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Single Idea 22726

[filed under theme 28. God / A. Divine Nature / 1. God ]

Full Idea

All things were together, and Mind came and set them in order.

Gist of Idea

When things were unified, Mind set them in order

Source

Anaxagoras (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE])

Book Ref

Sextus Empiricus: 'Against the Physicists/Against the Ethicists', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Harvard Loeb 1997], p.5


A Reaction

This is presumably the source for the passionate belief of Plato in the importance of order. Existence seems like chaos, with order residing beneath it, but we can wonder whether if we go even deeper it is chaos again.


The 9 ideas with the same theme [existence and role of a supreme being]:

Brahma, supreme god and protector of the universe, arose from the ocean of existence [Anon (Upan)]
Beside me there is no God [Isaiah]
Everything, including the gods, comes from me, says Krishna [Anon (Bhag)]
When things were unified, Mind set them in order [Anaxagoras]
Anaxagoras was the first to say that the universe is directed by an intelligence [Anaxagoras, by Cicero]
There is a remote first god (the Good), and a second god who organises the material world [Numenius, by O'Meara]
The key question for Spinoza is: is his God really a God? [Stewart,M on Spinoza]
God is the ideal end of the mature mind's final development [Green,TH]
The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life [Nietzsche]