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Single Idea 332

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness ]

Full Idea

One should preserve a balance and avoid exercising the mind or body without the other; mathematicians should exercise physically, and athletes mentally.

Gist of Idea

One should exercise both the mind and the body, to avoid imbalance

Source

Plato (Timaeus [c.349 BCE], 88c)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Timaeus and Critias', ed/tr. Lee,Desmond [Penguin 1971], p.118

A Reaction

Excellent, and very modern. Use it or lose it. It suggests that Plato had a fairly holistic view of a human being, and saw mind and body as closely integrated.

The 26 ideas from 'Timaeus'

12042 Plato's Forms were seen as part of physics, rather than of metaphysics [Plato, by Annas]
5962 Plato says the soul is ordered by number [Plato, by Plutarch]
20364 The apprehensions of reason remain unchanging, but reasonless sensation shows mere becoming [Plato]
306 Nothing can come to be without a cause [Plato]
307 Something will always be well-made if the maker keeps in mind the eternal underlying pattern [Plato]
308 If the cosmos is an object of perception then it must be continually changing [Plato]
309 Clearly the world is good, so its maker must have been concerned with the eternal, not with change [Plato]
310 The creator of the cosmos had no envy, and so wanted things to be as like himself as possible [Plato]
311 The cosmos must be unique, because it resembles the creator, who is unique [Plato]
312 Time came into existence with the heavens, so that there will be a time when they can be dissolved [Plato]
314 Heavenly movements gave us the idea of time, and caused us to inquire about the heavens [Plato]
315 Philosophy is the supreme gift of the gods to mortals [Plato]
316 Music has harmony like the soul, and serves to reorder disharmony within us [Plato]
317 The universe is basically an intelligible and unchanging model, and a visible and changing copy of it [Plato]
318 In addition to the underlying unchanging model and a changing copy of it, there must also be a foundation of all change [Plato]
321 For knowledge and true opinion to be different there must be Forms; otherwise we are just stuck with sensations [Plato]
322 Intelligence is the result of rational teaching; true opinion can result from irrational persuasion [Plato]
324 Before the existence of the world there must have been being, space and becoming [Plato]
325 We must consider the four basic shapes as too small to see, only becoming visible in large numbers [Plato]
326 For relaxation one can consider the world of change, instead of eternal things [Plato]
327 There are two types of cause, the necessary and the divine [Plato]
328 Everything that takes place naturally is pleasant [Plato]
330 No one wants to be bad, but bad men result from physical and educational failures, which they do not want or choose [Plato]
331 Bad governments prevent discussion, and discourage the study of virtue [Plato]
332 One should exercise both the mind and the body, to avoid imbalance [Plato]
334 Only bird-brained people think astronomy is entirely a matter of evidence [Plato]