ANAXARCHUS FROM ABDERA

He was born in Abdera, Thrace, and was educated by Diogenes of Smyrna, who in turn had been taught by Metrodorus of Chios, whose axiom was that he knew nothing, not even that he knew nothing.

During the period of Alexander the Great's campaign in Asia, Anaxarchus was a friend of Alexander, who held him in high esteem. Anaxarchus advocated that there was no criterion of truth and that the beings of the world were nothing but false and dreamy representations that people have in their souls. He followed the teachings of Democritus, embraced the doctrine that "happiness is the good" and set as his goal "bliss, dispassion and sweet adventure". For this reason he was accused of being a eudemonic.

Very little information survives about his philosophy, and he is considered to be a connecting link between the atomism of Democritus and the Pyrrhonian skepticism of Pyrrho.

He wrote a book On Kingship, of which only an excerpt has survived. He also dealt with the interpretation of the Homeric poems.