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stenudd.COM Stefan Stenudd Author, Artist, Aikido instructor |
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MYTH Myth of Creation The Logics of Myth Psychoanalysis of Myth Genesis 1: The first creation of the Bible Enuma Elish: Babylonian Creation Cosmos of the Ancients Aristotle - life and work Aristotle's Poetics Ideas and learning The Taoist source About the writer ANCIENT GREECE Introduction Thales Anaximander Anaximenes Pherecydes of Syros Pythagoras Xenophanes Theagenes Hecataeus Heraclitus Pindar Parmenides Anaxagoras Empedocles Herodotus Gorgias Melissus Protagoras Euripides Prodicus of Ceos Leucippus Democritus Critias Antisthenes Diagoras of Melos Plato Aristotle Epicurus Euhemerus Table of the Greek Philosophers Literature Aristotle - life and work Aristotle's Poetics ![]() COSMOS OF THE ANCIENTS The Greek philosophers' theories about the gods, the myths, and cosmology. More about the book here. ![]() MURDER Thoughts on life, death, and the meaning of it all - by Stefan Stenudd. More about the book here. ![]() ALL'S END A science fiction novel by Stefan Stenudd, about the quest for a perfect world. More about the book here. ![]() QI Increase your life energy The book about the life energy qi, with exercises on how to awaken and use it. More about the book here. ![]() AIKIDO The Peaceful Martial Art The book about aikido principles, philosophy and basic concepts. More about the book here. ![]() AIKIBATTO The book about the aikibatto sword and staff exercises, practical and spiritual aspects of the sword arts, equipment for training, etc. More about the book here. |
Cosmos of the AncientsThe Greek Philosopherson Myth and Cosmology Anaxagoras![]() No nickname could honor him more, since this Nous was to Anaxagoras a most elevated thing, like a god – and a monotheistic god at that. He saw the primordial world as one homogenous cluster, where everything in it was truly part of everything else, so that none was a separate, independent entity – except for Nous, reason, which was in no way part of that world: While other things have a share of everything, Nous is infinite, self-governing, and has been mixed with nothing, but is alone unto itself. Separated this way, it was able to rule the world, and to begin its process of differentiation and development, by means of a revolving movement, starting in a small area and expanding. By this, the world started breaking up in smaller parts, whereby the heavenly bodies were born, and warm separated from cold, bright from dark, dry from moist. In this revolving movement, some things were separated and others joined, and that is really all that takes place in the world: The Greeks do not employ (the words) ‘coming to be' and ‘perishing' correctly, for nothing comes into being or is even destroyed; rather, from (pre-) existing things there is combining and breaking up. They would, therefore, be correct to call coming-to-be ‘combining' and perishing ‘breaking up'. For heaven and earth, Anaxagoras saw their making as a mixing of qualities, giving each of the two its significance much in line with the Greek tradition, and certainly in many other traditions as well: The dense and the moist and the cold and the dark came together here where the earth is now; the rare and the warm and the dry (and the bright) moved outward into the far-off limits of the aither. On the microscopic perspective he stated that there is no thing which is the smallest, since there can always be something smaller and no matter how small a part is, it cannot be cut away to nothing. Anaxagoras was tried in court, probably for declaring that the sun was a mass of red-hot metal, larger than Peloponnesus, and expelled from Athens, where he had lived for 30 years. Literature Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, translated by R. D. Hicks, volume I, Loeb, London 1942. Sider, David, The Fragments of Anaxagoras, Beiträge zur Klassischen Philologie 118, Hain 1981. © Stefan Stenudd 2000How to get the book An edited and extended version of the texts on this website was published in 2007. If you want to buy the book, you can do so at most international web based bookstores, such as Amazon and the like. Here are links to the book on Amazon US and Amazon UK. Use the latter if you are European - then you get the book cheaper and quicker. Otherwise, you may want to buy it at Amazon US.
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TAOIST SOURCE The Taoist source. The complete Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu. More on this website: Aikido Aikibatto sword exercises Myth Greek Philosophers Aristotle and his Poetics The Taoist source Qi - life energy Fiction by Stenudd Art by Stenudd Astrology and horoscopes |