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Full Idea
Some think the soul is the heart; Empedocles holds that the soul is blood in the heart; others said one part of the brain claimed the primacy of soul; others say the heart or brain are habitations of the soul; while others identify soul and breath.
Gist of Idea
The soul is the heart, or blood in the heart, or part of the brain, of something living in heart or brain, or breath
Source
M. Tullius Cicero (Tusculan Disputations [c.44 BCE], I.ix.17-19)
Book Ref
Cicero: 'Tusculan Disputations', ed/tr. King,J.E. [Harvard Loeb 1927], p.23
A Reaction
A nice survey of views. Note that many of them identify the psuché/anima with physical parts of the body; only the fourth option seems to be dualist. This is despite the contemptuous response to Democritus' atomist theory of soul.
| 5879 | The soul is the heart, or blood in the heart, or part of the brain, of something living in heart or brain, or breath [Cicero] |
| 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] |
| 5885 | Souls contain no properties of elements, and elements contain no properties of souls [Cicero] |
| 5886 | Like the eye, the soul has no power to see itself, but sees other things [Cicero] |
| 5890 | We should not share the distress of others, but simply try to relieve it [Cicero] |
| 5891 | Philosophy is the collection of rational arguments [Cicero] |
| 5893 | A wise man has integrity, firmness of will, nobility, consistency, sobriety, patience [Cicero] |
| 5894 | All men except philosophers fear poverty [Cicero] |
| 5895 | If one despises illiterate mechanics individually, they are not worth more collectively [Cicero] |