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Anaxagoras

mind, matter and cosmos

By Satyarth PanditaPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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Anaxagoras (courtesy: commons.wikimedia.org)

"Mind is God and God is mind" ~ Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras was a native of Clazomenae who is supposed to have settled in Athens afterwards. Most of the surviving fragments of Anaxagoras are believed to have their source in the one book that he is said to have written which deals primarily with the nature or doctrine of matter. Some of the doctrines of Anaxagoras find a similarity with the doctrines of Empedocles which contradict the coming into being of something from nothing. Anaxagoras’ theory of matter is based on the foundations of traditional cosmological doctrines and radical innovations. Many of his theoretical points find a similarity between the Ionian and the Pythagorean cosmological doctrines. Anaxagoras’ theory contradicts some of the Parmedian doctrines as well like the ‘all alike, one and altogether’ nature of what-is. Anaxagoras contradicts this by positing his theory of plural before Parmenides’ singular one. His theory also refutes Parmenidean non-divisibility of things by positing the continuous divisibility of all parts. His theory of matter puts forward an original undifferentiated mixture from which separation of things takes place. This idea was supported by Empedocles as well because he believed that genesis and destruction of things were but some kind of separation. Anaxagoras believed that the original mixture which was the source of generation of all beings, creatures and things was as unlimited, indefinite and diverse as the products that generated from it. The original mix was kind of like Anaximander’s Apeiron; indistinguishable and undifferentiated. For him, the things that existed at that point of time had always existed in the past. His theory of matter posits many arguments namely, ‘Everything in Everything’, ‘The Sum of Things’, ‘Infinite Divisibility’, ‘No Coming into being and passing away’ and many more.

By putting forward the idea of separation and mixing of things in the fragment B171, he clearly suggests that the matter that is prevalent in the universe has come into existence by the process of mixing in the original mixture in which everything was together and undifferentiated and that the passing away of matter is its dissociation from the mixture of which it was a part. The things present in this original mixture according to Anaxagoras were present but in infinitely divisible quantities. They possessed no individual identity in this mixture and hence remained as homoeomers.

According to Anaxagoras, in the beginning, everything was in chaos in the original mixture.

Another part of his theory of matter focusses on the idea that ‘Everything is in Everything’. He believed that a portion of everything was present in everything and that the matter resembled the thing which dominated in concentration in its body. That is to say, that if a piece of rock exists, then it must have in it all the elements or at least the traces of all the elements of the mixture in it in addition to the rock element. But since the rock element dominates in the concentration, therefore it brings about the formation of rock. This he suggests in ‘The Principle of Predominance’ which is also evident from the last line of the fragment B122. He supports this idea by the introduction of a chaotic mixture which was the source of all mixing and separation. But when he brings forth the idea of mind, he clearly distinguishes it from everything else by positing that the mind does not have the slightest trace of anything else but the elements of mind itself. For Anaxagoras, the mind is a matter which is pure, distinct and rules over all other elements, thus, bringing order to chaos. Hence, he is also credited with making a distinction of universe into matter and mind. To mind (nous) he attributed the movement of matter. Unlike the philosophers before him who were hylozoists claiming that matter could initiate its own movement, he refuted this notion by introducing mind as a separate external cause without which life would be inert and static. This mind was free from the idea of ‘Everything is in Everything’ and was according to him the first principal cause of motion. In B12 he credits the ability of mind or nous to rule the motion and change of universe to its unique and pure constitution.

representation of cosmos

Anaxagoras’ notion of mind has an essential role to play in his cosmology because for him it is the mind that has given birth to the cosmos. According to him, nature has a mind of its own and the mind initiates the motion/rotation of matter and then controls it within the realms of cosmos. This he also called as universal mind which controlled the minds of all the animals and humans, their motion as well as the motion of other things. This is evident from the fragment B133, which hints at the initiation of rotation and the subsequent separation and mixing of matter. According to B12, the expansion of the mixture proceeded inside out by virtue of the rotation caused by the mind. And since one of the characteristics of this mixture is being limitless and infinite, therefore it will go on expanding. In his cosmological doctrine, this rotation causes the lighter elements of the mixture to be directed towards the periphery of the whirl whereas it subjects the heavier ones towards the nucleus and thus founds the basis for the traditional Greek picture of Earth and surrounded by the other ingredients like air and water.

Anaxagoras believed in the idea of a universal mind.

He is the only philosopher to have included both the teleological as well as mechanical view of universe in his cosmology. By teleological view, he suggests that in the beginning mind acted as a teleological agent as it brought forward the motion of matter to be driven along a purposeful end or conclusion and thus bringing order to cosmos. Whereas the rest of his cosmological doctrines rest on a mechanical view of universe positing that evolution or movement of the nature or universe was driven by physical and mechanistic causes. This contradiction and mixing of ideas by Anaxagoras were the reason of discontent of other philosophers on his cosmological doctrines. Aristotle himself had some praises for Anaxagoras for having introduced mind as the principal cause of motion to which Anaxagoras eventually failed to keep up with.

From the works of Anaxagoras it evident that he was influenced by his Ionian predecessors especially Anaximander and Anaximenes and based some of his ideas and theories on the ideas set forth by them. However, his great achievement is reflected in his novel ideas of mind as the moving, ordering and ruling force in the universe and the theory of the structure of matter.4 Of these two novel ideas, the latter one due to its complexity met with a mixed response where as the former one due to its simplicity welcomed relatively a uniform treatment by the other philosophers.5

References

1 Generation and destruction are not rightly understood by the Greeks. For nothing comes into being or is destroyed, but from things that are is compounded and dissolved. And so, they should rightly call generation composition and destruction dissolution.

2 “While nothing else is like anything else, but each single thing is and was most clearly those things which it contains most”

3 And when Mind started motion, it was separate from all that was moved, and as much as Mind moved was all separated; and as things moved and were separated, the rotation greatly increased the process of separation.

4 A history of Greek Philosophy, Vol 2, W.K.C Guthrie, Pg 320

5 Vijay Tankha, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Pg 240

Bibilography:

1. Guthrie, W. K. C. A History of Greek Philosophy. Vol. 2

2. G.S Kirk & J. E Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers

3. Vijay Tankha, Ancient Greek Philosophy

4. Graham, D. W., 2010, The Texts of the Early Greek Philosophers: The Complete Fragments and Selected Testimonies of the Major Presocratics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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