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Single Idea 21809

[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 1. Dualism ]

Full Idea

Our own soul is of that same ideal nature [as the oldest god of them all], so that to consider it, purified, freed from all accruement, is to recognise in ourselves which we have found soul to be, honourable above the body. For what is body but earth?

Gist of Idea

Our soul has the same ideal nature as the oldest god, and is honourable above the body

Source

Plotinus (The Enneads [c.245], 5.1.02)

Book Ref

Plotinus: 'The Enneads', ed/tr. Mackenna,Stephen [Penguin 1991], p.349

A Reaction

The strongest versions of substance dualism are religious in character, because the separateness of the mind elevates us above the grubby physical character of the world. I'm with Nietzsche on this one - this view is actually harmful to us.

The 16 ideas from 'The Enneads'

6922 Ecstasy is for the neo-Platonist the highest psychological state of man [Plotinus, by Feuerbach]
5506 If soul was like body, its parts would be separate, without communication [Plotinus]
21809 Our soul has the same ideal nature as the oldest god, and is honourable above the body [Plotinus]
21808 Soul is author of all of life, and of the stars, and it gives them law and movement [Plotinus]
21811 Even the soul is secondary to the Intellectual-Principle [Nous], of which soul is an utterance [Plotinus]
21812 Being is the product of pure intellect [Plotinus]
21813 Number determines individual being [Plotinus]
21814 How can multiple existence arise from the unified One? [Plotinus]
21816 Soul is the logos of Nous, just as Nous is the logos of the One [Plotinus]
21815 Because the One is immobile, it must create by radiation, light the sun producing light [Plotinus]
21817 The One does not exist, but is the source of all existence [Plotinus]
21824 The One is a principle which transcends Being [Plotinus]
21825 The soul is outside of all of space, and has no connection to the bodily order [Plotinus]
21826 The Soul reasons about the Right, so there must be some permanent Right about which it reasons [Plotinus]
21827 The movement of Soul is continuous, but we are only aware of the parts of it that are sensed [Plotinus]
21828 A person is the whole of their soul [Plotinus]