Anaxagoras

About Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae was a seminal pre-Socratic philosopher, born around 500 BCE, who helped shift Greek philosophical inquiry toward naturalistic explanations. His high ranking (#708) reflects his profound influence on later thinkers, including Socrates and Plato, by introducing concepts such as nous (mind or intellect) as the ordering principle of the cosmos, and suggesting that matter is infinitely divisible. He was also known for his cosmological theories, such as proposing that the sun was a massive, incandescent stone, which led to accusations of impiety and exile from Athens.

In the context of modern digital attention, Anaxagoras presents a moderate case study. With 180K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025, his digital footprint is not entirely absent, yielding an Attention Gap factor of approximately 1x relative to his established historical importance. However, this relative parity looks different when compared to his contemporary philosophers. For example, Epictetus (#998 importance) receives 360K views, meaning he draws double the attention despite a lower HPI rank. Conversely, a figure of vastly greater global historical importance like Musa I of Mali (#244 importance) garners only about 17K views, highlighting the broader, more extreme disconnects in historical visibility.

Interestingly, Anaxagoras's pageviews showed strong growth year-over-year, increasing by +47.7%, suggesting a recent surge in online interest, though this momentum slightly dipped by -10% between Q1 and Q3 of 2025.