precisely its momentum can be known, and vice versa. Finally, after decades of disputation and contention, the observer effect was empirically verified by means of the double-slit experiment, as reported in 1998. This was conducted by scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, revealing how a beam of electrons is affected by the act of observation. It thereby confirms a basic premise of quantum theory, namely that by the very act of watching, the observer affects the observed reality.104
According to the Western tradition of philosophical Idealism, from Pythagoras in the sixth century B.C. to Rudolf Steiner in the twentieth century, reality has been conceived as a series of thoughts emanating from the universal Mind. Jonathan Black explains that these thought-emanations occur in the following sequence: from pure mind to energy, to ethereal matter, to gas, to liquid, and to solids. In other words, the various states of matter are none other than energy becoming increasingly dense.105 This process whereby physical reality emanates from the metaphysical realm has been described in detail by the Neoplatonists. We have already noted some of their contributions to cosmology and metaphysics, and more of their insights will follow in the chapters ahead.
A fascinating application of the notion of universal Mind is found in the biological work of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), the British naturalist and founder of the science of biogeography. Having done extensive fieldwork in Amazonia and Malaysia, Wallace conceived a theory of evolution by means of natural selection independently of Charles Darwin and at the same time as his more famous colleague. However, in due course Wallace moved from a reliance on natural selection to a kind of natural theology that incorporated organic evolution. In 1869, Wallace wrote a review of the tenth edition of his friend Charles Lyell’s famed Principles of Geology, in which he argued that human intelligence is too great to have been facilitated by natural selection. As a matter of fact, since natural selection is guided by the principle of utility, it would be an effective barrier to the development of such an order of intelligence. Therefore, Wallace concluded, another cause must be involved, which he called an Overruling Intelligence.106 We suggest that this is none other than the Universal Mind of Anaxagoras and the divine Intellect of the Neoplatonists.
79. LSJ, 467; Wheeler, Latin, 527.
80. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 86.
81. McKirahan, Philosophy, 210.
82. Curd, “Presocratic Philosophy.”
83. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 26.
84. McKirahan, Philosophy, 219–220.
85. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 8–9, 29.
86. Wikipedia: Idealism.
87. Gerson, Aristotle, 33.
88. Northbourne, Progress, 94.
89. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 78–79.
90. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 78, 87.
91. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 91.
92. McKirahan, Philosophy, 221.
93. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 30.
94. Schuon, Unity, xxix–xxx; Taylor, Introduction, 104, 108.
95. McKirahan, Philosophy, 220.
96. Geldard, Anaxagoras, 17, 88.
97. McKirahan, Philosophy, 346.
98. Dreyer, Wysbegeerte, 135.
99. Dreyer, Wysbegeerte, 136.
100. Martijn, Review of Physics, 44.
101. Schuon, Divine, 64.
102. Guénon, Reign of Quantity, 35, 40, 192, 193.
103. Black, Secret History, 29, 32, 34.
104. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/02/980227055013.htm
105. Black, Secret History, 37, 39.
106. Flannery, Intelligent Evolution, 16–17.
Intellect and Necessity
In the Neoplatonic understanding, Intellect (or Mind, the Greek nous) is the second of the divine hypostases, obtaining its reality from the One. However, since the One is a hyper-cosmic reality, it could be stated that Intellect is the first principle of all things that exist. In other words, Intellect is the ontological storehouse of all potential beings (Enneads, V.2.1, V.9.5). To be more precise, Intellect contains all of the eternal and immutable Ideas, or Forms, through which the physical world comes into being. Plotinus employs the Stoic term logoi spermatikoi, or seminal reasons, to indicate the productive ‘seeds’ that become actualized as distinct from Intellect (Enneads, V.9.6-7). These ‘rational seeds’ contain the potentialities of all beings.107 This reasoning implies that without Intellect, or the universal Mind of Anaxagoras, there would be no beings in existence.
In his brilliant study of the interaction between Neoplatonic philosophy and Christian theology, as represented by Plotinus and St Augustine respectively, the French philosopher Albert Camus sketches the intermediary role played by the Intellect as follows: “This Being that lies at the bottom of all things, that gives to the world its existence and its true meaning, draws all of its unity from its origin. And scattered in its intelligibles [i.e., the Forms] though being known as Intelligence, it is the ideal intermediary between the indefinable Good that we hope for and the Soul that breathes behind sensible appearances.”108 As intermediary between the One
