more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
In souls there is no mingling of ingredients, nothing of two-fold nature, so it is impossible for the soul to be divided; impossible, therefore, for it to perish either; for perishing is like the separation of parts which were maintained in union.
Gist of Idea
The soul has a single nature, so it cannot be divided, and hence it cannot perish
Source
M. Tullius Cicero (Tusculan Disputations [c.44 BCE], I.xxix.71)
Book Ref
Cicero: 'Tusculan Disputations', ed/tr. King,J.E. [Harvard Loeb 1927], p.83
A Reaction
Cicero knows he is pushing his luck in asserting that perishing is a sort of division. Why can't something be there one moment and gone the next? He appears to be in close agreement with Descartes about being a 'thinking thing'.
| 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] |