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Single Idea 5723

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

Full Idea

If the spirit is by nature immortal and is slipped into the body at birth, why do we retain no memory of an earlier existence, no impress of antecedent events?

Gist of Idea

If spirit is immortal and enters us at birth, why don't we remember a previous existence?

Source

Lucretius (On the Nature of the Universe [c.60 BCE], III.670)

Book Ref

Lucretius: 'On the Nature of the Universe', ed/tr. Latham,Ronald [Penguin 1951], p.116

A Reaction

Plato took the view that we do recall previous existence, as seen in our innate ideas. This problem forced the Christian church into the uncomfortable claim that God creates the soul at conception, but that it then goes on to immortality.

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]