Anaxa——A Great Philosopher-Honkai:Star Rail

The official video account has explicitly named Anaxa as Anaxagoras:

"I am Anaxagoras, one of the Seven Sages of the Divine Enlightenment Academy, and the founder of the Intellect School. There's no need for me to elaborate further. First, do not call me Anaxa. Second, do not interrupt me—silence is golden. Remember that."

"Scholar of the Afterlife" Anaxagoras, Anaxagoras of the Divine Enlightenment Academy, a cradle of knowledge nurturing the academy and birthing philosophers. But the blasphemer Anaxagoras, questioning the golden descendants of "Reason," asks: "Are you willing to bear a bad reputation and defy prophecy, piercing the branches of doubt into the sacred tree of wisdom?"—"Foolish. This world is full of falsehoods, and only I am the truth."

However, if you are willing, we can see Anaxa as the embodiment of the entire Mileto School (the earliest philosophical school in the West). The "Seven Sages" correspond to Thales, the founder of the Mileto School and the earliest philosopher in the West. It is worth mentioning that Solon, the democratic reformer of Athens, is also one of the Seven Sages, and Pericles, another famous democrat, was a good friend of Anaxagoras.

The "Intellect School" corresponds to Anaxagoras' "Theory of Seeds." Before him, other representatives of the Mileto School focused on discussing the fundamental nature of the world. Thales believed that "water" was the fundamental element, while Anaximander claimed it was "the indefinite" (a very interesting and worth discussing concept! But unfortunately, Anaximander is not the main character of this article). Anaximenes said it was "air." Anaxagoras disagreed with explaining the fundamental nature with a single element and proposed the "Theory of Seeds": seeds are infinitely many, infinitely small, and have different properties. Therefore, Anaxagoras was hailed as the "pioneer of atomism."

Of course, the "Theory of Seeds" also has more interesting expansions. Hesiod described Chaos in his "Theogony," which is the origin of the English word "chaos," meaning "chaos." We know that chaos does not mean confusion but the original undifferentiated state. Aristotle said that the world is increasingly developing towards formalization, which is increasingly close to the "divine" clarity. This further explains how chaos as a primordial nature is possible. In Anaxagoras' view, chaos is like this: all seeds, which have not yet been clearly differentiated into something, are mixed together and gather into a vortex. The rotational movement of the vortex separates the seeds, making them independent, which is the beginning of the universe.

Anaximander (the one who proposed "the indefinite") and Anaxagoras' cosmic thoughts profoundly influenced later generations (far beyond people's imagination), but it is really impossible to expand on this in this article!

"The cradle of philosophers" not only refers to the Mileto School as the first Western philosophical school but also implies Anaxagoras' great contribution: following Anaximenes to Athens, bringing philosophy to Athens! This can be said to have opened the entire brilliant history of Western culture. I don't know if Star Rail plans to make Plato or Aristotle into new characters in the future. Although it is a bit strange to represent the entire ancient Greek philosophy with one character, relatively speaking, Anaxagoras is indeed suitable (although not the most suitable).

As for the "blasphemy" accusation that Anaxa bears, we cannot help but mention his outstanding contributions to natural science. Although some of his astronomical theories may seem ridiculous to us now, such as his belief that the sun is not much larger than Greece, he was the first to propose that moonlight is reflected sunlight and continued the work of Thales and Empedocles in explaining lunar and solar eclipses. He correctly explained that "lunar eclipses" occur when the Earth comes between the sun and the moon, and "solar eclipses" occur when part of the sunlight is blocked by the moon.

It was precisely because he did not regard planets as "gods," fearlessly conducting astronomical research, and trying to explain various natural phenomena with a scientific perspective, denying the power of the gods, that he was accused of "blasphemy" and expelled from Athens. The "defying prophecy" mentioned in the copy also describes this. Hegel pointed out that the ancient Greeks were superstitious about so-called "oracles," which is a superstition of contingency, while Anaxagoras' early scientific research was undoubtedly an attempt to grasp necessity. Marx said, "Freedom is the recognition and mastery of necessity."

Although I myself am critical of modern scientism and rationalism, in any case, the victory of science over superstition is always worth encouraging. It is not convenient to expand on this here.

As for the "reason" emphasized in the copy, it is also a point where Anaxagoras has a profound impact on later generations. As mentioned above, the "seeds" themselves are motionless, and what makes them move is "Nous" (i.e., reason), which is the so-called "first cause," the source of the movement of all things, and the planner of the entire orderly universe (you know, the word "universe" contains both temporality and spatiality). It is easy for us to think about how much inspiration this thought gave to Plato, Aristotle, and then to the entire tradition of Western idealist and rationalist philosophy from Descartes to Hegel. Hegel's "absolute" is "Nous." In short, Anaxagoras laid the foundation for a major research direction in Western philosophy for the next two thousand years.

And here I have a speculation. In the Neoplatonist Plotinus, "Ena" is the highest entity (which can be understood as "God" in the sense of Christian theology), and "Nous" is the second entity that "emanates" from Ena. And we know that "Ena" is the name of the Order Star God in "Star Rail." Since Anaxa is modeled after Anaxagoras, will he have some special relationship with the Order Star God?

Finally, let's take a look at the sentence "This world is full of falsehoods, and only I am the truth." It undoubtedly has a close relationship with Anaxagoras' rationalism ("Nous"). Rationalism means doubt, which is fully reflected in Descartes. Descartes doubted all knowledge and his own perceptual abilities, demanding confirmation of the validity of his own cognition. This is consistent with "This world is full of falsehoods." And "only I am the truth" is also similar to Descartes' assertion: the only thing I cannot doubt is that I am thinking, because my "doubt" itself is a kind of thinking. This is "Cogito, ergo sum." We cannot simply say that Anaxa also represents Descartes, but at least, his character portrayal does not violate the basic history of rationalist philosophy.

In addition, as mentioned above, Anaxagoras was good friends with the democratic leader Pericles, and Anaxagoras himself was also a democrat. In ancient Greece, many philosophers opposed democracy, such as Plato, who believed that Athens' democracy killed Socrates. In his view, the masses were too ignorant to decide the life and death of others, which was a dangerous thing. The country should be ruled by philosophers. Rome did have a "philosopher king," who was the author of "Meditations," Marcus Aurelius. Some people say that Aglaja is like Caesar, but could there also be elements of Marcus Aurelius? But, Regardless, the current character design of Anaxa is still quite similar to that of the Dr. Ratio. If Anaxa could be portrayed as a democrat, it would undoubtedly be a unique feature, and it would also align more closely with his prototype. I am looking forward to it.The prototype of Anaxa—Anaxagoras, who opposed superstition with natural science and opposed tyranny with democracy, brought philosophy to Athens and atomism to the world, can be said to have ignited a torch of thought in the long river of history. Anaxagoras is great.