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Full Idea
Nous is unlimited and self-ruling and has been mixed with no thing, but is alone itself by itself. ...For it is the finest of all things and the purest, and indeed it maintains all discernment about everything and has the greatest strength.
Clarification
'Nous' translates as mind or understanding
Gist of Idea
Nous is unlimited, self-ruling and pure; it is the finest thing, with great discernment and strength
Source
Anaxagoras (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE], B12), quoted by Patricia Curd - Anaxagoras 3.3
Book Ref
'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.11
A Reaction
Anaxagoras seems to have been a pioneer in elevating the status of the mind, which is a prop to the rationalist view, and encourages dualism. More naturalistic accounts are, in my view, much healthier.
| 13256 | Nous is unlimited, self-ruling and pure; it is the finest thing, with great discernment and strength [Anaxagoras] |
| 23251 | The Stoics think that soul in the narrow sense is nothing but reason [Stoic school, by Frede,M] |
| 4833 | The human mind is the very idea or knowledge of the human body [Spinoza] |
| 22866 | Mind is never isolated, but only exists in its interactions [Dewey] |
| 3960 | There are no such things as minds, but people have mental properties [Davidson] |
| 2553 | The mind is a property, or it is baffling [Rorty] |
| 4969 | I regard the mind-body problem as wide open, and extremely confusing [Kripke] |
| 3295 | Inner v outer brings astonishment that we are a particular person [Nagel] |
| 11936 | The two ways proposed to distinguish mind are intentionality or consciousness [Molnar] |