Archelaus c. 490 BC – c. 405 BC
Archelaus of Athens was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, pupil of Anaxagoras and, according to a strong ancient tradition, the teacher of Socrates. He combined his master's doctrine of an ordering Mind with original speculations about the origin of life from a primal warm and watery earth and about the conventional, rather than natural, character of justice and law. He was sometimes called the founder of physical philosophy at Athens, since with him the Ionian tradition of natural inquiry took root in the city that would soon become its center.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Greek
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Pre-Socratic, Ancient Greek
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Archelaus:
“Justice and law exist by convention, not by nature.”
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Attributed to Archelaus:
“Living things first arose from a warm earth nourished by rain.”
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Attributed to Archelaus:
“Mind orders the world but is itself part of nature.”
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Attributed to Archelaus:
“All things are mixtures, and the qualities of each are the proportions of the mixture.”
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Attributed to Archelaus:
“Cold and heat are the formative powers of the cosmos.”