169. Notes - preparatory summary

169. 21 July 2019

The Material Below is Re-Copied on Note 172 

Where Ms Havisham's Commentary Actually Begins

       Bedtime. You finished editing the material for the Modern Theory of Soul. You found more than you suspected. Below are some examples. - Amorella

[I have divided sentences and/or paragraphs below so that I more easily read them for understanding. - rho]

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Soul

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The soul, in many religious, philosophical, and mythological traditions, is the incorporeal essence of a living being Soul or psyche comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, feeling, consciousness, memory, perception, thinking, etc. 

Depending on the philosophical system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal. 

In Judeo-Christianity, only human beings have immortal souls (although immortality is disputed within Judaism and the concept of immortality may have been influenced by Plato). 

For example, the Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas attributed "soul" (anima) to all organisms but argued that only human souls are immortal. 

Immanuel Kant

In his discussions of rational psychology, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) identified the soul as the "I" in the strictest sense, and argued that the existence of inner experience can neither be proved nor disproved.

We cannot prove a priori the immateriality of the soul, but rather only so much: that all properties and actions of the soul cannot be recognized from materiality.

It is from the "I", or soul, that Kant proposes transcendental rationalization, but cautions that such rationalization can only determine the limits of knowledge if it is to remain practical.

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Philosophy of mind

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gilbert Ryle's ghost in the machine argument, which is a rejection of Descartes' mind–body dualism, can provide a contemporary understanding of the soul/mind, and the problem concerning its connection to the brain/body. 

James Hillman

Psychologist James Hillman's archetypal psychology is an attempt to restore the concept of the soul, which Hillman viewed as the "self-sustaining and imagining substrate" upon which consciousness rests. 

Hillman described the soul as that "which makes meaning possible, [deepens] events into experiences, is communicated in love, and has a religious concern", as well as "a special relation with death". 

Departing from the Cartesian dualism "between outer tangible reality and inner states of mind", 

Hillman takes the Neoplatonic stance that there is a "third, middle position" in which soul resides. 

Archetypal psychology acknowledges this third position by attuning to, and often accepting, the archetypes, dreams, myths, and even psychopathologies through which, 

in Hillman's view, soul expresses itself.

Science

The current scientific consensus across all fields is that there is no evidence for the existence of any kind of soul in the traditional sense. 

Many modern scientists, such as Julien Musolino, hold that the mind is merely a complex machine that operates on the same physical laws as all other objects in the universe. 

According to Musolino, there is currently no scientific evidence whatsoever to support the existence of the soul;he claims there is also considerable evidence that seems to indicate that souls do not exist. 

 

Neuroscience

Neuroscience as an interdisciplinary field, and its branch of cognitive neuroscience particularly, operates under the ontologicalassumption of physicalism. In other words, it assumes—in order to perform its science—that only the fundamental phenomena studied by physics exist. 

Thus, neuroscience seeks to understand mental phenomena within the framework according to which human thought and behavior are caused solely by physical processes taking place inside the brain, and it operates by the way of reductionism by seeking an explanation for the mind in terms of brain activity. (See more below)

To study the mind in terms of the brain several methods of functional neuroimaging are used to study the neuroanatomical correlates of various cognitive processes that constitute the mind. 

The evidence from brain imaging indicates that all processes of the mind have physical correlates in brain function. However, such correlational studies cannot determine whether neural activity plays a causal role in the occurrence of these cognitive processes (correlation does not imply causation) and they cannot determine if the neural activity is either necessary or sufficient for such processes to occur. 

Identification of causation, and of necessary and sufficient conditions requires explicit experimental manipulation of that activity. If manipulation of brain activity changes consciousness, then a causal role for that brain activity can be inferred. 

Two of the most common types of manipulation experiments are loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments. In a loss-of-function (also called "necessity") experiment, a part of the nervous system is diminished or removed in an attempt to determine if it is necessary for a certain process to occur, and in a gain-of-function (also called "sufficiency") experiment, an aspect of the nervous system is increased relative to normal. 

Manipulations of brain activity can be performed with direct electrical brain stimulation, magnetic brain stimulation using transcranial magnetic stimulation, psychopharmacological manipulation, optogenetic manipulation and by studying the symptoms of brain damage (case studies) and lesions. In addition, neuroscientists are also investigating how the mind develops with the development of the brain. 

