- Lived:
- c. 500–428 BCE · born in Clazomenae, Ionia; worked in Athens; died in Lampsacus
- Tradition:
- Pre-Socratic; the Ionian science tradition, transplanted to Athens after Parmenides
- The Big Idea:
- Nothing truly begins or ends — the world is an eternal stock of ingredients being mixed and unmixed, and the mixing was set in motion by Nous: Mind.
- In their words:
- "In everything there is a portion of everything."
- If you remember one thing:
- He brought philosophy to Athens, put Mind at the head of the universe for the first time, correctly explained eclipses — and was put on trial for saying the sun is a blazing stone.