Philosophy: The Pursuit of Truth, in the Company of Nous
Socrates, as presented in many works of Plato, makes inquiries about the garnering of knowledge and truth. In the platonic dialogue, Meno, Socrates attempts to answer Meno’s paradox: if you don’t know what you are looking for, how can it be found? Meno’s question allows for the assertion that inquiry is impossible, for how do we know what to ask, if we don’t know, or have knowledge about, what we are asking. This perplexity brings up the illusion of the enigmatic source of this knowledge. Where does knowledge originate from, what allows for the commencement of inquiry? What initiates a seeking of the truth, and how is it possible that we know we have found a solution, when we didn’t …show more content…
I suggest that the origin of inquiry, and source of knowledge that is remembered, is Anaxagoras’ concept of Nous. Nous, an entity sometimes referred to as mind, intellect, and intuition, is the reason we know we know, when we know. Anaxagoras theorizes that nous is the motive, cause, and catalyst of the cosmos. So, the faculty of intellectual intuition, nous, is the source that purposefully amalgamates the physical existence that encompasses a portion of each and every physical actuality in the …show more content…
Their philosophies were considered corrupt and impious because they challenged and questioned the thoughts and notions of those who held power. Perhaps the philosophies involving an infinite, united, awareness of knowledge aroused fear within the autocratically inclined, powerful men. For if the concept of “remembering nous” is within all beings, and those beings realize the unlimited source of knowledge available within, then possibly false truths, such as the allowances for domination and conceptions of superiority, would diminish, consequently putting those in power, out of power. The powerful sentenced the thinkers to death to prevent a spread of the philosophical inquiry of truth. Conceivably, those in power silenced the wisdom of Anaxagoras and Socrates to prevent the spread of an acknowledged infinite source of unlimited knowledge, the exploration of thought as empowered by
Socrates, as presented in many works of Plato, makes inquiries about the garnering of knowledge and truth. In the platonic dialogue, Meno, Socrates attempts to answer Meno’s paradox: if you don’t know what you are looking for, how can it be found? Meno’s question allows for the assertion that inquiry is impossible, for how do we know what to ask, if we don’t know, or have knowledge about, what we are asking. This perplexity brings up the illusion of the enigmatic source of this knowledge. Where does knowledge originate from, what allows for the commencement of inquiry? What initiates a seeking of the truth, and how is it possible that we know we have found a solution, when we didn’t …show more content…
I suggest that the origin of inquiry, and source of knowledge that is remembered, is Anaxagoras’ concept of Nous. Nous, an entity sometimes referred to as mind, intellect, and intuition, is the reason we know we know, when we know. Anaxagoras theorizes that nous is the motive, cause, and catalyst of the cosmos. So, the faculty of intellectual intuition, nous, is the source that purposefully amalgamates the physical existence that encompasses a portion of each and every physical actuality in the …show more content…
Their philosophies were considered corrupt and impious because they challenged and questioned the thoughts and notions of those who held power. Perhaps the philosophies involving an infinite, united, awareness of knowledge aroused fear within the autocratically inclined, powerful men. For if the concept of “remembering nous” is within all beings, and those beings realize the unlimited source of knowledge available within, then possibly false truths, such as the allowances for domination and conceptions of superiority, would diminish, consequently putting those in power, out of power. The powerful sentenced the thinkers to death to prevent a spread of the philosophical inquiry of truth. Conceivably, those in power silenced the wisdom of Anaxagoras and Socrates to prevent the spread of an acknowledged infinite source of unlimited knowledge, the exploration of thought as empowered by