Copy 1, Volume 1

History of the philosophy of mind : embracing the opinions of all writers on mental science. From the earliest period to the present time / by Robert Blakey.

  • Robert Blakey
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the philosophy of mind : embracing the opinions of all writers on mental science. From the earliest period to the present time / by Robert Blakey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    faculty. On this principle there cannot be two opinions. Anaxagoras, like his predecessors, had his theory as to the origin of the world. He held that the material principle of all things is one and many, of finite parts, similar and contrary, continuous to the touch, sustaining themselves, not contained by any other. very individual thing in nature is consti- tuted of particles peculiar to itself; and it is just this atomic construction which makes it what it really is. Bone, for example, is made from a certain spe- cific form of its particles; gold and silver, and, in fact, everything else, from the same principle of individual adaptation. Lucretius describes this process in the following lines : « With Anaxagoras, great Nature’s law Is similarity ; and every compound form Consists of parts minute, each like a whole ; And bone is made of bone, and flesh of flesh ; And blood, and fire, and earth, and massy gold, Are, in their smallest portions, still the same.” * Anaxagoras is more decidedly theistical than any of his predecessors. His distinction between mind and matter, between the Creator and the thing created, is clearly annunciated. Plato affirms that he taught the existence of a regulating mind over all things; and Aristotle declares that mind is the supreme and ruling element, and possesses within itself all creative power and thought. Plutarch gives his testimony to the same effect. He says, * Plut. Pl. Ph. ]. Arist. Phys. 8, 4,