more from M. Tullius Cicero

Single Idea 5885

[catalogued under 17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 7. Anti-Physicalism / a. Physicalism critique]

Full Idea

No beginnings of souls can be found on earth; there is no combination in souls that could be born from earth, nothing that partakes of moist or airy or fiery; for in those elements there is nothing to possess the power of memory, thought, or reflection.

Clarification

Cicero believed the elements were earth, air, fire and water

Gist of Idea

Souls contain no properties of elements, and elements contain no properties of souls

Source

M. Tullius Cicero (Tusculan Disputations [c.44 BCE], I.xxvi.66)

Book Reference

Cicero: 'Tusculan Disputations', ed/tr. King,J.E. [Harvard Loeb 1927], p.77


A Reaction

Interesting, but I think magnetism is an instructive analogy, which has weird properties which we never perceive in elements (though it is there, buried deep - suggesting panpsychism). Cicero would be disconcerted to find that fire isn't an element.