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Single Idea 13154

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 8. Brain ]

Full Idea

Is it with the blood that we think, or with the air or the fire that is in us? Or is it none of these, but the brain that supplies our senses of hearing and sight and smell.

Gist of Idea

Do we think and experience with blood, air or fire, or could it be our brain?

Source

Plato (Phaedo [c.374 BCE], 097a)

Book Ref

Plato: 'The Last Days of Socrates', ed/tr. Tredennick,Hugh [Penguin 1969], p.153

A Reaction

In retrospect it seems surprising that such clever people hadn't worked this one out, given the evidence of anatomy, in animals and people, and given brain injuries. By the time of Galen they appear to have got the answer.

The 43 ideas from 'Phaedo'

16516 The ship which Theseus took to Crete is now sent to Delos crowned with flowers [Plato]
24262 Sometimes, and for some people, death is better than life [Plato]
24263 We belong to the gods, and only kill ourselves if they indicate some necessity [Plato]
24264 Cebes responds critically to every idea he hears [Plato]
24265 After death I expect to join the wise gods, and good men [Plato]
350 In investigation the body leads us astray, but the soul gets a clear view of the facts [Plato]
351 War aims at the acquisition of wealth, because we are enslaved to the body [Plato]
9343 To achieve pure knowledge, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things with the soul [Plato]
24266 Normal temperance - scorn and control of desires - needs contempt of the body, and wisdom [Plato]
24267 Well-ordering is not temperance; it is just fear of pleasure becoming excessive [Plato]
354 Wisdom makes virtue and true goodness possible [Plato]
24268 It is a common fear that the soul may entirely disperse immediately after death [Plato]
357 People are obviously recollecting when they react to a geometrical diagram [Plato]
24269 When lovers see a beloved's lyre, they immediately think of the beloved [Plato]
359 If we feel the inadequacy of a resemblance, we must recollect the original [Plato]
360 We must have a prior knowledge of equality, if we see 'equal' things and realise they fall short of it [Plato]
24270 If we perceive equals, we need prior knowledge of the equal in itself [Plato]
24230 The Forms arise whenever we talk of something 'in itself'. [Plato]
24271 If a man knows something, he can give an account of it [Plato]
24225 Things like the Equal and the Beautiful, which are real, must be unchanging [Plato]
24226 The soul on its own enters a pure, unchanging and eternal realm, and experiences wisdom [Plato]
24272 Philosophy reveals that the senses are extremely deceptive [Plato]
361 It is a mistake to think that the most violent pleasure or pain is therefore the truest reality [Plato]
362 The greatest misfortune for a person is to develop a dislike for argument [Plato]
24273 Simmias fears that the beautiful soul is attunement of the body, and dies with it [Plato]
24274 Critias thinks soul survives death into another body, but that process may still terminate [Plato]
363 Whether the soul pre-exists our body depends on whether it contains the ultimate standard of reality [Plato]
364 One soul can't be more or less of a soul than another [Plato]
15859 To investigate the causes of things, study what is best for them [Plato]
13154 Do we think and experience with blood, air or fire, or could it be our brain? [Plato]
13155 If you add one to one, which one becomes two, or do they both become two? [Plato]
13156 Fancy being unable to distinguish a cause from its necessary background conditions! [Plato]
1 There is only one source for all beauty [Plato]
24275 Whether things are large or small needs the Forms of largeness and smallness [Plato]
24227 One and one can only become two by sharing in Twoness [Plato]
24276 If you want to discover facts, don't muddle the start of enquiry with its conclusion [Plato]
368 Other things are named after the Forms because they participate in them [Plato]
21347 If Simmias is taller than Socrates, that isn't a feature that is just in Simmias [Plato]
24277 Snow ceases to be snow if it admits the hot; it is the same if fire admits the cold [Plato]
24278 Threeness brings up oddness, which won't admit evenness [Plato]
24279 We no longer explain a hot body by 'heat', but by its containing fire [Plato]
369 If the Earth is spherical and in the centre, it is kept in place by universal symmetry, not by force [Plato]
370 Philosophy is a purification of the soul ready for the afterlife [Plato]