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Single Idea 24043

[filed under theme 29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / b. Soul ]

Full Idea

Alcmaeon says that the soul is immortal because it resembles immortal things and that this affection belongs to it because it is always in movement, like divine things, such the moon, the sun, the stars and the whole heaven.

Gist of Idea

Soul must be immortal, since it continually moves, like the heavens

Source

report of Alcmaeon (fragments/reports [c.490 BCE], DK 24) by Aristotle - De Anima 405a30

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'De Anima (on the psuche)', ed/tr. Reeve, C.D.C. [Hackett 2017], p.8

A Reaction

Hm. Fish and rivers seem to be continually moving too. Presumably we are like gods, but then Greek gods seem awfully like humans. I don't know the history of belief in immortality; an interesting topic.

The 19 ideas with the same theme [nature of the surviving part of a person]:

8146 The immortal in us is the part that never sleeps, and shapes our dreams [Anon (Upan)]
8150 The immortal Self and the sad individual self are like two golden birds perched on one tree [Anon (Upan)]
24043 Soul must be immortal, since it continually moves, like the heavens [Alcmaeon, by Aristotle]
2165 Something is unlikely to be immortal if it is imperfectly made from diverse parts [Plato]
20830 Death can't separate soul from body, because incorporeal soul can't unite with body [Chrysippus]
5721 The mind is very small smooth particles, which evaporate at death [Lucretius]
5723 If spirit is immortal and enters us at birth, why don't we remember a previous existence? [Lucretius]
21811 Even the soul is secondary to the Intellectual-Principle [Nous], of which soul is an utterance [Plotinus]
18449 Nature binds or detaches body to soul, but soul itself joins and detaches soul from body [Porphyry]
18457 Individual souls are all connected, though distinct, and without dividing universal Soul [Porphyry]
3652 I can't prove the soul is indestructible, only that it is separate from the mortal body [Descartes]
12917 The soul is indestructible and always self-aware [Leibniz]
7649 There is no clear idea of the soul, which should only refer to our thinking part [La Mettrie]
20264 The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' [Nietzsche]
4159 The human body is the best picture of the human soul [Wittgenstein]
23765 The soul is the intrinsic value of a human [Weil]
9292 The Soul has no particular capacity (in the way thinking belongs to the mind) [Teichmann]
9294 No individuating marks distinguish between Souls [Teichmann]
5352 The idea of the soul gets some support from the scientific belief in essential 'natural kinds' [Flanagan]