Notes to the Philosophical

“Nous”-Concept Joannes Richter

Abstract
Homer's Iliad contains two words, νόος (nous, → English: mind) and νῶϊ (“we two”), which seem
to be correlating with two corresponding English words wit (mind) respectively the obsolete dual
form of the English personal pronoun wit (“we two”).
These words must be considered as fundamentals in a philosophical system. Since Homer's
composition of the Iliad the “Nous”-Concept has been studied by almost all philosophers including
Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Valentinus, Simon Magus,
Averroes, the Christian fathers … There can be no doubt the nous-concept has been a fundamental
theme for philosophy.
In contrast the word νῶϊ (“we two”) has been ignored and forgotten until Wilhelm von Humboldt
wrote his work “Ueber den Dualis” of 1827.
In English the dual form of the pronoun wit (“we two”) also largely had been lost except for some
remote regions with linguistic dialects, where people carefully preserve their traditions.
The alternative word wit (mind) is written and spoken as the dual form of the pronoun wit (“we
two”), but nobody seems to discover the analogy between both English words nor the correlation to
the Greek translations νόος (nous) for wit (mind) respectively νῶϊ (“we two”) for wit (“we two”).
The English words wit (mind) and wit (“we two”) may be identified in the first 3 letters of the runic
Futhorc-alphabet.
The French word nous both translates to the plural “we” and the Greek nous as the (divine) reason
in philosophy.
In the context of the four correlating words (νόος, νῶϊ and 2 x wit) the dual form seemed to have
played a mayor role in the joined European or even global philosophical system. The dual form
belonged to the archaic nous-concept.
In this paper I document my observations to the following couples of words: νόος (nous), its
translation wit (mind) and the dual form νῶϊ, including its translation wit (“we two”).
Introduction
Searching the fundamentals for philosophy I noticed the strange correlation between the following
Germanic and Greek basic concepts, which must have been available from archaic ages:
• The words for “knowledge” are in Germanic languages wit (v.), wit (n.) and in Greek νόος
or νοῦς (Nous1).
• The words for the dual form of the personal pronoun for the first person are in Germanic
languages wit and in Greek νώ, νῶϊ, νῶιν, νῶν.
• In a Boeotian dialect the words for the singular form of the personal pronoun for the first
person are ἰώ (iṓ), resp. ἱών (hiṓn).
• The words for the sky-god are in Germanic languages Witan or/and Tiw and in Greek maybe
Ion or Aion (Eternity).
• In his Cratylus, Plato gives the etymology of Athena's name, the goddess of wisdom, from
Atheonóa (Ἀθεονόα) meaning "god's (theos) mind (nous)"
• In Neo-Platonism the Nous (usually translated as "Intellect", or "Intelligence" in this
context, or sometimes "mind" or "reason") is described as God, or more precisely an image
of God, often referred to as the Demiurge. In order to reconcile Aristotelian with Platonian
philosophy,[5] Plotinus metaphorically identified the demiurge (or nous) within the
pantheon of the Greek Gods as Zeus.[6] 2
The correlations may be compared in the following overview, in which the expressions for the mind
(“wit” o-o “νόος”), correspond to the dual forms “wit” (“we two”) o-o νώ, νῶϊ (“we two”).
In Latin the Nous is defined as intellēctus and intellegentia, but as a word this definition certainly
misses the symbolism of the Greek word Nous.

The Nous-concept Personal pronoun of the 1st person Divinity

Plural form Dual form: Singular form:
“we” „we two” „I“
English wit (v.), wit (n.) we, us wit I, Y, ic, ich Witan, Tiw
Germanic
Greek νόος, νοῦς (nous) Ἡμεῖς, νώ, νῶϊ, νῶιν, νῶν ἐγώ Ἀθεο-νόα
ἡμᾶς με /εμέ “Athena”
Boeotian ἰώ (iṓ), Ion, Aion
dialect resp. ἱών (hiṓn)
Latin Intellēctus, nos --- ego/egō IU-piter
intellegentia mē
French Nous nous --- je Dieu
Provencal --- iéu Diéu
Table 1 Overview of the correlation between wit, νόος, νῶϊ and Witan, Tiw

