10 - Mind Over Mixture: Anaxagoras
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Peter discusses Anaxagoras, focusing on his theory of universal mixture ("everything is in everything") and the role played by mind in Anaxagoras' cosmos.
Themes:
Further Reading
D.W. Graham, “The Postulates of Anaxagoras,” Apeiron 27 (1994), 77-121.
W. Mann, “Anaxagoras and the Homoiomere,” Phronesis 25 (1980), 228-49.
M. Schofield, An Essay on Anaxagoras (Cambridge: 1980).
G. Vlastos, “The Physical Theory of Anaxagoras,” in Philosophical Review, 59 (1950), 31-57.
Comments
Anaxagoras
I found it very interesting when you got into talking about teleology around minute five of that podcast, when you were criticizing Socrate's supposed approach to Anaxagoras' work. Would you say that Anaxagoras actually concerned himself with teleology?
In reply to Anaxagoras by Luke Cash
Anaxagoras on teleology
Hi Luke,
Thanks for your comments, I'm working on replying to them now! This is a tricky one. I think that the reason given by Socrates about why Anaxagoras should be interested in teleology is perhaps a reason to think he actually was: the talk of Mind, which suggests that the physical processes he describes are somehow being steered. On the other hand this later period of Pre-Socratic philosophy is distinctive in denying teleology -- think of Empedocles' "evolutionary" theory or, of course, the atomists. Maybe Socrates (or rather Plato) is right to say there is a tension in Anaxagoras' account here.
Peter
A prelude to Socrates... and monotheism?
Anaxagoras theory of the mind steering everything seems to call forth the idea of a power - in this case the mind - that is the reason for creation, and courses through us all. Though Socrates may have been a bit turned off by Anaxagoras' interest in physical process, we can find that Anaxagoras took his philosophy of the mind as the creator and finding proof for it the physical world around him. It is hard to doubt that Socrates, from coming into contact with Anaxagoras, comes to create his philosophy of forms, his love of the "good", and in many ways his creation of what comes to be the Christian god - the mind, the creator, the one that is, as Anaxagoras says, "above everything else."
I would like to mention that this podcast has brought to light a period of philosophy that I was ignorant of in many ways and now find that it is indeed the foundation upon which our principal western philosophers seem to rest upon. I also find it interesting that once we have our first philosopher, Thales, we are already beginning to abandon "the gods", and move to a more simplified and central figure. "God", the mind, whatever it may be called, these philosophers seem driven to move towards a principal, SINGLE reason/foundation for creation to be founded upon. Taking this into light, do you think polytheism to be an aspect of culture from an earlier intellectual period, when nature, the wilderness and barbarism were still the leading forces of the times? What truly attributes to the fall of "the gods"?
Once again Professor Adamson, this has been a wonderful podcast. I find it one of the treasures of the internet, allowing me to have conversation and discourse with these great philosophers, their ideas, and to have at your behest a wonderful analysis of these great thinkers. With great joy to look I forward to the rest of your podcasts - wonderful!
In reply to A prelude to Socrates... and monotheism? by Brandon
Mono- vs Poly-theism
Thanks very much for the encouraging comments about the podcast! Regarding your question about monotheism, I would largely agree that ancient philosophers tended towards a more single-principle explanation of the universe -- albeit that sometimes this took materialist forms, as in the Stoics. But there is a major caveat: late ancient Platonists go for a single first principle (the One) but integrate many divine beings into the system produced by that principle. I don't think there was any inevitability that monotheism should win out, and we should also remember that in other cultures religious systems that from a European perspective would be called "polytheistic" (e.g. Hinduism) have continued in conditions that were far from barbaric!
The mixing of the unmixed
Mixing water and wine?
This involves mixing the unmixed to created the unmixed, for nothing can exists in a mixed state since all is the same (everything) and yet it is a higher state of mixture that truly does mix.
