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74. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 90–96.

75. Kalachanis, Theory of Big Bang, 31–32, 36–37; Wikipedia: False vacuum.

76. Yockey, Imperium, 99–101.

77. Yockey, Imperium, 102–104.

78. Yockey, Imperium, 104–105.

      Mind and Motion

The first known philosopher to teach in Athens, Anaxagoras (fifth century B.C.), introduced the perennially relevant notion of universal Mind, or Intellect, into Western thought. Both Mind and Intellect are translations of the Greek nous, which is the equivalent of the Latin mens.79 In the newly established cultural center of the Hellenic world, Anaxagoras soon earned the admiration of such luminaries as the statesman Pericles and the poet Euripides. With his unequivocal insistence on the role of universal Mind in the cosmos, as exemplified in both his life and his teaching, Anaxagoras earned the epithet Nous from the Athenians.80 His social standing notwithstanding, Anaxagoras would eventually be exiled from Athens on charges of impiety. According to the early Christian theologian Hippolytus (in his Refutation of all Heresies), Anaxagoras had taught, for instance, that the Sun, Moon, and stars are not gods but fiery rocks.81 Not surprisingly, this naturalistic view arose the ire of the guardians of the Hellenic pantheon. Banished to Lampsacus near Troy, Anaxagoras once again enjoyed high esteem there for the remaining few years of his life.

      The Activity of Mind

      In Anaxagoras’ prose work On Nature the cosmos is depicted as arising out of an undifferentiated mass (i.e., formless matter) through the action of Mind: “Mind is unlimited and self-ruled and is mixed with no thing, but is alone and by itself . . . For it is the finest of all things and the purest, and it has all judgement about everything and the greatest power. And Mind rules all things that possess life—both the larger and the smaller. And Mind ruled the entire rotation, so that it rotated in the beginning . . . And Mind knew all the things that are being mixed together and separated off and separated apart. And Mind set in order all things, whatever kinds of things were to be—whatever were and all that are now and whatever will be—and also this rotation in which are now rotating the stars and the sun and the moon . . . All Mind is alike, both the larger and the smaller” (Fragment 12); and also, “Mind, which is always, is very much even now where all other things are too, in the surrounding multitude and in things that have come together in the process of separating and in things that have separated off” (Fragment 14).

It appears from these fragments that Anaxagoras conceived of the cosmos as arising from a rotary motion of Mind, thereby causing a separating effect in the unlimited mass out of which the cosmos finally arises.82 In an alternative translation a section of Fragment 12 reads as follows: “Mind took command of the universal revolution, so as to make (things) revolve at the outset.” This activity of Mind explains the existence of a conscious order in nature, based on the principle of rotation or circulation. Moreover, since Mind ‘takes command of’ and ‘understands’ all things for a certain end or purpose, Anaxagoras should be credited with introducing the concept of teleology into Western thought.83 Teleology is the study of design and purpose (Greek, telos) in the cosmos, including the living kingdoms.

The omnipresence of Mind implies that it is unlimited (Greek, apeiron) in time and space. As commented by Richard McKirahan, “Mind’s unlimited spatial extent, its extreme fineness, and its lack of mixture with other things suggest that Anaxagoras is striving towards the notion of immaterial existence.” This implies that Mind is a metaphysical essence and not a physical one. In Anaxagoras’ conception, Mind is so fine that it penetrates and permeates everything (outside Mind itself) and causes them to move by its presence.84 The cosmological parallels between the universal Mind of Anaxagoras and the divine Logos of Heraclitus are notable, and could be attributed to Anaxagoras being familiar with the thought of his Ionian predecessor. Ultimately, since Mind is eternal and infinite, it brings order to the primordial chaos through the imposition of cosmic law.85 Thus, by transforming pre-cosmic chaos into cosmic order, Mind produces the physical world.

In the light of these statements, we could say that Anaxagoras is the father of philosophical Idealism in the Western world. According to this doctrine, reality is fundamentally mental in nature. In the Asian metaphysical traditions, Idealism also made an early appearance in the Vedanta and in Yogacara Buddhism (although the latter instance is disputed by some commentators). This philosophical tradition would be continued by Plato, the Middle Platonists, and the Neoplatonists, as well as their successors over the ages. They include several prominent physicists since the early twentieth century, when the crude materialism of some earlier scientists became undermined by the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. For example, the astrophysicist Arthur Eddington wrote about a cosmic ‘mind-stuff’ which underlies space and time, and which is therefore the primary thing of which we can have experience, with all else being remote inference. Another British astrophysicist, James Jeans, famously stated that the universe is beginning to look more like a great thought than a great machine.86 It thus appears that philosophical Idealism harbours a more valid explanation of reality than does materialism and its corollary, mechanism.

In the Western world, philosophical Idealism found its most lucid and comprehensive expression in Neoplatonism. Its hierarchical view of reality rests on two interrelated principles: the simple precedes the complex, and the intelligible precedes the sensible. Accordingly, the complex is explained by the simple and the sensible is explained by the intelligible.87 In terms of the ‘top-down’ metaphysics of Neoplatonism, the material is explained by the psychical, just as the latter is explained by the intellectual. In other words, the physical world is explained in the light of the metaphysical world. In this world-view, which is the precise opposite of a materialist one, “the material world can only be accounted for in terms of the non-material, the visible in terms of the invisible, the measurable in terms of the non-measurable.” Thus, Lord Northbourne concludes, “the ultimate truth is enshrined in the latter and not in the former [of each pair].”88

The cosmology of Anaxagoras is also relevant to other aspects of modern physics. In contrast to the commonly held view of his time on the separate realms of the gods and the cosmos, Anaxagoras postulates a bringing-together of the various levels of reality. In terms thereof, Mind indwells the physical cosmos while remaining unmixed with it, due to Mind being the finest and purest of all things. It has been remarked by a recent commentator that this world-view is reflected in modern physical theories such as the equivalence of energy and matter, and the substantial nature of the ‘vacuum’ of space.89

The teaching of Anaxagoras on Mind furthermore evokes a correlation between the macrocosm and the microcosm. Through his observations of the motions of the celestial bodies as well as his own mind/body interaction, Anaxagoras became convinced that the cosmos likewise consists of body and mind. Just as in the human being the mind activates the body and controls its motions, so does the universal Mind control

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