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Single Idea 21387
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 5. Unity of Mind
]
Full Idea
No single element [of the soul] can be separated, nor can their capacities be divided spatially; they are like the multiple powers of a single body
Gist of Idea
The separate elements and capacities of a mind cannot be distinguished
Source
Lucretius (On the Nature of the Universe [c.60 BCE], III.262), quoted by A.A. Long - Hellenistic Philosophy 2.7
Book Ref
Long,A.A.: 'Hellenistic Philosophy' [Duckworth 1986], p.51
A Reaction
It is interesting that this comes from someone with a strongly physicalist view of the mind (though not, if I recall, focusing on the brain). He is still totally impressed by the unified phenomenology of mental experience. He is an empiricist.
The
25 ideas
with the same theme
[unified character of the thinking mind]:
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2127
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The mind has parts, because we have inner conflicts
[Plato]
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1737
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The soul seems to have an infinity of parts
[Aristotle on Plato]
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24046
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Understanding is impossible, if it involves the understanding having parts
[Aristotle]
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1717
|
If the soul is composed of many physical parts, it can't be a true unity
[Aristotle]
|
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24053
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If a soul have parts, what unites them?
[Aristotle]
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1721
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What unifies the soul would have to be a super-soul, which seems absurd
[Aristotle]
|
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5145
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The rational and irrational parts of the soul are either truly separate, or merely described that way
[Aristotle]
|
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21387
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The separate elements and capacities of a mind cannot be distinguished
[Lucretius]
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5884
|
How can one mind perceive so many dissimilar sensations?
[Cicero]
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5887
|
The soul has a single nature, so it cannot be divided, and hence it cannot perish
[Cicero]
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5506
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If soul was like body, its parts would be separate, without communication
[Plotinus]
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2302
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Faculties of the mind aren't parts, as one mind uses them
[Descartes]
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21805
|
Spinoza held that the mind is just a bundle of ideas
[Spinoza, by Schmid]
|
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5045
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No machine or mere organised matter could have a unified self
[Leibniz]
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1356
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A person is a unity, and doesn't come in degrees
[Reid]
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24090
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Our inclinations would not conflict if we were a unity; we imagine unity for our multiplicity
[Nietzsche]
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7152
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With protoplasm ½+½=2, so the soul is not an indivisible monad
[Nietzsche]
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7130
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Unity is not in the conscious 'I', but in the organism, which uses the self as a tool
[Nietzsche]
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4536
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It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing
[Nietzsche]
|
|
7108
|
The eternal truth of 2+2=4 is what gives unity to the mind which regularly thinks it
[Sartre]
|
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5792
|
Explanation of how we unify our mental stimuli into a single experience is the 'binding problem'
[Searle]
|
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3480
|
We experience unity at an instant and across time
[Searle]
|
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2957
|
Brain bisection suggests unity of mind isn't all-or-nothing
[Nagel, by Lockwood]
|
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2426
|
Why are minds homogeneous and brains fine-grained?
[Chalmers]
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4924
|
A conscious human being rapidly reunifies its mind after any damage to the brain
[Edelman/Tononi]
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