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Single Idea 6683
[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 2. Interactionism
]
Full Idea
The manner of contact of spirit with body, which produces a living being, is utterly amazing and beyond our powers of comprehension
Gist of Idea
The contact of spirit and body is utterly amazing, and incomprehensible
Source
Augustine (City of God [c.427], XXI.10)
Book Ref
Augustine: 'City of God', ed/tr. O'Meara,John [Penguin 1984], p.986
A Reaction
This leads to a rather clear objection against a theory which needs a miracle to explain a common natural phenomenon. At least Augustine was beginning to recognise that interaction is a bit of a problem.
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[mind and matter mutually affect one another]:
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24039
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All the emotions seem to involve the body, simultaneously with the feeling
[Aristotle]
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24056
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The soul (or parts of it) is not separable from the body
[Aristotle]
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5695
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Only bodies can touch one another
[Lucretius]
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6683
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The contact of spirit and body is utterly amazing, and incomprehensible
[Augustine]
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3400
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Things must have parts to intermingle
[Gassendi]
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3616
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The soul must unite with the body to have appetites and sensations
[Descartes]
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6153
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Interaction between mental and physical seems to violate the principle of conservation of energy
[Rowlands on Descartes]
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3654
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The pineal gland links soul to body, and unites the two symmetrical sides of the body
[Descartes, by PG]
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6553
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Descartes discussed the interaction problem, and compared it with gravity
[Descartes, by Lycan]
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3469
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Mind and brain don't interact if they are the same
[Searle]
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3409
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Mental substance causation makes physics incomplete
[Kim]
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2446
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Cartesians consider interaction to be a miracle
[Fodor]
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2445
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Semantics v syntax is the interaction problem all over again
[Fodor]
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9293
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Body-spirit interaction ought to result in losses and increases of energy in the material world
[Teichmann]
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3911
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The very concept of a substance denies the possibility of mutual interaction and dependence
[Scruton]
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2409
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Maybe dualist interaction is possible at the quantum level?
[Chalmers]
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2411
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Supervenience makes interaction laws possible
[Chalmers]
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4590
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If causation is just regularities in events, the interaction of mind and body is not a special problem
[Heil]
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