1 It has been suggested that the basic meaning is something like "awareness".[5] In colloquial British English, nous
also denotes "good sense", which is close to one everyday meaning it had in Ancient Greece.
2 Neoplatonism
The Greek word νόος (nous)
The earliest surviving text that uses the word nous (translated as “wit”) is the Iliad.
Agamemnon says to Achilles:
[130] In answer to him spoke lord Agamemnon: "Do not thus, mighty though you are,
godlike Achilles, seek to deceive me with your wit3; for you will not get by me nor
persuade me. Are you willing, so that your yourself may keep your prize, for me to sit
here idly in want, while you order me to give her back? No, if the great-hearted
Achaeans give me a prize, suiting it to my mind, so that it will be worth just as much—
but if they do not, I myself will come and take your prize, or that of Aias, or that of
Odysseus I will seize and bear away.4

The following German comment to this Homeric “Nous” claims Homer's usage of Nous reacts
spontaneously without delaying analysis of the situation. Alternatively the poet may also use noos
to describe inner thoughts like a silent monologue of breeding some ideas and plans:
Für diesen homerischen Nous ist charakteristisch, dass er nicht analysierend erwägt,
sondern die Situation unmittelbar erfasst und eine angemessene Reaktion veranlasst.
Daneben kann noos bei dem Dichter aber auch das Denken eines Menschen bezeichnen,
der einen inneren Monolog führt, der sich etwas ausdenkt und etwas plant. 5

Etymology
The etymology of nous is unclear 6. Cognate words are νοεῖν (think), „Noesis“ (thinking), „Noema“
(thought), … There is no reference to the dual form νῶϊ.
In philosophy, common English translations include "understanding" and "mind"; or
sometimes "thought" or "reason" (in the sense of that which reasons, not the activity of
reasoning).[2][3] It is also often described as something equivalent to perception except that
it works within the mind ("the mind's eye").[4] It has been suggested that the basic meaning
is something like "awareness".[5] In colloquial British English, nous also denotes "good
sense", which is close to one everyday meaning it had in Ancient Greece.7

3 nous
4 The Iliad Book 1 [130] , Translated By A. T. Murray
5 Vorsokratische Zeit (Source → Wikipedia: Nous) Zum Nous bei Homer siehe Arbogast Schmitt:
Selbständigkeit und Abhängigkeit menschlichen Handelns bei Homer, Stuttgart 1990, S. 130–
141, 182–226. Schmitt kritisiert ältere Forschungsmeinungen, darunter diejenige von Kurt von
Fritz. Vgl. Kurt von Fritz: Die Rolle des νοῦς. In: Hans-Georg Gadamer (Hrsg.): Um die Begriffswelt
der Vorsokratiker, Darmstadt 1968, S. 246–363, hier: 246–276; James H. Lesher: Perceiving and
Knowing in the Iliad and Odyssey. In: Phronesis 26, 1981, S. 2–24, hier: 8–19; Thomas Buchheim:
Die Vorsokratiker, München 1994, S. 108–110, 112f.; Maria Marcinkowska-Rosół: Die
Konzeption des 'noein' bei Parmenides von Elea, Berlin 2010, S. 33–44.
6 source: Etymologie und verwandte Begriffe (Wikipedia's Nous)
7 source: (Wikipedia) Nous
Socratic philosophy
In his Cratylus, Plato gives the etymology of Athena's name, the goddess of wisdom, from
Atheonóa (Ἀθεονόα) meaning "god's (theos) mind (nous)".8

