Single Idea 18453

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / c. Features of mind]

Full Idea

Since intelligence is intelligible for intelligence, intelligence is its own object. ...Intelligence, therefore, is simultaneously thinker and thought, all that thinks and all that is thought.

Gist of Idea

Intelligence is aware of itself, so the intelligence is both the thinker and the thought

Source

Porphyry (Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind [c.280], 5Enn3 32(5-7))

Book Reference

Porphyry: 'Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind', ed/tr. Guthrie,Kenneth [Phanes 1988], p.48


A Reaction

This is a bit of a problem for Descartes, if the Cogito is taken as offering evidence (thought) for the existence of a thinker ('I'). Porphyry implies that the separation Descartes requires is impossible.

Related Idea

Idea 2259 "I am, I exist" is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind [Descartes]