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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 Are genera and species real or conceptual? bodies or incorporeal? in sensibles or separate from them? [Porphyry]
18444 Civil virtues make us behave benevolently, and thereby unite citizens [Porphyry]
18445 Civil virtues control the passions, and make us conform to our nature [Porphyry]
18446 Purificatory virtues detach the soul completely from the passions [Porphyry]
18447 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]
18450 Philosophy has its own mode of death, by separating soul from body [Porphyry]
18451 The presence of the incorporeal is only known by certain kinds of disposition [Porphyry]
18453 Intelligence is aware of itself, so the intelligence is both the thinker and the thought [Porphyry]
18454 Time is the circular movement of the soul [Porphyry]
18455 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 Unified real existence is neither great nor small, though greatness and smallness participate in it [Porphyry]
18458 The soul is bound to matter by the force of its own disposition [Porphyry]
18457 Individual souls are all connected, though distinct, and without dividing universal Soul [Porphyry]
18459 Diversity arises from the power of unity [Porphyry]
18462 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]