Physics

Physicist Sean M. Carroll has written that the idea of a soul is incompatible with quantum field theory (QFT). He writes that for a soul to exist: "Not only is new physics required, but dramatically new physics. 

Within QFT, there can't be a new collection of 'spirit particles' and 'spirit forces' that interact with our regular atoms, because we would have detected them in existing experiments." 

Some theorists have invoked quantum indeterminism as an explanatory mechanism for possible soul/brain interaction, but neuroscientist Peter Clarke found errors with this viewpoint, noting there is no evidence that such processes play a role in brain function; 

Clarke concluded that a Cartesian soul has no basis from quantum physics.

Selected and edited from Wikipedia

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The Mind-Body Problem

The mind-body problem is an ongoing problem in the philosophy of mind and in metaphysics, concerning the nature of the relationship between the mind, or consciousness, and the physical world.

The mind-body problems asks a number of questions: Are the mind and body are separate substances or elements of the same substance? What is their relationship to each other? What is consciousness? And how can consciousness arise out of ordinary matter?

There are a number of responses to the mind-body problem, though none have universal acceptance. A number of these positions are outlined below:

• Dualism, the position that the mind is essentially not physical, and exists separately from the body. Dualism comes in various forms:
• Interactionism, which states that the mind and body have causal interaction.
• Occasionalism, which states the apparently causal links between mind and body are actually divine intervention.
• Parallelism, which states that the apparent causal link between mind and body is an illusion, and that mind and body run parallel to one another.
• Property dualism, which holds that the mind emerges from the body, and obtains status as something separate.
• Monism, the position that the mind and body are not fundamentally separate. There are several types of mind-body monism:
• Physicalism, including most commonly-held positions today, which asserts that the mind may be reduced to the physical processes of the brain.
• Behaviourism, which holds that talk about mental states can be reduced to talk about behaviours.
• Functionalism, which states that mental states are caused by behaviours, senses and other mental states.
• Type physicalism, which argues that mental states are equivalent to brain states.
• Idealism, which claims that the mind is all that exists.
• Phenomenalism, which reduces the physical world to perceptions which exist within the mind alone.

The mind-body problem was brought up in antiquity, and can be seen in the works of Plato, though its modern formulation can be credited to René Descartes, who also presents a dualist response.

Selected and edited from -- http://www dot philosophy-index dot com/philosophy/mind/mind-body.php

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       2335 hours. I feel one more aspect needs to be included in reference to the contemporary use of the word, soul. 

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Consciousness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about cognition.

Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness or of being aware of an external object or something within oneself.

It has been defined variously in terms of sentience, awareness, qualia, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to  feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood or soul,

the fact that there is something "that it is like" to "have" or "be" it, and the executive control system of the mind.

Despite the difficulty in definition, many philosophers believe that there is a broadly shared underlying intuition about what consciousness is.

As Max Velmans and Susan Schneider wrote in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness: 

"Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives." 

You become aware that your actions have an effect on other people. 

Western philosophers, since the time of Descartes and Locke, have struggled to comprehend the nature of consciousness and identify its essential properties. Issues of concern in the philosophy of consciousness include whether the concept is fundamentally coherent; 

whether consciousness can ever be explained mechanistically;

whether non-human consciousness exists and if so how it can be recognized; how consciousness relates to language; 

whether consciousness can be understood in a way that does not require a dualistic distinction between mental and physical states or properties; 

and whether it may ever be possible for computing machines like computersor robots to be conscious, a topic studied in the field of artificial intelligence.

Thanks to developments in technology over the past few decades, consciousness has become a significant topic of interdisciplinary research in cognitive science, 

with significant contributions from fields such as psychology, anthropology, neuropsychology and neuroscience. The primary focus is on understanding what it means biologically and psychologically for information to be present in consciousness—that is, on determining the neural and psychological correlates of consciousness.

The majority of experimental studies assess consciousness in humans by asking subjects for a verbal report of their experiences (e.g., "tell me if you notice anything when I do this").

Issues of interest include phenomena such as subliminal perception, blindsight, denial of impairment, and altered states of consciousness produced by alcohol and other drugs, or spiritual or meditative techniques.

