Nous
The Greek concept of pure intellect or mind, the highest faculty of the soul and the organizing principle of the cosmos.
The Meaning of Nous
Anaxagoras changed philosophy when he proposed that Nous — Mind — was the force that set the cosmos in order. Before him, the pre-Socratics had looked for material principles. Anaxagoras said the arche was not a substance but an intelligence. Nous was unmixed with anything else, the finest and purest of all things, and it initiated the cosmic rotation that separated the elements and formed the world. Socrates was initially excited by this idea, then disappointed — Anaxagoras, he complained, used Nous to start the machine but then explained everything mechanically. Plato made Nous the highest part of the tripartite soul, the charioteer who must control the two horses of spirit and appetite. In the Republic, Nous is the faculty that grasps the Forms directly, including the Form of the Good. Aristotle went further: in De Anima he described the Active Nous as something divine that enters the soul from outside and survives the body's death — the only part of the soul that is immortal. Plotinus built an entire metaphysics around Nous as the second hypostasis, the divine intellect that emanates from the One.
Parents
Pre-Socratic and Platonic tradition
Symbols
Fun Fact
British slang still uses "nous" to mean common sense — a distant echo of Anaxagoras's cosmic intelligence, domesticated into street-level shrewdness.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Neoplatonism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A late antique philosophical system teaching that all reality emanates from a transcendent, ineffable One
Pythagoreanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A philosophical and religious movement founded by Pythagoras centred on mathematics, harmony, and the soul
Hermeticism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A syncretic philosophical and spiritual tradition attributed to the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus
Eros
💭 conceptThe primordial force of desire that drives all creation
In Hesiod's cosmogony, Eros was not a cherub but a primordial force — the desire that compels all things to come together and create.
Logos
💭 conceptWord, reason, and the rational principle of the cosmos
The multifaceted Greek concept meaning word, speech, reason, account, and the rational principle governing the universe.
Mnēmosynē
💭 conceptmythology, philosophy
Memory personified — Titaness, mother of the nine Muses, and the principle through which knowledge and identity persist across time and death.
Psyche
💭 conceptThe breath-soul that animates and survives death
The Greek concept of the soul — originally meaning breath, it evolved to encompass mind, self, and the immortal essence.
Epicureanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching that pleasure through modesty, knowledge, and friendship is the highest good
Anamnesis
💭 conceptPlato's theory that learning is remembering
Plato's doctrine that the soul possesses innate knowledge from before birth, and that learning is really recollection.
Philosophy
💭 conceptLanguage and thought
An English word for the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, and ethics, derived from the Greek philosophia meaning love of wisdom
Episteme
💭 conceptknowledge, science
True knowledge based on demonstration and understanding of causes — as opposed to mere opinion.
Enthousiasmos
💭 conceptReligion and Inspiration
The state of being possessed by a god, the original meaning of divine inspiration in Greek religion.