--Simplicius, in
"Arist. Phys." i. 33.[464]

[Footnote 462: Good's translation, bk. i. p. 325.]

[Footnote 463: Diogenes Laertius, "Lives," p. 59.]

[Footnote 464: Butler's "Lectures on Philosophy," vol. i. p. 305, note.]

Thus did Anaxagoras bridge the chasm between the Ionian and the Italian
schools. He accepted both doctrines with some modifications. He believed
in the real existence of the phenomenal world, and he also believed in
the real existence of "The Infinite Mind," whose Intelligence and
Omnipotence were manifested in the laws and relations which pervade the
world. He proclaimed the existence of the Infinite Intelligence ("the
ONE"), who was the Architect and Governor of the Infinite Matter ("the
MANY").

On the question as to the origin and certainty of human knowledge,
Anaxagoras differed both from the Ionians and the Eleatics. Neither the
sense alone, nor the reason alone, were for him a ground of certitude.
He held that reason (logos) was the regulative faculty of the mind, as
the Nous, or Supreme Intelligence, was the regulative power of the
universe. And he admitted that the senses were veracious in their
reports; but they reported only in regard to phenomena. The senses,
then, perceive _phenomena_, but it is the reason alone which recognizes
_noumena_, that is, the reason perceives being in and through phenomena,
substance in and through qualities; an anticipation of the fundamental
principle of modern psychology--"_that every power or substance in
existence is knowable to us, so far only, as we know its phenomena_."
Thus, again, does he bridge the chasm that separates between the
Sensationalist and the Idealist. The Ionians relied solely on the
intuitions of sense; the Eleatics accepted only the apperceptions of
pure reason; he accepted the testimony of both, and in the synthesis of
subject and object--the union of an element supplied by sensation, and
an element supplied by reason, he found real, certain knowledge.

The harmony which the doctrine of Anaxagoras introduced into the
philosophy of Athens, soon attracted attention and multiplied disciples.
He was teaching when Socrates arrived in Athens, and the latter attended
his school. The influence which the doctrine of Anaxagoras exerted upon
the mind of Socrates (leading him to recognize Intelligence as the cause
of order and special adaptation in the universe),[465] and also upon the
course of philosophy in the Socratic schools, is the most