Soc. That is a graver matter, and there, my friend, the modern interpreters of Homer
may, I think, assist in explaining the view of the ancients. For most of these in their
explanations of the poet, assert that he meant by Athene "mind" (nous) and
"intelligence" (dianoia), and the maker of names appears to have had a singular notion
about her; and indeed calls her by a still higher title, "divine intelligence" (Thou
noesis), as though he would say: This is she who has the mind of God (Theonoa);-
using a as a dialectical variety e, and taking away i and s. Perhaps, however, the name
Theonoe may mean "she who knows divine things" (Theia noousa) better than others.
Nor shall we be far wrong in supposing that the author of it wished to identify this
Goddess with moral intelligence (en ethei noesin), and therefore gave her the name
ethonoe; which, however, either he or his successors have altered into what they
thought a nicer form, and called her Athene. 9

8 Socratic philosophy (Source → Wikipedia: Nous)

9 Wikisource: Cratylus
The Greek word νῶϊ
The dictionary lists several locations in the Iliad which are specified as follows10:
νῶϊ. Genit. and dat. νῶϊν. This form as nom. Π 99. Acc. νῶϊ. Also νώ Ε 219: ο 475.
Pron. of the 1st person dual, we: καὶ νῶϊ μεδώμεθ’ ἀλκῆς Δ 418, νῶϊν ἐπέντυε μώνυχας
ἵππους Θ 374. Cf. Θ 428, Χ 88, etc.: δ 160, 172, ο 475, etc.

The dual form νῶϊ is found in the Ilias Δ 418-section:

καὶ νῶϊ μεδώμεθ’ ἀλκῆς Δ 418 → “Nay, come, let us twain also bethink us of furious
valor.”

I checked the translation “us twain” for the pronoun νῶϊ in a larger context (in The Iliad - Perseus -
Tufts University):
In the Iliad the section Δ 418 with the dual form νῶϊ is found as follows:

415 τούτῳ μὲν γὰρ κῦδος ἅμ' ἕψεται εἴ κεν Ἀχαιοὶ

Τρῶας δῃώσωσιν ἕλωσί τε Ἴλιον ἱρήν,
τούτῳ δ' αὖ μέγα πένθος Ἀχαιῶν δῃωθέντων.
ἀλλ' ἄγε δὴ καὶ νῶι μεδώμεθα θούριδος ἀλκῆς

Which is translated as follows:

[415] for upon him will great glory attend if the Achaeans
shall slay the Trojans and take sacred Ilios,
and upon him likewise will fall great sorrow, if the Achaeans be slain.
Nay, come, let us twain also bethink us of furious valour.”

The German translation is11:

Denn ihm folgt ja der Ruhm, wenn Achaias Söhne die Troer
Bändigen, und mit Triumph zur heiligen Ilios eingehn;
Ihm auch unendlicher Gram, wenn gebändigt sind die Achaier.
Aber wohlan, und beide gedenken wir stürmendes Mutes!

There is no special reason to use a dual form and the additional word “twain” may as well be
omitted. Of course as a poet Homer may have chosen the particular word to optimize the metrics.

10 A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect - by Richard John Cunliffe - University of Oklahoma Press, 1963
11 Ilias, 1. bis 8. Gesang von Homer - Text im Projekt Gutenberg
The English words ƿit, wit (n.) and wit (v.)
ƿit (the pronoun “Wit” → “We two”

The letter T in “wit”

Jacob Grimm claims that the letter “T” in “ƿit” (“Wit” → “We two”) as the dual for for the personal
pronoun for the first person) refers to the duality of the word “we” (wir):

Neben der pluralform steht im älteren germ. der dual wit (t ist angehängte zweizahl) 'wir
beide', vgl. got. ags. asächs. wit, anord. vit (viþ), der sich auf deutschem boden nur im
nordfries. erhalten hat, sonst durch den plural ersetzt und schon ahd. nicht mehr bezeugt
ist; vgl. lit. vèd12.

Wit (n.)
"mental capacity," Old English wit, witt, more commonly gewit "understanding,
intellect, sense; knowledge, consciousness, conscience," from Proto-Germanic *wit-
(source also of Old Saxon wit, Old Norse vit, Danish vid, Swedish vett, Old Frisian wit,
Old High German wizzi "knowledge, understanding, intelligence, mind," German Witz
"wit, witticism, joke," Gothic unwiti "ignorance"), from PIE root *weid- "to see,"
metaphorically "to know." Related to Old English witan "to know" (source of wit (v.)).

