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Single Idea 7108
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 5. Unity of Mind
]
Full Idea
The unity of the thousand active consciousnesses through which I have added two and two to make four, is the transcendent object '2+2=4'. Without the permanence of this eternal truth, it would be impossible to conceive of a real unity of mind.
Gist of Idea
The eternal truth of 2+2=4 is what gives unity to the mind which regularly thinks it
Source
Jean-Paul Sartre (Transcendence of the Ego [1937], I (A))
Book Ref
Sartre,Jean-Paul: 'The Transcendence of the Ego' [Routledge 2004], p.6
A Reaction
This is the germ of externalism, here presented as a Platonic attitude to arithmetic, rather than being about water or gold. He claims that internalist attitudes to unity are fictions. I am inclined to think he is wrong, and that unity is biological.
The
25 ideas
with the same theme
[unified character of the thinking mind]:
2127
|
The mind has parts, because we have inner conflicts
[Plato]
|
1737
|
The soul seems to have an infinity of parts
[Aristotle on Plato]
|
24046
|
Understanding is impossible, if it involves the understanding having parts
[Aristotle]
|
1717
|
If the soul is composed of many physical parts, it can't be a true unity
[Aristotle]
|
24053
|
If a soul have parts, what unites them?
[Aristotle]
|
1721
|
What unifies the soul would have to be a super-soul, which seems absurd
[Aristotle]
|
5145
|
The rational and irrational parts of the soul are either truly separate, or merely described that way
[Aristotle]
|
21387
|
The separate elements and capacities of a mind cannot be distinguished
[Lucretius]
|
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]
|
5506
|
If soul was like body, its parts would be separate, without communication
[Plotinus]
|
2302
|
Faculties of the mind aren't parts, as one mind uses them
[Descartes]
|
21805
|
Spinoza held that the mind is just a bundle of ideas
[Spinoza, by Schmid]
|
5045
|
No machine or mere organised matter could have a unified self
[Leibniz]
|
1356
|
A person is a unity, and doesn't come in degrees
[Reid]
|
24090
|
Our inclinations would not conflict if we were a unity; we imagine unity for our multiplicity
[Nietzsche]
|
7152
|
With protoplasm ½+½=2, so the soul is not an indivisible monad
[Nietzsche]
|
7130
|
Unity is not in the conscious 'I', but in the organism, which uses the self as a tool
[Nietzsche]
|
4536
|
It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing
[Nietzsche]
|
7108
|
The eternal truth of 2+2=4 is what gives unity to the mind which regularly thinks it
[Sartre]
|
5792
|
Explanation of how we unify our mental stimuli into a single experience is the 'binding problem'
[Searle]
|
3480
|
We experience unity at an instant and across time
[Searle]
|
2957
|
Brain bisection suggests unity of mind isn't all-or-nothing
[Nagel, by Lockwood]
|
2426
|
Why are minds homogeneous and brains fine-grained?
[Chalmers]
|
4924
|
A conscious human being rapidly reunifies its mind after any damage to the brain
[Edelman/Tononi]
|