ORIGINS & IDEAS OF THOUGHT
Thoughts and Theories of
Classical Thinkers
Robert D. Morritt
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The author ponders:
“For years many of us have wondered where many ideas originated. Here we take
a look at the thinkers (Descartes who in his work on ‘dualism’ who was the
first to clearly identify the mind with consciousness and self-awareness and
to distinguish this from the brain, which was the seat of intelligence. It is
fascinating to see how complex theories and interesting ideas were being
formulated and postulated at such an early period.
In this
book is presented a look at how dualism,( attributed to René Descartes 1641),
suggested that the mind is a
nonphysical substance. Descartes was the first to clearly identify the mind
with consciousness and self-awareness and to distinguish this from the brain,
which was the seat of intelligence.
The
reader is taken on a journey with the
Argonauts described by Appolonius Rhodius who was a librarian in Alexandria.
His version depicts an interesting Colchian landfall for these Greek
mariners.‘The battle of Marathon’ is featured within the work of Herodotus in
his work ‘Erato’,
We are
then asked to consider the theory of Forms as outlined by both Aristotle and
Plato. Further we are given an overview of Anaxagoras and Thales study of
Matter and Mass . The sayings of Xenophanes, Meditation and a study of the
mind and how to improve memory of visual objects by Simonides of Ceos
For the
theorists among us; a look at quantum decoherence and causal interaction and
wave function which appears to originate initially in a superposition of different
eigenstates, the processes by which quantum systems appear to evolve in time.
Dreams
are explained as we look at Cicero’s
‘Somnium.’ The Dream of Scipio written by Cicero, wherein it describes a
dream vision of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, before he commanded at
the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE.
Finally,
chronologically speaking, included is the essential John Locke, a
much-condensed version of his ‘works
his thoughts and observations, his thoughts regarding the nature of knowledge, the basis of human conduct and the relationship between the mind and the body.
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