Meaning "ability to connect ideas and express them in an amusing way" is first recorded
1540s; that of "person of wit or learning" is from late 15c. For nuances of usage, see
humor (n.). Witjar was old slang (18c.) for "head, skull." Witling (1690s) was "a
pretender to wit.".13

wit (v.)
"to know" (archaic), Old English witan (past tense wast, past participle witen) "to know,
beware of or conscious of, understand, observe, ascertain, learn," from Proto-Germanic
*witanan "to have seen," hence "to know" (source also of Old Saxon witan, Old Norse
vita, Old Frisian wita, Middle Dutch, Dutch weten, Old High German wizzan, German
wissen, Gothic witan "to know"), from PIE root *weid- "to see." The phrase to wit,
almost the only surviving use of the verb, is first recorded 1570s, from earlier that is to
wit (mid-14c.), probably a loan-translation of Anglo-French cestasavoir, used to render
Latin videlicet (see viz.).

Wotan/Odin → 'mind, wit, soul, sense'

Among other attributes the following reference to “Wit” has been documented:
The adjective *wōđaz (or *wōđō) was further substantivised, leading to Old Norse óðr
'mind, wit, soul, sense',[3] Old English ellen-wōd 'zeal', Middle Dutch woet 'madness'
(modern Dutch:woede 'anger'), and Old High German wuot 'thrill, violent agitation'. 14

12 The entry in Grimm's vocabulary is wir

13 Source Online etymology for wit (v.)
14 Etymology, other names, and Wednesday for Odin
The Bipolarity of the concept “νόος” (nous)
The analysis of the philosophers' studies of the “νόος” (nous)-concept15 reveals the bipolarity which
had been reported by:
• Valentinus in the attribute “androgynous”
• Simon Magus in the bipolarity of male o-o female
• in the Gospel of Mary in “the nous between the two”

Heraclitus → how to learn and teach nous

Parmenides → intellectual perception
Aristotle → human nous is divine or godly
Anaxagoras → Nous caused the revolving motion
Socrates
Plotinus and neoplatonism → Nous as a (Image of) God
Valentinus → an androgynous Aeon as the Beginning of All
Simon Magus → the bipolarity of male o-o female
Gospel of Mary → the nous between the two
Averroes
Table 2 Analysis of the philosophers' studies of the “νόος” (nous)-concept

The duality of νῶϊ and “νόος”

The duality of νῶϊ does not really indicate a perfect match to the νόος (nous), but the duality of
English word “wit” certainly matches to “wit” (mind).
The English words wit (mind) and wit (“we two”) may be identified in the first 3 letters of the runic
Futhorc-alphabet, which indicates a prominent position for the most important words such as the
religious core.
The bipolarity religious core may have been based on:
• the duality of the brain, which is visible in bipolarity of the brains' lobes in the skull of
victims,
• the duality of new-born babies, who occasionally may be born as Conjoined twins, Most of
these twins develop as two bodies fused from the upper chest to the lower chest. These twins
usually share a heart, and may also share the liver or part of the digestive system,
• the bipolarity of the initial concepts of the Creation of man and woman as an image of the
Creator,
• the Biblical concept of first creating a Man (an androgynous “Adam”) and then splitting up
the Man in a man and a woman.
Some of these initial concepts of the Creation of man and woman have been documented in ancient
Greek sources such as Aristophanes' speech in "Plato's Symposium".

15 This study has been documented in the appendix

A great number of sky-gods such as Dius Fidius, IU-piter, Ziu, Tuisto16, *Tiwaz contain a bipolar
IU- or UI-core, which may be interpreted as an indicator of bipolarity.
Of course the androgynous bipolarity of Man should also be projected on the Concept of the Nous.

