383
|
The ultimate constituents of reality are the homoeomeries
[Anaxagoras, by Vlastos]
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13208
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Anaxagoreans regard the homoeomeries as elements, which compose earth, air, fire and water
[Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
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367
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Anaxagoras says mind produces order and causes everything
[Anaxagoras, by Plato]
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22726
|
When things were unified, Mind set them in order
[Anaxagoras]
|
5956
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Anaxagoras was charged with impiety for calling the sun a lump of stone
[Anaxagoras, by Plutarch]
|
18231
|
Anaxagoras said a person would choose to be born to contemplate the ordered heavens
[Anaxagoras]
|
21382
|
Things get smaller without end
[Anaxagoras]
|
21381
|
Germs contain microscopic organs, which become visible as they grow
[Anaxagoras]
|
13256
|
Nous is unlimited, self-ruling and pure; it is the finest thing, with great discernment and strength
[Anaxagoras]
|
480
|
Past, present and future, and the movements of the heavens, were arranged by Mind
[Anaxagoras]
|
481
|
Nothing is created or destroyed; there is only mixing and separation
[Anaxagoras]
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13257
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The senses are too feeble to determine the truth
[Anaxagoras]
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