Nous

For the philosophy journal, see Noûs.

Nous, nou-, noe-, noos-, -noia (Greek: νοῦς, contracted from νόος, pronounced as "noose", when reading Greek, or "house" in English or "NOW-ss" in Australia) means intelligence, intellect, intuition, reason; common sense, or mind. It signifies a search for order by the part of the soul or mind that knows and thinks. In some forms of Greek mythology, order was imposed by an anthropomorphic father of all things, the Demiurge. In philosophy, there were three ordering principles:

1. arche - the source of all things,
2. logos - the underlying order that is hidden beneath appearances,
3. harmonia - numerical ratios in mathematics.

Platonism

Neo-platonismit is the name given specially to the last school of pagan philosophy, which grew up mainly among the Greeks of Alexandria from the 3rd century onwards. The term has also been applied to the Italian humanists of the Renaissance, and in modern times, somewhat vaguely, to thinkers who have based their speculations on the Platonic metaphysics or on Plotinus, and incorporated with it a tendency towards a mystical explanation of ultimate phenomena. More specifically (in metaphysics) the Theory of Forms are thoughts in the mind. The Greek word εἶδος (eidos) and eidonἰδέα ("I saw") is the basis as to how we use the English word idea today. Although Classical Greek ἰδέα is the ultimate source of our word, it would translate English "idea" only in the case of the Platonic Ideas. English "idea" has many senses; fairly broad terms include Greek doxa (plural doxai) and noēma (pl. noēmata), Latin sententia(pl. sententiae) and notio (pl. notiones). Ideas are associated with the capacity of the mind for reason, self-reflection, and the ability to acquire and apply intellect through the use of intuition and common sense. Ideas give rise to concepts, which are the basis for any kind of knowledge whether science or philosophy.

In Western philosophy of Neo-Pythagoreanism and Neoplatonism there exists several levels of Being, the highest of which is that of the One or the Good, which are identical but indescribable and indefinable in human language. The next lower level is that of nous (pure intellect or reason); the third is that of the soul. There then follows the world perceived by the senses. Finally, at the lowest level there is matter.

In Greek Platonism from Aristotle through Middle Platonism its nature and history was the desire to give expression to their transcendent perfection that kept the heavenly spheres rotating. Man's intellect at its highest was akin to them. This Aristotelian doctrine of Intellect (nous) was easily recombined with Platonism in later antiquity.

In Augustinian Platonism it is a basis for metaphysical or religious thinking. This must be the result of the presence in the soul of higher realities and their action upon it. In Plotinus the illumination of the soul by Intellect and the One was the permanent cause of man's ability to know eternal reality. Augustine of Hippo was at this point very close to Plotinus, though for him there was a much sharper distinction.

In the philosophy of Aristotle the soul (psyche) of a thing is what makes it alive; thus, every living thing, including plant life, has a soul. The mind or intellect (nous) can be described variously as a power, faculty, part, or aspect of the human soul. It should be noted that for Aristotle "soul" and "intellect" are basically the same.

Plotinus

Of the later Greek and Roman writers the Neo-Platonist Plotinus deserves to be mentioned. According to him, objective reason (nous) as self-moving, becomes the formative influence which reduces dead matter to form. Matter when thus formed becomes a notion (logos) and its form is beauty. Objects are ugly so far as they are unacted upon by reason and therefore formless. The creative reason is absolute beauty. There are three degrees or stages of manifested beauty:

1. that of human reason, which is the highest;
2. that of the human soul, which is less perfect through its connexion with a material body;
3. that of real objects, which is the lowest manifestation of all.

As to the precise forms of beauty, he supposed, in opposition to Aristotle, that a single thing not divisible into parts might be beautiful through its unity and simplicity. He gives a high place to the beauty of colors in which material darkness is overpowered by light and warmth. In reference to artistic beauty he said that when the artist has notions as models for his creations, these may become more beautiful than natural objects. This is clearly a step away from Plato's doctrine towards our modern conception of artistic idealization.

