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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.