The bipolarity of Mankind

The androgynous character indicates a bipolarity in the early divine characters and the mankind,
which also may be found in the archaic religion which Plato describes in the speech of Aristophanes
his Symposium17, which in Wikipedia has been documented as an overview:
He begins by explaining that people must understand human nature before they can
interpret the origins of love and how it affects their own times. This is, he says, because
in primal times people had double bodies, with faces and limbs turned away from one
another. As spherical creatures who wheeled around like clowns doing cartwheels
(190a), these original people were very powerful. There were three sexes: the all male,
the all female, and the "androgynous," who was half male, half female. The males were
said to have descended from the sun, the females from the earth and the androgynous
couples from the moon. These creatures tried to scale the heights of Olympus and
planned to set upon the gods (190b-c). Zeus thought about blasting them with
thunderbolts, but did not want to deprive himself of their devotions and offerings, so he
decided to cripple them by chopping them in half, in effect separating the two bodies.

Ever since that time, people run around saying they are looking for their other half
because they are really trying to recover their primal nature. The women who were
separated from women run after their own kind, thus creating lesbians. The men split
from other men also run after their own kind and love being embraced by other men
(191e). Those that come from original androgynous beings are the men and women that
engage in heterosexual love. He says some people think homosexuals are shameless, but
he thinks they are the bravest, most manly of all, as evidenced by the fact that only they
grow up to be politicians (192a), and that many heterosexuals are adulterous and
unfaithful (191e). Aristophanes then claims that when two people who were separated
from each other find each other, they never again want to be separated (192c). This
feeling is like a riddle, and cannot be explained.

The etymology of the French word Nous

The French word Nous18 (“we”, “us”, the “nous”) has been derived from the Latin plural word
“nos” (“we”) and simultaneously from “νόος” (Nous)19:
• Etymology 1 = The plural personal pronoun in the first person (we resp. us )
• Etymology 2 = The nous, (divine) reason in philosophy. (From Ancient Greek νοῦς (noûs) or
νόος (nóos, “mind”)).
Strange as it may seem the language in several northern regions in France allow the usage of the
singular instead of the plural: j'allons instead of nous allons. This region for this feature is the
neighboring region to the Germanic peoples in which the dual form may have survived longer than
in the south:

16 The most frequently occurring, Tuisto, is commonly connected to the Proto-Germanic root *twai – "two" and its
derivative *twis – "twice" or "doubled", thus giving Tuisto the core meaning "double".
17 From: "Plato's Symposium" → Aristophanes' speech
18 From Middle French nous, from Old French nous, nos, from Latin nōs, from Proto-Italic *nōs.
19 This description is from Wiktionary's Nous:
 In several dialects of French, je may be used instead of nous (j'allons instead of nous
allons, je voyons instead of nous voyons etc.), this use was perceived as peasant-like and
thus often mocked since the 15th century (for example by Molière). However this use
survived and spread in various regions of the so-called domaine d'oïl (linguistic area
starting above Auvergne where the oïl varieties of Romance developed from the 4th or
5th century). The regions of France where this use of je (from Latin ego "I") instead of
nous, nos (from Latin nos, "we") was recorded are Normandy, Romance-speaking
Brittany, Poitou and Anjou, Champagne, Ardennes, Bourgogne and Franche-Comté,
Dauphiné, Berry, Touraine, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Maine. See cognates in regional
languages in France: Angevin je and nous, Bourbonnais-Berrichon je and nous,
Bourguignon i and nous, Champenois ju and nous, Franc-Comtois i and nôs, Gallo je
and nouz, Lorrain nos, Norman je and nos, Orléanais je and nous, Picard nos, Poitevin-
Saintongeais jhe and nous, Tourangeau je and nous, Franco-Provençal nos, Occitan
nosautres (Provençal nousautes), Catalan nosaltres, Corsican noi.20

Another exceptional feature is the Italian, Romanian, Daco-Romanian, Corsican noi (we; us),
which seems to have been inherited from Greek.

