more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 1735

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 6. Anti-Individualism ]

Full Idea

The soul is in a way all the things that exist, for all the things that exist are objects either of perception or of thought.

Gist of Idea

In a way the soul is everything which exists, through its perceptions and thoughts

Source

Aristotle (De Anima [c.329 BCE], 431b20)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'De Anima (On the Soul)', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,H.C. [Penguin 1986], p.210


A Reaction

Sounds very like Berkeley's empirical version of idealism. It also seems to imply modern externalist (anti-individualist) understandings of the mind (which strike me as false).


The 12 ideas with the same theme [individuation of minds must also refer to externals]:

In a way the soul is everything which exists, through its perceptions and thoughts [Aristotle]
Memory is so vast that I cannot recognise it as part of my mind [Augustine]
When Dasein grasps something it exists externally alongside the thing [Heidegger]
There is no natural border between inner and outer [Harman]
We can only describe mental attitudes in relation to the external world [Harman]
Anti-individualism says the environment is involved in the individuation of some mental states [Burge]
Broad concepts suggest an extension of the mind into the environment (less computer-like) [Burge]
A mechanism can count as 'cognitive' whether it is in the brain or outside it [Clark/Chalmers, by Rowlands]
If something in the world could equally have been a mental process, it is part of our cognition [Clark/Chalmers]
Consciousness may not extend beyond the head, but cognition need not be conscious [Clark/Chalmers]
Content externalism implies that we do not have privileged access to our own minds [Rowlands]
If someone is secretly transported to Twin Earth, others know their thoughts better than they do [Rowlands]