Single Idea 13784

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / c. Features of mind]

Full Idea

Anaxagoras says that mind is self-ruling, mixes with nothing else, orders the things that are, and travels through everything.

Gist of Idea

Mind is self-ruling, pure, ordering and ubiquitous

Source

report of Anaxagoras (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE]) by Plato - Cratylus 413c

Book Reference

Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.52


A Reaction

This elevation of the mind in the natural scheme of things by Anaxagoras looks increasingly significant in western culture to me. Without this line of thought, Descartes and Kant are inconceivable.