20 Source: Nous in Wiktionary

Appendix - References to philosophers
Various sights on the topic “nous” may illustrate how the philosophers interpreted the Nous. The
following information, which is copied from Wikipedia's contents Nous has been highlighted with
colors and extended with some additional notes:

Heraclitus → how to learn and teach nous

Heraclitus complained that "much learning does not teach nous".[7]

Parmenides → intellectual perception

The work of Parmenides set the scene for Greek philosophy to come and the concept of
nous was central to his radical proposals. He claimed that reality as the senses perceive
it is not a world of truth at all, because sense perception is so unreliable, and what is
perceived is so uncertain and changeable. Instead he argued for a dualism wherein nous
and related words (the verb for thinking which describes its mental perceiving activity,
noein, and the unchanging and eternal objects of this perception, noēta) describe a form
of perception which is not physical, but intellectual only, distinct from sense perception
and the objects of sense perception.

Aristotle → human nous is divine or godly

In the Aristotelian scheme, nous is the basic understanding or awareness that allows
human beings to think rationally. For Aristotle, this was distinct from the processing of
sensory perception, including the use of imagination and memory, which other animals
can do. This therefore connects discussion of nous to discussion of how the human mind
sets definitions in a consistent and communicable way, and whether people must be
born with some innate potential to understand the same universal categories in the same
logical ways. Deriving from this it was also sometimes argued, especially in classical
and medieval philosophy, that the individual nous must require help of a spiritual and
divine type. By this type of account, it came to be argued that the human understanding
(nous) somehow stems from this cosmic nous, which is however not just a recipient of
order, but a creator of it. Such explanations were influential in the development of
medieval accounts of God, the immortality of the soul, and even the motions of the
stars, in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, amongst both eclectic philosophers
and authors representing all the major faiths of their times.

In the philosophy of Aristotle the soul (psyche) of a body is what makes it alive, and is
its actualized form; thus, every living thing, including plant life, has a soul. The mind or
intellect (nous) can be described variously as a power, faculty, part, or aspect of the
human soul. It should be noted that for Aristotle soul and nous are not the same. He did
not rule out the possibility that nous might survive without the rest of the soul, as in
Plato, but he specifically says that this immortal nous does not include any memories or
anything else specific to an individual's life.

In his Generation of Animals Aristotle specifically says that while other parts of the soul
come from the parents, physically, the human nous, must come from outside, into the
body, because it is divine or godly, and it has nothing in common with the energeia of
the body.[29] This was yet another passage which Alexander of Aphrodisias would link
 to those mentioned above from De Anima and the Metaphysics in order to understand
Aristotle's intentions.

Anaxagoras → Nous caused the revolving motion

Concerning cosmology, Anaxagoras, like some Greek philosophers already before him,
believed the cosmos was revolving, and had formed into its visible order as a result of
such revolving causing a separating and mixing of different types of chemical elements.
Nous, in his system, originally caused this revolving motion to start, but it does not
necessarily continue to play a role once the mechanical motion has started. His
description was in other words (shockingly for the time) corporeal or mechanical, with
the moon made of earth, the sun and stars made of red hot metal (beliefs Socrates was
later accused of holding during his trial) and nous itself being a physical fine type of
matter which also gathered and concentrated with the development of the cosmos. This
nous (mind) is not incorporeal; it is the thinnest of all things. The distinction between
nous and other things nevertheless causes his scheme to sometimes be described as a
peculiar kind of dualism.[11] 21

Socrates
Socrates said that Anaxagoras would "give voice and air and hearing and countless other
things of the sort as causes for our talking with each other, and should fail to mention
the real causes, which are, that the Athenians decided that it was best to condemn me".
[18] On the other hand, Socrates seems to suggest that he also failed to develop a fully
satisfactory teleological and dualistic understanding of a mind of nature, whose aims
represent the Good, which all parts of nature aim at.

In the Philebus Socrates argues that nous in individual humans must share in a cosmic
nous, in the same way that human bodies are made up of small parts of the elements
found in the rest of the universe. And this nous must be in the genos of being a cause of
all particular things as particular things.[19]

But other animals have sensus communis and imagination, whereas none of them have
nous.[21] Aristotelians divide perception of forms into the animal-like one which
perceives species sensibilis or sensible forms, and species intelligibilis that are
perceived in a different way by the nous.

