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Full Idea
Anaxagoras, in his assertion of a Mind pure and unmixed, affirms a simplex First and a sundered One, though writing long ago he failed in precision.
Gist of Idea
Anaxagoras's concept of supreme Mind has a simple First and a multiple One
Source
report of Anaxagoras (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE]) by Plotinus - The Enneads 5.1.09
Book Ref
Plotinus: 'The Enneads', ed/tr. Mackenna,Stephen [Penguin 1991], p.357
A Reaction
The crunch question is whether the supreme One or Mind is part of Being, or is above and beyond Being. Plotinus claims that Anaxagoras was on his side (with Plato, against Parmenides).
Related Idea
Idea 21821 Plato's Parmenides has a three-part theory, of Primal One, a One-Many, and a One-and-Many [Plato, by Plotinus]
| 21820 | Parmenides at least saw Being as the same as Nous, and separate from the sensed realm [Parmenides, by Plotinus] |
| 21822 | Anaxagoras's concept of supreme Mind has a simple First and a multiple One [Anaxagoras, by Plotinus] |
| 21821 | Plato's Parmenides has a three-part theory, of Primal One, a One-Many, and a One-and-Many [Plato, by Plotinus] |
| 21818 | Being depends on the Good, which is not itself being, but superior to being [Plato] |
| 11286 | Primary being must be more than mere indeterminate ultimate subject of predication [Politis on Aristotle] |
| 11234 | The three main candidates for primary being are particular, universal and essence; essence is the answer [Aristotle, by Politis] |
| 11279 | Primary being is either universals, or the basis of predication, or essence [Aristotle, by Politis] |
| 11293 | Non-primary beings lack essence, or only have a derived essence [Aristotle, by Politis] |
| 11297 | Primary being is both the essence, and the subject of predication [Aristotle, by Politis] |
| 11232 | Primary being ('proté ousia') exists in virtue of itself, not in relation to other things [Aristotle, by Politis] |
| 21812 | Being is the product of pure intellect [Plotinus] |
| 21817 | The One does not exist, but is the source of all existence [Plotinus] |
| 21824 | The One is a principle which transcends Being [Plotinus] |
| 22103 | Being is basic to thought, and all other concepts are additions to being [Aquinas] |
| 6920 | Being posits essence, and my essence is my being [Feuerbach] |