In medicine, consciousness is assessed by observing a patient's arousal and responsiveness, and can be seen as a continuum of states ranging from full alertness and comprehension, through disorientation, 

delirium, loss of meaningful communication, and finally loss of movement in response to painful stimuli Issues of practical concern include how the presence of consciousness can be assessed in severely ill,

comatose, or anesthetized people, and how to treat conditions in which consciousness is impaired or disrupted. 

The degree of consciousness is measured by standardized behavior observation scales such as the Glasgow Coma Scale.

Selected and edited from Wikipedia 

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       The above is a summary of what you have placed in your Modern Theory of Soul. I will piece selections so that Miss Havisham may comment if she wishes. Again, this broadens the 'perception' of what a soul is from one who perceives herself as a personification of orndorff's soul, Miss Havisham. Post. - Amorella

       I have some things to say from my perspective as a soul alone and as a soul protecting and comforting Mr. Orndorff's spiritual heartanmind. - mh

       2357 hours. I find all this somewhat detaching. 

168. Notes - modern theory of Soul on the horizon

168. 20 July 2019

       Afternoon. You and Carol met Kim, Owen and Brennan at the Dairy Queen near Lewis Center Road and US 23. This morning you met the three at Scramblers in the same area which is connected with Kroger Marketplace. Presently, Carol is buying groceries and you are waiting in the car. It would be better, orndorff, if you turned on the car and the air conditioning. - Amorella

       1642 hours. It is a little warm but I have the east windows down and cracks down on the others and sunroof. Carol just called and will be out in a few minutes so I put the air back on. It really wasn't too bad though.

       You were getting a headache. - Amorella

       1648 hours. Okay. I don't like to waste fuel. I set it at 78 degrees. We finished the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Ancient Theories of Soul). 

       Drop in the Conclusion to end this discussion. - Amorella

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6. Conclusion

Ancient philosophy did not, of course, end with classical Stoicism, or indeed with the Hellenistic period, and neither did ancient theorizing about the soul. The revival of interest in the works of both Plato and Aristotle beginning in the second half of the second century B.C. prominently included renewed interest in Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of the soul, sparking novel theoretical developments, such as, for instance, Plotinus' argument (directed in particular against the Stoics) that the soul could not be spatially extended, since no spatially extended item could account for the unity of the subject of sense-perception. Christian writers such as Clement of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa were heavily indebted to philosophical theories of soul, especially Platonic ones, but also introduced new concerns and interests of their own. Nevertheless, these and other post-classical developments in every case need to be interpreted within the framework and context furnished by the classical theories that we have been considering in some detail.

Selected and edited From Ancient Theories of Soul

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       Now, let's find literature that shows examples of modern Theories of Soul. - Amorella

       1659 hours. I'll research this tonight but I don't think there will be much out there. Modern metaphysics of Soul doesn't show a bright trail going across the night sky of mind. 

       You have found enough information for us to choose from. Post. - Amorella

       1828 hours. This will be interesting. 

167. Notes - ah, Dr. Swift / memories of importance

167. 19 July 2019

       Morning. You ran an errand to Home Depot for batteries and re-stringer winder stool for your lawn trimmer. You have been doing them by hand to use up what you had. You feel a bit guilty of feeling good about showing off the reconditioned the metallic green 2005 Honda Accord EX on the way and back. Modesty is what you were taught as a youngster; Presbyterian work ethics and the like, plain old school, as it were. - Amorella

       1027 hours. The 'old ways' always seemed practical to me at the time. This is one of my deeper spiritual problems with the blogs. One is supposed to be respectful of others and near silent in terms of raising one's own righteous flag higher than the common. President Trump appears to be the antithesis. It doesn't seem morally right to set one's self above and apart, but Presbyterians in my younger days did that also. Our species has a tendency to short-change itself. I don't know why. I do it myself. Why do we punish ourselves for not being our perfectly best. This concept moves through our entire human society as far as I can see. We downgrade others so that we may appear higher. Swift has good writings on this. "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift" is one of the best examples in my mind, that and "A Modest Proposal"; well, and Gulliver's Travels of course. (1041)

       You have lunch with Fritz today as you were in Mason seeing Bud C. yesterday while Carol and her friends met at First Watch north of Montgomery. Post. - Amorella

       A relaxing rest of the day. Presently you are at Heritage Park sitting in the Honda in the shade, Carol is doing her walk. - Amorella

       1902 hours. It is still quite warm but not so bad this time of day. We had supper at Piada Street Italian off of Wilson Bridge Road in north Worthington. Carol hadn't really been out of the yard all day and didn't eat much lunch from what she said. Here I am and I don't have a clue of what to talk about to Miss Havisham. 

