The Short Version
Calling Anaximander definitively "the first scientist in recorded history" overstates a contested scholarly opinion as established fact. The term "scientist" was coined in 1834, making it anachronistic for any ancient Greek. Multiple credible academic sources credit Thales of Miletus — Anaximander's own teacher — as the more foundational figure, while others name Aristotle, Ibn al-Haytham, or Galileo. The claim reflects physicist Carlo Rovelli's thesis but not scholarly consensus.