Anaxagoras

The philosopher Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, born about 500 BC, introduced a new factor, nous (mind), which arranged all other things in their proper order, started them in motion, and continues to control them. In the philosophy of Anaxagoras the most original aspect of the Anaxagoras' system was his doctrine of nous (“mind” or “reason”). The cosmos was formed by mind in two stages: first, by a revolving and mixing process that still continues; and, second, by the development of living things. In the first, all of “the dark” came together to form the night, “the fluid” came like water in some form or other; later thinkers added air, fire, and earth to the list of fundamental elements. There is still controversy as to how his concept of Mind is to be all of these particles that had existed in an even mixture, in which nothing could be distinguished, much like the indefinite apeiron of Anaximander. But then nous ("intelligence") began at one point to set these particles into a whirling motion, foreseeing that in this way they would become separated from one another and then recombine.

Anaxagoras elaborated a quasi-dualistic theory according to which all things have existed from the beginning. Originally they existed in infinitesimal fragments, infinite in number and devoid of arrangement. Amongst these fragments were the seeds of all things which have since emerged by the process of aggregation and segregation, wherein homogeneous fragments came together. These processes are the work of nous which governs and arranges. But this nous ("mind") is not incorporeal; it is the thinnest of all things; its action on the particle is conceived materially. It originated a rotatory movement, which arising in one point gradually extended till the whole was in motion, which motion continues and will continue infinitely. By this motion things are gradually constructed not entirely of homogeneous particles, but in each thing with a majority of a certain kind of particle. It is this aggregation which we describe variously as birth, death, maturity, decay, and of which the senses give inaccurate reports. His vague dualism works a very distinct advance upon the crude hylozoism of the early Ionians, and the criticisms of Plato and Aristotle show how highly his work was esteemed. The great danger is that we should credit him with more than he actually thought. His nous was not a spiritual force; it was no omnipotent deity; it is not a pantheistic world-soul. But by isolating Reason from all other growths, by representing it as the motor-energy of the Cosmos, in popularizing a term which suggested personality and will, Anaxagoras gave an impetus to ideas which were the basis of Aristotelian philosophy in Greece and in Europe at large. The last of the Ionians whom we need mention is Hippolytus, who, like Archelaus, is intellectually amongst the earlier members of the school. He thought that the source of all things was moisture and is by Aristotle coupled with Thales (Metaphysics).

Form of Good

The Form of the Good or "The Idea of the Good" in Plato's philosophy was identified with God by Augustine of Hippo (a.k.a. Saint Augustine). The Form of Good is, in fact, the counterpart of the nous (mind) of Anaxagoras (another of Plato's predecessors). It was suppose to arrange everything for the best. Francesco Petrarch (famous Italian poet) wrote his book called Secretum ("My Secret Book"), which was an intensely personal guilt-ridden imaginary dialogue with Augustine of Hippo with respect to moral aspects and the conceptual idea of good.

Alexander of Aphrodisias

He was a pupil of Aristocles of Messene, the most celebrated of the Greek commentators on the writings of Aristotle, and styled, by way of pre-eminence, o exegetes (the expositor), was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria. He came to Athens towards the end of the 2nd century A.D., became head of the Lyceum and lectured on peripatetic philosophy. The object of his work was to free the doctrine from the syncretism of Ammonius and to reproduce the pure doctrine of Aristotle. Commentaries by Alexander on the following works of Aristotle are still extant:--the Analytica Priora, i.; the Topica; the Meteorologica; the De Sensu; and the Metaphysica, i.-v., together with an abridgment of what he wrote on the remaining books of the Metaphysica. His commentaries were greatly esteemed among the Arabians, who translated many of them. There are also several original writings by Alexander still extant. The most important of these are a work On Fate, in which he argues against the Stoic doctrine of necessity; and one On the Soul, in which he contends that the undeveloped reason in man is material (nous ulikos) and inseparable from the body. He argued strongly against the doctrine of immortality. He identified the active intellect (nous poietikos), through whose agency the potential intellect in man becomes actual, with God. Several of Alexander's works were published in the Aldine edition of Aristotle, Venice, 1495-1498; his De Fato and De Anima were printed along with the works of Themistius at Venice (1534); the former work, which has been translated into Latin by Grotius and also by Schulthess, was edited by J. C. Orelli, Zurich, 1824; and his commentaries on the Metaphysica by H. Bonitz, Berlin, 1847. J. Nourisson has treated of his doctrine of fate (De la liberte et du hazard, Paris, 1870). In the early Renaissance his doctrine of the soul's mortality was adopted by F. Pomponazzi against the Thomists and the Averroists.

