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Single Idea 24056

[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 2. Interactionism ]

Full Idea

That the soul is not separable from the body - or that certain parts of it are not, if it naturally has parts - is quite clear.

Gist of Idea

The soul (or parts of it) is not separable from the body

Source

Aristotle (De Anima [c.329 BCE], 413a04)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'De Anima (on the psuche)', ed/tr. Reeve, C.D.C. [Hackett 2017], p.22


A Reaction

This doesn't make him a physicalist. I've seen him described in modern terms as a functionalist, but that makes the mind abstract and the body concrete. Perhaps he is an 'Integrationist' (as Descartes might be in his 'pilot' passage).

Related Idea

Idea 3616 The soul must unite with the body to have appetites and sensations [Descartes]


The 18 ideas with the same theme [mind and matter mutually affect one another]:

All the emotions seem to involve the body, simultaneously with the feeling [Aristotle]
The soul (or parts of it) is not separable from the body [Aristotle]
Only bodies can touch one another [Lucretius]
The contact of spirit and body is utterly amazing, and incomprehensible [Augustine]
Things must have parts to intermingle [Gassendi]
The soul must unite with the body to have appetites and sensations [Descartes]
Interaction between mental and physical seems to violate the principle of conservation of energy [Rowlands on Descartes]
The pineal gland links soul to body, and unites the two symmetrical sides of the body [Descartes, by PG]
Descartes discussed the interaction problem, and compared it with gravity [Descartes, by Lycan]
Mind and brain don't interact if they are the same [Searle]
Mental substance causation makes physics incomplete [Kim]
Cartesians consider interaction to be a miracle [Fodor]
Semantics v syntax is the interaction problem all over again [Fodor]
Body-spirit interaction ought to result in losses and increases of energy in the material world [Teichmann]
The very concept of a substance denies the possibility of mutual interaction and dependence [Scruton]
Maybe dualist interaction is possible at the quantum level? [Chalmers]
Supervenience makes interaction laws possible [Chalmers]
If causation is just regularities in events, the interaction of mind and body is not a special problem [Heil]