Considering the impact of diet on physical, mental, and aesthetic well-being, the author sought to create a comprehensive picture of Dietetics - the art of living - through four books. However, as he wrote, it became clear that something important w...
What we are exploring: How did the concept of intelligence arise, and what is its connection to the ancient Greek word commonly translated as "mind"?
What's new: How did the ancient philosopher Anaxagoras define the mind?
What we will learn: Why is the idea of the mind considered unscientific, and how can recognizing this fact help us cultivate self-love?
1. "The rest (things) have a part of everything in themselves, but the mind is infinite, autocratic * and not mixed with anything, but only it exists by itself ..., it is the most subtle and pure of all things, it has perfect knowledge of everything and has the greatest power. And over everything that has a soul, both over the greater and over the lesser, the mind rules" (Pre-Socratics: Anaxagoras) [1].
* Autocratic - most likely a tracing from the ancient Greek αὐτοκρατορία from αὐτός (himself) + κρατέω (to rule), which means autocracy.
2. "And the mind rules over everything." Why are we now discussing the "dominance of the mind" when exploring the concept of "intelligence"? To answer this question, we should consider the essence of the concept of "intelligence." This can be done if we search for the source of this concept. Although the word "intelligence" is of Latin origin (intellectus - knowledge, understanding, reason), the source of this concept and its meaning were first formulated in ancient Greek philosophy [2]. But the word itself, related to the term "intelligence", is already found in Homer's epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", created approximately in the 9th-8th centuries BC [3, 4]. As far as our studies of ancient written sources allow us to know, the words knowledge, understanding, reason (mind), thinking ability, rational (from Latin ratio – reason), and mental (from Latin mentalis – mental), are derivatives of the ancient Greek word νοῦς (noûs – mind).
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
3. The source of the concept of mind. Soviet specialist in ancient history and philology, professor, doctor of philological sciences A. F. Losev points to the ancient philosopher Anaxagoras, who created the doctrine of "Mind" in the middle of the 5th century BC (noesis - thinking, noys - mind or reason, noema - thought, noein - to think) [4, 5]. Another Soviet specialist in ancient history and philosophy, professor, and doctor of philosophical sciences V. F. Asmus, studied the doctrine of "Mind" according to Anaxagoras [6]. According to their testimony, not all of Anaxagoras's works have survived. Nevertheless, the work of Anaxagoras has come down to us, where the deified and personalized "Mind" was the main entity in his theory of the origin and development of the cosmos (see epigraph).
• "And everything that will be and everything that was, everything that is not now: and everything that is, - all this was arranged by the Mind, just as it arranged the very rotation that the stars, the sun, the moon and the emitted (masses) of air and ether now perform" (italics by the author) (Presocratics: Anaxagoras) [1].
What did the ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras want to tell us with this? In the philosophy of Anaxagoras, "Mind" becomes a cosmic principle that organizes chaos and brings order to the universe. This can also be perceived as a statement that reason (in its highest form) is not only a human attribute but also the basis of everything that exists. Thus, in the context of the cult of the mind, this quote shows how the importance of reason is perceived as something that goes beyond human existence and directs not only our actions but also the very nature of the universe.
