Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Letters from a Stoic' and 'Reasoning and the Logic of Things'

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2 ideas

17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 1. Dualism
If everything can be measured, try measuring the size of a man's soul [Seneca]
     Full Idea: Nothing's outside your scope when it comes to measurement. Well, if you're such an expert, measure a man's soul; tell me how large or how small that is.
     From: Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 088)
     A reaction: This is Descartes's non-spatial argument, which I take to be one of the four main props to his mind-body dualism. As always, it is expressed with beautiful concision by Seneca.
17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 3. Panpsychism
Whatever is First must be sentient [Peirce]
     Full Idea: I think that what is First is ipso facto sentient.
     From: Charles Sanders Peirce (Reasoning and the Logic of Things [1898], VIII)
     A reaction: He doesn't mention Leibniz's monads, but that looks like the ancestor of Peirce's idea. He doesn't make clear (here) how far he would take the idea. I would just say that whatever is 'First' must be active rather than passive.