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Single Idea 23219

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 8. Brain ]

Full Idea

Even when an animals heart was stopped [by hand] it continued its muted whimpers, …but when the brain was pressed the animal stopped making a noise and became unconscious.

Gist of Idea

Stopping the heart doesn't terminate activity; pressing the brain does that

Source

report of Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170]) by Matthew Cobb - The Idea of the Brain 1

Book Ref

Cobb,Matthew: 'The Idea of the Brain' [Penguin 2020], p.23


A Reaction

It's not that the ancients didn't do science. It's that ancient people paid no attention to what their scientists discovered.

Related Idea

Idea 23220 The brain contains memory and reason, and is the source of sensation and decision [Galen]


The 12 ideas from Galen

Galen showed by experiment that the brain controls the body [Galen, by Hankinson]
Each part of the soul has its virtue - pleasure for appetite, success for competition, and rectitude for reason [Galen]
Galen's medicine followed the mean; each illness was balanced by opposite treatment [Galen, by Hacking]
We just use the word 'faculty' when we don't know the psychological cause [Galen]
Early empiricists said reason was just a useless concept introduced by philosophers [Galen, by Frede,M]
Stopping the heart doesn't terminate activity; pressing the brain does that [Galen, by Cobb]
The brain contains memory and reason, and is the source of sensation and decision [Galen]
We execute irredeemable people, to protect ourselves, as a deterrent, and ending a bad life [Galen]
Philosophy must start from clearly observed facts [Galen]
Philosophers think faculties are in substances, and invent a faculty for every activity [Galen]
The rational part of the soul is the desire for truth, understanding and recollection [Galen]
The spirit in the soul wants freedom, power and honour [Galen]