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Single Idea 18463

[filed under theme 16. Persons / C. Self-Awareness / 2. Knowing the Self ]

Full Idea

He who by thought can penetrate within his own substance, and can thus acquire knowledge of it, finds himself in this actualisation of knowledge and consciousness, where the substrate that knows is identical with the object that is known.

Gist of Idea

Successful introspection reveals the substrate along with the object of thought

Source

Porphyry (Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind [c.280], 6Enn5 44)

Book Ref

Porphyry: 'Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind', ed/tr. Guthrie,Kenneth [Phanes 1988], p.68

A Reaction

It seems remarkably that this ability is confidently asserted by Porphyry, and flatly denied by Hume. Were they just different people, or were they looking for different things, or was one of them deluded?

Related Idea

Idea 1316 Introspection always discovers perceptions, and never a Self without perceptions [Hume]

The 21 ideas from 'Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind'

18444 Civil virtues make us behave benevolently, and thereby unite citizens [Porphyry]
18445 Civil virtues control the passions, and make us conform to our nature [Porphyry]
18446 Purificatory virtues detach the soul completely from the passions [Porphyry]
18447 There are practical, purificatory, contemplative, and exemplary virtues [Porphyry]
18448 We should avoid the pleasures of love, or at least, should not enact our dreams [Porphyry]
18449 Nature binds or detaches body to soul, but soul itself joins and detaches soul from body [Porphyry]
18450 Philosophy has its own mode of death, by separating soul from body [Porphyry]
18451 The presence of the incorporeal is only known by certain kinds of disposition [Porphyry]
18453 Intelligence is aware of itself, so the intelligence is both the thinker and the thought [Porphyry]
18454 Time is the circular movement of the soul [Porphyry]
18455 Some think time is seen at rest, as well as in movement [Porphyry]
18452 Memory is not conserved images, but reproduction of previous thought [Porphyry]
18456 Unified real existence is neither great nor small, though greatness and smallness participate in it [Porphyry]
18458 The soul is bound to matter by the force of its own disposition [Porphyry]
18457 Individual souls are all connected, though distinct, and without dividing universal Soul [Porphyry]
18459 Diversity arises from the power of unity [Porphyry]
18462 The soul is everywhere and nowhere in the body, and must be its cause [Porphyry]
18460 God is nowhere, and hence everywhere [Porphyry]
18461 Everything existing proceeds from divinity, and is within divinity [Porphyry]
18464 Justice is each person fulfilling his function [Porphyry]
18463 Successful introspection reveals the substrate along with the object of thought [Porphyry]