Universal mind

Metaphysical concept

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The universal mind, or universal consciousness, is a metaphysical concept suggesting an underlying essence of all beings and becoming in the universe. It includes the being and becoming that occurred in the universe prior to the emergence of the concept of mind, a term that more appropriately refers to the organic, human aspect of universal consciousness. It addresses inorganic being and becoming and the interactions that occur in that process without specific reference to the physical and chemical laws that try to describe those interactions. Those interactions have occurred, do occur, and continue to occur. Universal consciousness is the source that underlies those interactions and the awareness and knowledge they imply.

The concept of the universal mind was presented by Anaxagoras, a pre Socratic philosopher who arrived in Athens some time after 480 BC. He taught that the growth of living things depends on the power of mind within the organisms that enables them to extract nourishment from surrounding substances. For this concept of mind, Anaxagoras was commended by Aristotle. Both Plato and Aristotle, however, objected that his notion of mind did not include a view that mind acts ethically, i. e., acts for the “best interests” of the universe. The most original aspect of Anaxagoras's system was his doctrine of nous ("mind" or "reason"). A different Greek word, gnósi (knowledge), better reflects what is observed in the wider world of organic and inorganic beings than just the human world. Chu Ch’an says, “The universal mind, therefore, is something to which nothing can be attributed. Being absolute goes beyond attributes. If, for example, it were to be described as infinite, that would exclude from it whatever is finite, but the whole argument of the book is that the universal mind is the only reality and that everything we apprehend through our senses is nothing else but this mind. Even to think of it in terms of existence or non existence is to misapprehend it entirely.” pp. 8–9

The term surfaced again in later philosophy, as in the writings of Hegel. Hegel writes: