more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 5145

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 5. Unity of Mind ]

Full Idea

The rational and irrational parts of the soul are either separate like parts of the body, or are distinguishable only in definition and thought, like the convex and concave aspects of the circumference of a circle.

Gist of Idea

The rational and irrational parts of the soul are either truly separate, or merely described that way

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1102a27)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.88

A Reaction

Whether or not the soul is unified was a clear issue for Aristotle, explored further in De Anima (408a15 and 411b10). He appears to say the soul is not a unity, thus disagreeing with Descartes (Med. 6).

The 25 ideas with the same theme [unified character of the thinking mind]:

2127 The mind has parts, because we have inner conflicts [Plato]
1737 The soul seems to have an infinity of parts [Aristotle on Plato]
24046 Understanding is impossible, if it involves the understanding having parts [Aristotle]
1717 If the soul is composed of many physical parts, it can't be a true unity [Aristotle]
24053 If a soul have parts, what unites them? [Aristotle]
1721 What unifies the soul would have to be a super-soul, which seems absurd [Aristotle]
5145 The rational and irrational parts of the soul are either truly separate, or merely described that way [Aristotle]
21387 The separate elements and capacities of a mind cannot be distinguished [Lucretius]
5884 How can one mind perceive so many dissimilar sensations? [Cicero]
5887 The soul has a single nature, so it cannot be divided, and hence it cannot perish [Cicero]
5506 If soul was like body, its parts would be separate, without communication [Plotinus]
2302 Faculties of the mind aren't parts, as one mind uses them [Descartes]
21805 Spinoza held that the mind is just a bundle of ideas [Spinoza, by Schmid]
5045 No machine or mere organised matter could have a unified self [Leibniz]
1356 A person is a unity, and doesn't come in degrees [Reid]
24090 Our inclinations would not conflict if we were a unity; we imagine unity for our multiplicity [Nietzsche]
7152 With protoplasm ½+½=2, so the soul is not an indivisible monad [Nietzsche]
7130 Unity is not in the conscious 'I', but in the organism, which uses the self as a tool [Nietzsche]
4536 It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing [Nietzsche]
7108 The eternal truth of 2+2=4 is what gives unity to the mind which regularly thinks it [Sartre]
5792 Explanation of how we unify our mental stimuli into a single experience is the 'binding problem' [Searle]
3480 We experience unity at an instant and across time [Searle]
2957 Brain bisection suggests unity of mind isn't all-or-nothing [Nagel, by Lockwood]
2426 Why are minds homogeneous and brains fine-grained? [Chalmers]
4924 A conscious human being rapidly reunifies its mind after any damage to the brain [Edelman/Tononi]