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Single Idea 162

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy ]

Full Idea

Do you think it possible to form an adequate conception of the nature of an individual soul without considering the nature of soul in general?

Clarification

'Soul' is the Greek word 'psuché', which covers mind and consciousness and life

Gist of Idea

Can we understand an individual soul without knowing the soul in general?

Source

Plato (Phaedrus [c.366 BCE], 270c)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII', ed/tr. Hamilton,Walter [Penguin 1973], p.89

A Reaction

Do animals understand anything (as opposed to simply being aware of things)?

The 32 ideas with the same theme [general remarks about philosophy]:

162 Can we understand an individual soul without knowing the soul in general? [Plato]
326 For relaxation one can consider the world of change, instead of eternal things [Plato]
549 All philosophy begins from wonder, either at the physical world, or at ideas [Aristotle]
1798 He studied philosophy by suspending his judgement on everything [Pyrrho, by Diog. Laertius]
1771 When shown seven versions of the mowing argument, he paid twice the asking price for them [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius]
3600 Slow and accurate thought makes the greatest progress [Descartes]
17016 Philosophy must abstract from the senses [Newton]
8095 We must think with our entire body and soul [Joubert]
19583 Philosophy only begins when it studies itself [Novalis]
8927 Philosophy moves essentially in the element of universality [Hegel]
21916 Philosophers can't be religious, and don't need to be; philosophy is perilous but free [Schopenhauer]
7834 Great philosophies are confessions by the author, growing out of moral intentions [Nietzsche]
4424 A warlike philosopher challenges problems to single combat [Nietzsche]
7848 Philosophy begins in the horror and absurdity of existence [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
2909 Thinking has to be learned in the way dancing has to be learned [Nietzsche]
4520 I don't want to persuade anyone to be a philosopher; they should be rare plants [Nietzsche]
7846 Nietzsche thinks philosophy makes us more profound, but not better [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
22657 All good philosophers start from a dumb conviction about which truths can be revealed [James]
5361 Philosophers must get used to absurdities [Russell]
2937 What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence [Wittgenstein]
2626 A philosopher is outside any community of ideas [Wittgenstein]
20435 If philosophy could be summarised it would be pointless [Adorno]
21849 Thought should be thrown like a stone from a war-machine [Deleuze]
21887 Derrida focuses on other philosophers, rather than on science [Derrida]
3269 If your life is to be meaningful as part of some large thing, the large thing must be meaningful [Nagel]
3242 Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture can't skip it [Nagel]
7973 There is no longer anything on which there is nothing to say [Baudrillard]
9786 Philosophers working like teams of scientists is absurd, yet isolation is hard [Cartwright,R]
3695 Philosophy is a priori if it is anything [Bonjour]
8220 Philosophy is in a perpetual state of digression [Deleuze/Guattari]
22519 Philosophers are revealed by their fears [Billington]
1606 You have to be a Platonist to debate about reality, so every philosopher is a Platonist [Roochnik]