The immanence of infinite power: Anaxagoras' vov in the light of Homer

The present paper deals with the nature of perception and cognition in the case of Anaxagoras' vov, especially with the difficulties of assessing the respective role of mechanical, cognitive and teleological dimensions in the activities of the cosmic vov It does so with the help of a comparison with the use of gamma l gamma v omega sigma kappa omega, vo epsilon omega and vov in the context of homeric battlefield descriptions. Homeric leaders share with Anaxagoras'vov similar descriptions of their activities in terms of separating, extracting, and putting in order through a common use of the verbs delta l alpha kappa rho v, alpha pi o kappa rho i nu omega, delta l alpha kappa omicron sigma mu epsilon omega. The analysis of the leader's perceptive and cognitive activities suggests a model of immanent action, blending the perception of singular events in the context of a complex and fast evolving environment with the global understanding of the past, present and possible positions of troops engaged in fighting. With this model in mind, Anaxagoras' vov can be understood with a model of perception through immersion adequate to its peculiar physical nature: vov is able to separate stuff and anticipate possible states of the universe thanks to its being physically homogeneous with the material mixture it is dealing with. However, its boundless knowledge and power have a consequence that make a difference with the homeric leader : the one who has the power of accomplishing all possible differenciations has in fact no choice to make.