more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
First, I maintain that the mind, which we often call the intellect, the seat of guidance and control of life, is part of a man, no less than hand or foot or eyes are parts of a whole living creature.
Gist of Idea
The mind is a part of a man, just like a hand or an eye
Source
Lucretius (On the Nature of the Universe [c.60 BCE], III.95)
Book Ref
Lucretius: 'On the Nature of the Universe', ed/tr. Latham,Ronald [Penguin 1951], p.99
A Reaction
Presumably Lucretius asserts this because some people were denying it. Sounds like common sense to me. The only reason I can see for anyone denying what he says is if they are desperate to survive death.
| 5987 | Alcmaeon was the first to say the brain is central to thinking [Alcmaeon, by Staden, von] |
| 5718 | The mind is in the middle of the breast, because there we experience fear and joy [Lucretius] |
| 5717 | The mind is a part of a man, just like a hand or an eye [Lucretius] |
| 6003 | Galen showed by experiment that the brain controls the body [Galen, by Hankinson] |
| 18462 | The soul is everywhere and nowhere in the body, and must be its cause [Porphyry] |
| 6261 | The soul is in the brain, as shown by head injuries [Montaigne] |
| 21840 | A meeting of man and animal can be deterritorialization (like a wasp with an orchid) [Deleuze] |
| 5802 | Representations are in the head, but their content is not, as stories don't exist in their books [Dretske] |
| 6641 | Externalists say minds depend on environment for their very existence and identity [Lowe] |