On Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 2:48 AM Philip Thrift <cloudver...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Monday, April 22, 2019 at 6:24:37 PM UTC-5, Jason wrote: >> >> >>> The above reminded me of this quote from Alan Turing: >> >> Personally I think that spirit is really eternally connected with matter >> but certainly not always by the same kind of body. I did believe it >> possible for a spirit at death to go to a universe entirely separate from >> our own, but now I consider that matter and spirit are so connected that >> this would be a contradiction in terms. It is possible however but unlikely >> that such universes may exist. >> >> Then as regards the actual connection between spirit and body I >> consider that the body by reason of being a living body can ``attract´´ and >> hold on to a ``spirit,´´ whilst the body is alive and awake the two are >> firmly connected. When the body is asleep I cannot guess what happens but >> when the body dies the ``mechanism´´ of the body, holding the spirit is >> gone and the spirit finds a new body sooner or later perhaps immediately. >> >> Jason >> >> >>> >>> > I don't think I've seen this quote of Turing before, but it immediately > reminds me of *Epicurus *(an ancient panpsychist): > > [SEP: Epicurus] > > Having established the physical basis of the world, Epicurus proceeds to > explain the nature of the soul (this, at least, is the order in which > Lucretius sets things out). This too, of course, consists of atoms: first, > there is nothing that is not made up of atoms and void (secondary qualities > are simply accidents of the arrangement of atoms), and second, an > incorporeal entity could neither act on nor be moved by bodies, as the soul > is seen to do (e.g., it is conscious of what happens to the body, and it > initiates physical movement). Epicurus maintains that soul atoms are > particularly fine and are distributed throughout the body, and it is by > means of them that we have sensations (aisthêseis) and the experience of > pain and pleasure, which Epicurus calls pathê (a term used by Aristotle and > others to signify emotions instead). > Nice quote. A bit reminiscent of Descartes and Leibniz's thinking in relation to dualism and how souls were to interact with physical bodies. Descartes understood a basic form of conservation of energy, and thought it was possible for a soul to change the direction (if not the speed) of particles. After Newton formalized conservation of momentum, Leibniz understood that changing the direction of particles in motion was also impossible, which led to his postulation of a "pre-established harmony". > > *Body without soul atoms is unconscious and inert, and when the atoms of > the body are disarranged so that it can no longer support conscious life, > the soul atoms are scattered and no longer retain the capacity for > sensation. * > > ~~~ > > (Since atoms - either physical (body) or psychical (soul) atoms are not > destroyed in Epicurus's materialism, the psychical atoms which were > "scattered" end up in someone's new body at some point.) > > In panpsychism isn't everything consider to be conscious? I think this is a bit different from what Turing suggested, in that Turing believed the body had to be in a functioning state to "attract" or "hold" a soul. Jason -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