Plotinus and neoplatonism → Nous as a (Image of) God

The Nous (usually translated as "Intellect", or "Intelligence" in this context, or
sometimes "mind" or "reason") is described as God, or more precisely an image of God,
often referred to as the Demiurge. It thinks its own contents, which are thoughts,
equated to the Platonic ideas or forms (eide). The thinking of this Intellect is the highest
activity of life. The actualization (energeia) of this thinking is the being of the forms.
This Intellect is the first principle or foundation of existence. The One is prior to it, but
not in the sense that a normal cause is prior to an effect, but instead Intellect is called an
emanation of the One. The One is the possibility of this foundation of existence.

Soul (psychē). The soul is also an energeia: it acts upon or actualizes its own thoughts

21 Pre-Socratic usage (Source → Wikipedia: Nous)

 and creates "a separate, material cosmos that is the living image of the spiritual or noetic
Cosmos contained as a unified thought within the Intelligence". So it is the soul which
perceives things in nature physically, which it understands to be reality. Soul in Plotinus
plays a role similar to the potential intellect in Aristotelian terminology.[31]

Lowest is matter.22

Medieval nous in religion

Greek philosophy had an influence on the major religions that defined the Middle Ages,
and one aspect of this was the concept of nous. 23

Valentinus24 → an androgynous Aeon as the Beginning of All

In Valentinianism, Nous is the first male Aeon. Together with his conjugate female
Aeon, Aletheia (truth), he emanates from the Propator Bythos (Προπάτωρ Βυθος
"Forefather Depths") and his co-eternal Ennoia (Ἔννοια "Thought") or Sigē (Σιγή
"Silence"); and these four form the primordial Tetrad. Like the other male Aeons he is
sometimes regarded as androgynous, including in himself the female Aeon who is
paired with him. He is the Only Begotten; and is styled the Father, the Beginning of All,
inasmuch as from him are derived immediately or mediately the remaining Aeons who
complete the Ogdoad (eight), thence the Decad (ten), and thence the Dodecad (twelve);
in all, thirty Aeons constitute the Pleroma.

Simon Magus25 → the bipolarity of male o-o female

Obviously Simon Magus introduced the bipolarity of male and female:
There are two offshoots of the entire ages, having neither beginning nor end.... Of these
the one appears from above, the great power, the Nous of the universe, administering all
things, male; the other from beneath, the great Epinoia, female, bringing forth all things.

To Nous and Epinoia correspond Heaven and Earth, in the list given by Simon of the six
material counterparts of his six emanations.

Gospel of Mary26 → the nous between the two

According to the Gospel of Mary27, Jesus himself articulates the essence of Nous:
"There where is the nous, lies the treasure." Then I said to him: "Lord, when someone
meets you in a Moment of Vision, is it through the soul [psychē] that they see, or is it
through the spirit [pneuma]?" The Teacher answered: "It is neither through the soul nor
the spirit, but the nous between the two which sees the vision..."

— The Gospel of Mary, end of page 10 (pages 11 - 14 are missing from the manuscript)

22 Plotinus and neoplatonism (Source → Wikipedia: Nous)

23 Medieval nous in religion (Source → Wikipedia: Nous)
24 Main article: Valentinus (Gnostic)
25 Main article: Simon Magus
26 Main article: Gospel of Mary (Text online)
27 The Gospel of Mary is an apocryphal book discovered in 1896 in a 5th-century papyrus codex written in Sahidic
Coptic.
Medieval Islamic philosophy28

Averroes29
The position, that humankind shares one active intellect, was taken up by Parisian
philosophers such as Siger of Brabant, but also widely rejected by philosophers such as
Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Ramon Lull, and Duns Scotus.

