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Single Idea 18453
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / c. Features of mind
]
Full Idea
Since intelligence is intelligible for intelligence, intelligence is its own object. ...Intelligence, therefore, is simultaneously thinker and thought, all that thinks and all that is thought.
Gist of Idea
Intelligence is aware of itself, so the intelligence is both the thinker and the thought
Source
Porphyry (Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind [c.280], 5Enn3 32(5-7))
Book Ref
Porphyry: 'Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind', ed/tr. Guthrie,Kenneth [Phanes 1988], p.48
A Reaction
This is a bit of a problem for Descartes, if the Cogito is taken as offering evidence (thought) for the existence of a thinker ('I'). Porphyry implies that the separation Descartes requires is impossible.
Related Idea
Idea 2259
"I am, I exist" is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind [Descartes]
The
22 ideas
from Porphyry
15034
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Are genera and species real or conceptual? bodies or incorporeal? in sensibles or separate from them?
[Porphyry]
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18444
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Civil virtues make us behave benevolently, and thereby unite citizens
[Porphyry]
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18445
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Civil virtues control the passions, and make us conform to our nature
[Porphyry]
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18446
|
Purificatory virtues detach the soul completely from the passions
[Porphyry]
|
18447
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There are practical, purificatory, contemplative, and exemplary virtues
[Porphyry]
|
18448
|
We should avoid the pleasures of love, or at least, should not enact our dreams
[Porphyry]
|
18449
|
Nature binds or detaches body to soul, but soul itself joins and detaches soul from body
[Porphyry]
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18450
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Philosophy has its own mode of death, by separating soul from body
[Porphyry]
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18451
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The presence of the incorporeal is only known by certain kinds of disposition
[Porphyry]
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18453
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Intelligence is aware of itself, so the intelligence is both the thinker and the thought
[Porphyry]
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18454
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Time is the circular movement of the soul
[Porphyry]
|
18455
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Some think time is seen at rest, as well as in movement
[Porphyry]
|
18452
|
Memory is not conserved images, but reproduction of previous thought
[Porphyry]
|
18456
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Unified real existence is neither great nor small, though greatness and smallness participate in it
[Porphyry]
|
18458
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The soul is bound to matter by the force of its own disposition
[Porphyry]
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18457
|
Individual souls are all connected, though distinct, and without dividing universal Soul
[Porphyry]
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18459
|
Diversity arises from the power of unity
[Porphyry]
|
18462
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The soul is everywhere and nowhere in the body, and must be its cause
[Porphyry]
|
18460
|
God is nowhere, and hence everywhere
[Porphyry]
|
18461
|
Everything existing proceeds from divinity, and is within divinity
[Porphyry]
|
18463
|
Successful introspection reveals the substrate along with the object of thought
[Porphyry]
|
18464
|
Justice is each person fulfilling his function
[Porphyry]
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