History

The word Nous is somewhat ambiguous, a result of being appropriated by successive philosophers to designate very different concepts.

• Homer used Nous to signify mental activities in general.
• Anaxagoras's Nous was a mechanical ordering force that formed the world out of an original chaos. It began the development of the cosmos.
• Plato described it as the immortal, rational part of the soul. This section of the soul of the world is the component that brings reasoned order to the universe. It is a godlike kind of thinking in which the truths of conclusions are immediately known without having to understand the preliminary premises.
• Aristotle asserted that Nous was the intellect, as distinguished from sense perception. He divided it into an active and passive Nous. The passive is affected by knowledge. The active is an immortal first cause of all subsequent causes in the world.
• To the Stoics, it was the same as Logos. This is the whole cosmic reason. It contains human reason as a part.
• Plotinus described Nous as one of the emanations from divine being.
• Nous equates with the Sanskrit Buddhi

Modern languages

English

• "Nous" (pronounced like "mouse") is an informal British term meaning common sense, or intelligence applied in a practical fashion.

Pronunciation

• nous, /naʊs/, /naUs/

Noun

nous

1. (philosophy) The mind or intellect.
2. Common sense; practical intelligence.

French

• The word nous is also a pronoun in the French language meaning "we"; the s is silent.

Related words

Related mind, mental-word units: anima-; anxi-; hallucina-; menti-; noo-; phreno-; psych-.

• anoesis, anoesia: Absence of cognition or knowledge; a state of sheer feeling, having no reference to objects; noncognitive consciousness.
• anoetic: Lacking the power of concentration.
• autosynnoia

1. Self-preoccupation to such a degree that no attention is paid to the outside world.
2. Autism.

• dianoetic: First attested 1677 of or relating to thought from Greek dianoetikos, from dianoetos, literally from dianoe-esthai to think from dia- "through" + noe-ein "to think, suppose." Pertained by reasoning rather than intuition.
• noematic: The perceived as perceived. That which is perceived in the noesis/noema duality
• noemics: The science of the understanding; intellectual science.
• noumenon: (a noun) (plural: noumena) (antonyms is phenomenon)

1. that which according to Kant is the "reality of existence," and unknowable by Man's animal senses and mind
2. Something independent of the mind
3. An object as it is
4. A thing-in-itself

Reference

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Plotinus: A Bibliography 1950-2000 by Richard Dufour (Leiden, 2002).

Bibliography

Text and Translations

Plotinus, 7 volumes, Greek text with English translation by A.H. Armstrong; Loeb Classical Library. (Cambridge, Mass., 1968-88)

Plotinus. The Enneads. Translated by Stephen MacKenna. Abridged and edited by John Dillon (Penguin Books, 1991)

Studies

• Blumenthal, H.J. Plotinus' Psychology. (The Hague, 1971)
• Emilsson, E. Plotinus on Sense-Perception. (Cambridge, 1988)
• Gerson, Lloyd P. Plotinus. Arguments of the Philosophers. (London, 1994)
• Gerson, Lloyd P. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus (Cambridge, 1996)
• O'Meara, Dominic. Plotinus. An Introduction to the Enneads. (Oxford,1993).
• Rist, J. Plotinus: The Road to Reality. (Cambridge, 1967)

External

Plotinus

Stoicism

Self-Knowledge

Aristotle's Psychology

Ancient Theories of Soul

Platonism in metaphysics

Plato's Ethics: An Overview

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The International Society for Neoplatonic Studies