Your Titles, Man
Are your titles always s cringeworthy? I love this podcast, by the way. 3
In reply to Your Titles, Man by Matt
Beyond the Cringe
Thanks! If there are titles that aren't cringeworthy that just means I couldn't come up with one.
Anaxagoras
Socrates dismissed Anaxagoras on the grounds explained in the "Phaedo", mentioning that Anaagoras's explanation amounted to the same thing as explaining that he--Socrates--chose to be where he was (imprisoned) because his physical constitution is made up of bones and sinews etc., that move, and these explain the reason why he is where he is. This completely fails to account for the real reason for Socrates being imprisoned and that's to be found in Socrates's mind. He chose to accept the penalty imposed on him. The issue is not what makes the world the best possible place, but the issue is 'causation.' What is the cause for the world's being? Leibniz puts the question: "Why is there something rather than nothing?" It is this same question that lies at the heart of Scorates's dismissal of Anaxagoras. This point seems lost in the discussion on Anaxagoras.
In reply to Anaxagoras by Ray Liikanen
Socrates on Anaxagoras
Yes, definitely. I do discuss this in the episode on the Phaedo, so stay tuned and you'll get to it.
Philosophical succession
There are traces of Anaxagoras' everything in the world is for the best idea with (much later) Leibniz's "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds” as paradied by Voltaire's philosopher Pangloss in his novel Candide. I'm so enjoying this series and how my patchy understanding of thought is being increasingly glued by the resin of your research and voice, Peter. Thank you! This is a chance to see or at least sense intellectual succession, which is otherwise murled or laboured over by the entanglements of history and everyday life. This series is like a giant philosophical compost, building layer upon layer the slow formation of patriarchal (and reified) culture, and the long descent into abstraction, institutionalism and ecological destruction. I'm in! Patrick
In reply to Philosophical succession by Permapoesis
Panglossian
Thanks, I'm glad you find the series helpful! That idea that the universe is maximally well designed or the best of all possible worlds is going to come up a lot in the series; perhaps surprisingly it is already denied sometimes by medieval thinkers, like Aquinas who says that the world will always be infinitely worse than God so that it cannot ever meaningfully be said to be "best possible."
Samkhya
having listened to the India episodes and coming back to this. the fact that for Anaxagoras, mind is not responsible for the physical world but instead more related to consciousness sounds a lot like Samkhya where Prakriti is like that infinitely rotating physical world, but Parusha is like mind.
Anaxagoras, Democritus and Empedocles Tags
Missing Tags from the following 3 episodes (don't want to clutter your comment feed so from now on, I'll be listing several episodes under 1 comment).
Regarding Anaxagoras missing themes;
1. Matter
2. Physics
3. Cosmology
Your excerpt 'Peter discusses Anaxagoras, focusing on his theory of universal mixture ("everything is in everything") and the role played by mind in Anaxagoras' cosmos.'
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anaxagoras/
Taken from this episode and this article from Stanford edu, you could also include Epistemoloogy as that correlates to his idea on the Mind.
Regarding Democritus and the Atomists missing themes
Peter you added the tag Cosmology but forgot to include the other tags I mentioned on his page
1. Being and Existence
2 - Epistemology (you spent the 2nd half of the episode talking about this theme in that episode)
3. Soul and the Self Tag
I also mentioned whether or not Mereology could also be a theme regarding their idea of the Atoms as body parts/soul
https://historyofphilosophy.net/comment/17365#comment-17365
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democritus/
Regarding Empedocles missing themes
1. Cosmology
2. Love and Sexuality
3. Matter - regarding the 4 elements
4. Physics
From your episode and this article
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/empedocles/
In reply to Anaxagoras, Democritus and Empedocles Tags by dukeofethereal
More tags
Good grief how did I miss Love for Empedocles? Thanks - I don't always take all the suggestions just to avoid having too many tags on individual episodes, but I am grateful to you for going through this and figuring out which ones would make sense.
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