Synoptic Excursus of Ancient Greek Concept of Mind from Thales to the Stoics

Abstract

This work examines the concept of ‘Mind’ in Greek philosophy. It is an excursus from Thales to the Stoics. Our aim is to know the reason why the ancient Greeks counterpose each other’s idea as regards the concept of Mind. Our method is historically synoptic while juxtaposing ‘Mind’ and ‘Soul’ to mean the same thing. The mind is the human element that makes him rational and allows the ability to be conscious of reality. Greek philosophy perceives mind from a broad perspective as sanction from the gods and Greek mythologies. It is the prime principle of life that gives light to the body. The pre-Socratic idea of mind had Anaximenes’ view of air compared with the ‘soul’ as the source that binds all things together. The Pythagoreans hold the view that man has both a higher and lower nature where thought and reflection are inferred. Anaxagoras identified Nous (mind) as the force that caused and formed the planets from a primitive mass. Democritus identified the soul or mind as a chance of atomic collision. The Socratic idea of mind has Gorgias’ view of Mind as an entity of two opposite poles, speech and Logos. Socrates conceives soul as an entity with the capacity to distinguish between particular things and universal things. Plato dualized the soul as embodiment of essence with mind capable of thinking and willing. For Aristotle, the mind is part of the human soul. The soul is triad – The vegetative, the sensitive and the rational. The Epicurean idea has no mind but matter alone as that which constitutes all nature. The Stoics employed several analogies as explanation to the idea of mind; physics, logic and ethics. Thus, there is no common conception of the idea tagged mind in Ancient Greek philosophical literature.

Key words: Ancient Greek, Mind, Thales, Stoics, Philosophy.