Partitioning the Soul - Debates from Plato to Leibniz

Does the soul have parts? What kind of parts? And how do all the parts make together a whole? Many ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers discussed these questions, thus providing a mereological analysis of the soul. Their starting point was a simple observation: we tend to describe the soul of human beings by referring to different types of activities (perceiving, imagining, thinking, etc.). Each type of activity seems to be produced by a special part of the soul. But how can a simple, undivided soul have parts? Classical thinkers gave radically different answers to this question. While some claimed that there are indeed parts, thus assigning an internal complexity to the soul, others emphasized that there can only be a plurality of functions that should not be conflated with a plurality of parts. The eleven chapters reconstruct and critically examine these answers. They make clear that the metaphysical structure of the soul was a crucial issue for ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers.

About the author

Klaus Corcilius, Dr., ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

Dominik Perler, geb. 1965, ist Professor für Theoretische Philosophie an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Er lehrte nach der Promotion in Fribourg und der Habilitation in Göttingen zunächst in Oxford und dann als Ordinarius für Philosophie an der Universität Basel. Gastprofessuren führten ihn nach Los Angeles, St. Louis, Tel Aviv und Madison. Im Jahr 2006 wurde ihm der Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Preis der DFG verliehen, die bedeutendste wissenschaftliche Auszeichnung in Deutschland. Seit 2007 ist er Mitglied der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Report

"The papers are uniformly rich in content and subtle in argument."
Lloyd Gerson in: BMCR 2016.03.12

Product details

• Assisted by: Klau Corcilius (Editor), Klaus Corcilius (Editor), Perler (Editor), Perler (Editor), Dominik Perler (Editor)
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.06.2014
• EAN: 9783110311808
• ISBN: 978-3-11-031180-8
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 170 mm x 25 mm x 240 mm
• Weight: 648 g
• Series: Topoi; Topoi Library; Topoi. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World; Topoi - Berlin Studies of the Ancient World / Topoi - Berliner Studien der Alten Welt; Topoi - Berlin Studies of the Ancient World / Topoi - Berliner Studien der Alten Welt; Topoi. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World; ISSN; Topoi ¿ Berlin Studies of the Ancient World/Topoi ¿ Berliner Studien der Alten Welt, 22
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works