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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 33 ideas from Augustine

All things are in the present time to God [Augustine]
I must exist in order to be mistaken, so that even if I am mistaken, I can't be wrong about my own existence [Augustine]
The contact of spirit and body is utterly amazing, and incomprehensible [Augustine]
If God existed before creation, why would a perfect being desire to change things? [Augustine, by Bardon]
To be aware of time it can only exist in the mind, as memory or anticipation [Augustine, by Bardon]
Memories are preserved separately, according to category [Augustine]
Memory is so vast that I cannot recognise it as part of my mind [Augustine]
I can distinguish different smells even when I am not experiencing them [Augustine]
Three main questions seem to be whether a thing is, what it is, and what sort it is [Augustine]
Memory contains innumerable principles of maths, as well as past sense experiences [Augustine]
We would avoid remembering sorrow or fear if that triggered the emotions afresh [Augustine]
Why does joy in my mind make me happy, but joy in my memory doesn't? [Augustine]
Mind and memory are the same, as shown in 'bear it in mind' or 'it slipped from mind' [Augustine]
Without memory I could not even speak of myself [Augustine]
Everyone wants happiness [Augustine]
If God is outside time in eternity, can He hear prayers? [Augustine]
Heaven and earth must be created, because they are subject to change [Augustine]
If the past is no longer, and the future is not yet, how can they exist? [Augustine]
I know what time is, until someone asks me to explain it [Augustine]
The whole of the current year is not present, so how can it exist? [Augustine]
How can ten days ahead be a short time, if it doesn't exist? [Augustine]
If the future does not exist, how can prophets see it? [Augustine]
I disagree with the idea that time is nothing but cosmic movement [Augustine]
Maybe time is an extension of the mind [Augustine]
I prefer a lack of form to mean non-existence, than to think of some quasi-existence [Augustine]
Love, and do what you will [Augustine]
Our minds grasp reality by direct illumination (rather than abstraction from experience) [Augustine, by Matthews]
Our images of bodies are not produced by the bodies, but by our own minds [Augustine, by Aquinas]
Augustine created the modern concept of the will [Augustine, by Matthews]
Pagans produced three hundred definitions of the highest good [Augustine, by Grayling]
Augustine said (unusually) that 'ought' does not imply 'can' [Augustine, by Matthews]
Augustine identified Donatism, Pelagianism and Manicheism as the main heresies [Augustine, by Matthews]
Augustine said evil does not really exist, and evil is a limitation in goodness [Augustine, by Perkins]