| Title | Nous, the Concept of Ultimate Reality and Meaning in Anaxagoras |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Date | 1989 |
| Journal | Ultimate Reality and Meaning |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 248-255 |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | Silvestre, Maria Luisa |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| That the world of Anaxagoras is without any soul entails that Nous is for him the ultimate reality. It is not the end of our life, but the origin of the world and of ourselves. It is that which brings life and at the same time that which gives human beings the possibility of knowing anything whatsoever. This is all that we can deduce from Plato and Aristotle's presentation of Anaxagoras' doctrine on Nous. Simplicius cites a passage in which we can see that Nous is infinite, has power over everything, and knows the past, the present, and even future time: While other things have a share of everything, Nous is infinite, self-governing, and has been mixed with nothing ... For it is the lightest of all things and the purest, and maintains complete understanding over everything and wields the greatest power. And Nous controls all, large and small, that has life ... and whatever sort of things were to be—what were and are no longer, what are, and what will be—Nous put all in order. (B12; Sider, 1981, p. 94). We are not sure if Anaxagoras' Nous really was all that Simplicius attributes to it, but there can be no doubt that Simplicius, like Plato and every other interpreter of Anaxagoras' Nous, agrees that Nous is the ultimate reality in Anaxagoras' philosophy. In our view, Anaxagoras' Nous can be described as a force originating in the interior of the All, which suddenly frees itself and introduces a movement that upsets, separates, aggregates, and distinguishes. Yet at the same time, it is a rational force of understanding, since its characteristic function—understanding—for Anaxagoras means nothing else but putting persons and things in their proper places in relation to each other. [conclusion p. 254-255] |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/WLkg0ul3k8yw6Tq |
{"_index":"sire","_id":"1524","_score":null,"_source":{"id":1524,"authors_free":[{"id":2649,"entry_id":1524,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":404,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Silvestre, Maria Luisa","free_first_name":"Maria Luisa","free_last_name":"Silvestre","norm_person":{"id":404,"first_name":"Maria Luisa","last_name":"Silvestre","full_name":"Silvestre, Maria Luisa","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/1158446594","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Nous, the Concept of Ultimate Reality and Meaning in Anaxagoras","main_title":{"title":"Nous, the Concept of Ultimate Reality and Meaning in Anaxagoras"},"abstract":"That the world of Anaxagoras is without any soul entails that Nous is for him the ultimate reality. It is not the end of our life, but the origin of the world and of ourselves. It is that which brings life and at the same time that which gives human beings the possibility of knowing anything whatsoever. This is all that we can deduce from Plato and Aristotle's presentation of Anaxagoras' doctrine on Nous. Simplicius cites a passage in which we can see that Nous is infinite, has power over everything, and knows the past, the present, and even future time:\r\n\r\n While other things have a share of everything, Nous is infinite, self-governing, and has been mixed with nothing ... For it is the lightest of all things and the purest, and maintains complete understanding over everything and wields the greatest power. And Nous controls all, large and small, that has life ... and whatever sort of things were to be\u2014what were and are no longer, what are, and what will be\u2014Nous put all in order. (B12; Sider, 1981, p. 94).\r\n\r\nWe are not sure if Anaxagoras' Nous really was all that Simplicius attributes to it, but there can be no doubt that Simplicius, like Plato and every other interpreter of Anaxagoras' Nous, agrees that Nous is the ultimate reality in Anaxagoras' philosophy.\r\n\r\nIn our view, Anaxagoras' Nous can be described as a force originating in the interior of the All, which suddenly frees itself and introduces a movement that upsets, separates, aggregates, and distinguishes. Yet at the same time, it is a rational force of understanding, since its characteristic function\u2014understanding\u2014for Anaxagoras means nothing else but putting persons and things in their proper places in relation to each other. [conclusion p. 254-255]","btype":3,"date":" 1989","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/WLkg0ul3k8yw6Tq","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":404,"full_name":"Silvestre, Maria Luisa","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":1524,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Ultimate Reality and Meaning","volume":"12","issue":"4","pages":"248-255"}},"sort":[1989]}
| Title | Nous, the Concept of Ultimate Reality and Meaning in Anaxagoras |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Date | 1989 |
| Journal | Ultimate Reality and Meaning |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 248-255 |
| Categories | no categories |
| Author(s) | Silvestre, Maria Luisa |
| Editor(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
That the world of Anaxagoras is without any soul entails that Nous is for him the ultimate reality. It is not the end of our life, but the origin of the world and of ourselves. It is that which brings life and at the same time that which gives human beings the possibility of knowing anything whatsoever. This is all that we can deduce from Plato and Aristotle's presentation of Anaxagoras' doctrine on Nous. Simplicius cites a passage in which we can see that Nous is infinite, has power over everything, and knows the past, the present, and even future time:
While other things have a share of everything, Nous is infinite, self-governing, and has been mixed with nothing ... For it is the lightest of all things and the purest, and maintains complete understanding over everything and wields the greatest power. And Nous controls all, large and small, that has life ... and whatever sort of things were to be—what were and are no longer, what are, and what will be—Nous put all in order. (B12; Sider, 1981, p. 94).
We are not sure if Anaxagoras' Nous really was all that Simplicius attributes to it, but there can be no doubt that Simplicius, like Plato and every other interpreter of Anaxagoras' Nous, agrees that Nous is the ultimate reality in Anaxagoras' philosophy.
In our view, Anaxagoras' Nous can be described as a force originating in the interior of the All, which suddenly frees itself and introduces a movement that upsets, separates, aggregates, and distinguishes. Yet at the same time, it is a rational force of understanding, since its characteristic function—understanding—for Anaxagoras means nothing else but putting persons and things in their proper places in relation to each other. [conclusion p. 254-255] |
| Online Resources | https://uni-koeln.sciebo.de/s/WLkg0ul3k8yw6Tq |
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