Description
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (Vth century BCE) is best known in the history of philosophy for his stance that there is a share of everything in everything. He puts forward this theory of extreme mixture as a solution to the problem of change he and his contemporaries inherited from Parmenides - that what is cannot come from what is not (and vice versa). Yet, for ancient and modern scholars alike, the metaphysical significance of Anaxagoras's position has proven challenging to understanding. In Everything in Everything, Anna Marmodoro offers a fresh interpretation of Anaxagoras's theory of mixture, arguing for its soundness and also relevance to contemporary debates in metaphysics. For Anaxagoras the fundamental elements of reality are the opposites (hot, cold, wet, dry, etc.), which Marmodoro argues are instances of physical causal powers. The unchanging opposites compose mereologically, forming (phenomenologically) emergent wholes. Everything in the universe (except nous) derives from the opposites. The opposite exist as endlessly partitioned; they can be scattered everywhere and be in everything. Mardomoro further shows that their extreme mixture is made possible by the omni-presence and hence com-presence in the universe, which is in turn facilitated by the limitless divisibility of the opposites. Anaxagoras tackles the logical consequences of the limitless divisibility of the elements. He is the first ante litteram 'gunk lover' in the history of metaphysics. He also has a unique conception of (non-material) gunk and a unique power ontology, which Marmodoro refers to as 'power gunk'. Marmodoro investigates the nature of power gunk and the explanatory utility of the concept for Anaxagoras, for his theory of extreme mixture. Whilst most defenders of an atomless universe nowadays argue for material gunk as a conceptual possibility (only), Anaxagoras argues for power gunk as the ontology of nature.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments IntroductionChapter I: The fundamental items in the ontology 1.1. Opposites, stuffs and seeds1.2. Does matter 'matter' to Anaxagoras?1.3. The concreteness of power1.4. Parmenidean constraints on change1.5. The causal efficacy of the opposites1.6. An early power ontology?Closing remarksAppendix 1. Anaxagorean versus Aristotelian powersChapter II: The principles governing the ontology 2.1. The Principle of Universal Extraction2.2. The Everything in Everything Principle2.3. The No Least and No Largest Principles2.4. The Preponderance Principle2.5. The outcome of preponderanceClosing remarksChapter III: A theory of extreme mixture 3.1. The inseparability of all opposites3.2. Power gunk3.3. Divided gunk3.4. Gunk's location in space3.5. The Grind model3.6. Can there be preponderance in a gunky world?Closing remarksAppendix 2: An overview of Anaxagoras's main metaphysical principlesChapter IV: Compresence versus containment of the opposites 4.1. The Proportionate interpretation4.2. The Particulate interpretation4.3. The Liquids model4.4. The No-divisibility interpretationClosing remarksAppendix 3: Zeno's Argument from MultitudeChapter V: Intelligent powers5.1. The unmixed status of nous5.2. The structure and operation of nous5.3. Nous' cosmic powers5.4. Nous' cognitive powers5.5. The seeds and the origins of lifeClosing remarksChapter VI: Stoic gunk 6.1. Unlimited division6.2. Colocation6.3. The constitution of material objects; what is active and what is passive6.4. Sharing subjects6.5. Causation6.6. Types of ontological unityClosing remarksConclusions Bibliography