Christianity
The Christian New Testament makes mention of the nous or noos, generally translated
in modern English as "mind", but also showing a link to God's will or law:

• Romans 7:23, refers to the law (nomos) of God which is the law in the writer's nous, as
opposed to the law of sin which is in the body.
• Romans 12:2, demands Christians should not conform to this world, but continuously be
transformed by the renewing of their nous, so as to be able to determine what God’s will is.
• 1 Corinthians 14:14-14:19. Discusses "speaking in tongues" and says that a person who
speaks in tongues that they can not understand should prefer to also have understanding
(nous), and it is better for the listeners also to be able to understand.
• Ephesians 4:17-4:23. Discusses how non-Christians have a worthless nous, while Christians
should seek to renew the spirit (pneuma) of their nous.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:2. Uses the term to refer to being troubled of mind.
• Revelation 17:9: "here is the nous which has wisdom".
In the writings of the Christian fathers a sound or pure nous is considered essential to
the cultivation of wisdom.[64] 30

Eastern Orthodox
Angels have intelligence and nous, whereas men have reason, both logos and dianoia,
nous and sensory perception. This follows the idea that man is a microcosm and an
expression of the whole creation or macrocosmos.

In this belief, the soul is created in the image of God. Since God is Trinitarian, Mankind
is Nous, reason, both logos and dianoia, and Spirit. The same is held true of the soul (or
heart): it has nous, word and spirit. To understand this better first an understanding of
Saint Gregory Palamas's teaching that man is a representation of the trinitarian mystery
should be addressed. This holds that God is not meant in the sense that the Trinity
should be understood anthropomorphically, but man is to be understood in a triune way.
Or, that the Trinitarian God is not to be interpreted from the point of view of individual
man, but man is interpreted on the basis of the Trinitarian God.

28 Main articles: Islamic philosophy, Jewish philosophy, and Averroism

29 Main articles: Averroes and Averroism
30 Christianity (Source → Wikipedia: Nous)
Early modern philosophy
Descartes explicitly refused to divide this soul into its traditional parts such as intellect
and reason, saying that these things were indivisible aspects of the soul. Descartes was
therefore a dualist, but very much in opposition to traditional Aristotelian dualism.

More recent modern philosophy and science

Modern mainstream thinking on the mind is not dualist, and sees anything innate in the
mind as being a result of genetic and developmental factors which allow the mind to
develop.
Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................2
The Greek word νόος (nous)................................................................................................................3
Etymology........................................................................................................................................3
Socratic philosophy.....................................................................................................................4
The Greek word νῶϊ.............................................................................................................................5
The English words ƿit, wit (n.) and wit (v.)..........................................................................................6
ƿit (the pronoun “Wit” → “We two”...............................................................................................6
The letter T in “wit”....................................................................................................................6
Wit (n.).............................................................................................................................................6
wit (v.)..............................................................................................................................................6
Wotan/Odin → 'mind, wit, soul, sense'............................................................................................6
The Bipolarity of the concept “νόος” (nous)........................................................................................7
The duality of νῶϊ and “νόος”..........................................................................................................7
The bipolarity of Mankind...............................................................................................................8
The etymology of the French word Nous........................................................................................8
Appendix - References to philosophers..............................................................................................10
Heraclitus → how to learn and teach nous....................................................................................10
Parmenides → intellectual perception...........................................................................................10
Aristotle → human nous is divine or godly..................................................................................10
Anaxagoras → Nous caused the revolving motion........................................................................11
Socrates..........................................................................................................................................11
Plotinus and neoplatonism → Nous as a (Image of) God .............................................................11
Medieval nous in religion .............................................................................................................12
Valentinus → an androgynous Aeon as the Beginning of All...................................................12
Simon Magus → the bipolarity of male o-o female .................................................................12
Gospel of Mary → the nous between the two..........................................................................12
Medieval Islamic philosophy.........................................................................................................13
Averroes....................................................................................................................................13
Christianity.....................................................................................................................................13
Eastern Orthodox...........................................................................................................................13
Early modern philosophy...............................................................................................................14
More recent modern philosophy and science................................................................................14