Single Idea 1641

[catalogued under 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 6. Physicalism]

Full Idea

One group drags everything down to earth, insisting that only what offers tangible contact is, since they define being as the same as body, despising anyone who says that something without a body is. These are frightening men.

Gist of Idea

Some alarming thinkers think that only things which you can touch exist

Source

Plato (The Sophist [c.358 BCE], 246b)

Book Reference

Plato: 'The Sophist', ed/tr. Bernadete,Seth [University of Chicago 1986], p.39


A Reaction

Intellectually speaking, Plato seems to have been rather timid. Dualism, and its world of ideas, seemed obvious to him, but physicalism is clearly more plausible in the age of neuroscience (even if it is still rejected).