       Yesterday's Note 166 didn't give me a chance to express myself. You two were mostly talking like I wasn't sitting there listening. - mh

       1909 hours. Sitting? If you were sitting, what were Amorella and I doing in your personified scenario?

       You were standing around under an old full living tree. I was sitting on a log like Grandma Earth sometimes did in the Merlyn books. I know all your stories intimately as I 'lived through them', so to speak. I was right there. mh

       2228 hours. I never thought about that. Do souls keep records like Angels are supposed to do?

       You have sacred memories. You keep the records; only those records important to you. mh

       2231 hours. There's the rub. These are not conscious memories. At any given time, I don't know what I remember and do not remember about my life. 

       They are all the memories that have made you who you are. - mh

       2235 hours. Yes. This makes complete sense, otherwise, spiritually I wouldn't be myself. Wow. My spirit has to know who he is in order to remain authentic. "Know Thyself," said Socrates (in Greek of course). What a very wise man he was to me, pertaining to this unique sense in particular. I never thought about such a connection after physical death before. In this case it would be as, "You will know yourself. It is a rule."

       Look through your lifetime of writings Mr. Orndorff. You are still searching to know who you are. It is quite a task, and you have been consciously at it from time to time, for let's say, sixty-seven years. 

       2253 hours. People don't have the time to think about such things. People have to survive living first. I am passed the time to care much about surviving longer. I am happy to do so but I have had a good life. No real regrets. I have lived a human life just as everyone else. Living is still interesting. Who knows what tomorrow brings? We survive until we do not. 

       Post, orndorff. - Amorella

166. Notes - rest in peace

166. 18 July 2019

       Evening. You want to argue with my concluding paragraph in Note 165, but you don't have the words to argue with. Here is the review of your remark and my rebuttal. - Amorella

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Selected from Note 165:

       [My anger] is being Here and There both at once. Such I believe are we, all us human beings - we are beings in two places at once -- the physical and the spiritual.

       So, it is in your heartansoulanmind. It could not be denied in life or death. This is one of the reasons the human spirit, the human heartansoulanmind, continues beyond life. This is one of the realities of being human, orndorff. - Amorella

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       2241 hours. Are you saying that the heartansoulanmind carry the emotional, psychological, and mental embodiment from the physical that balances out the personality and the memory, theatre, intellect, hopes and dreams of what the physical body carried, into the spiritual afterlife -- that essentially what the human being was in life, is still after physical death?

       Yes, minus the plus physical attributes such as the best of health and coordination and minus the physical shortcomings and sufferings. - Amorella

       2253 hours. What would the spiritual 'person' be though without a memory of the pluses and minuses of having been born and matured until death, mostly encapsulated within the confines of the entire physical body?

       Those once conscious memories of the physical life would remain to be sorted though both emotionally and intellectually. The spirit has to come to terms with who she or he originally consciously was as a child and became through the maturation of her or his physical life. Spiritual growth occurs when one objectively can see who she or he actually was and why the maturing in life occurred or did not. For instance, some human spirits do not appear to have the ability to see themselves as they were/are seen by others. The human spirit has to understand and accept how she or he was seen by others to better see themselves as they really were within the once living human community. Adjustments have to be made. This is a rule. - Amorella

       2311 hours. This does not appear to be a particularly happy time for recently departed human spirits. 

       You have your friends, some of them family, what more does a human spirit need to continue to grow, beyond good friends? - Amorella

       2316 hours. This is a good place to stop for tonight. Even if it is but a positive dream, it is a good place to rest in peace for the night. 

       Post. - Amorella

165. Notes - This is one of the realities of being human, orndorff.

165. 15/16 July 2019

       After noon. You have a few errands for today. This morning you completed your second day of exercises, twenty minutes yesterday and thirty minutes today. You are hoping to continue these three to five times each week because, if for nothing else you feel better psychologically. The last part before the conclusion of "Ancient Theory of Soul" relates to the Stoic concept. We will see what Miss Havisham has to say about it. - Amorella

       1253 hours. Reviewing philosophical concepts with Miss Havisham is interesting because the philosophy is a reality in human thought, whether it holds truth or not is something else, and while logically presented the reader has to come to come to her/his own sense of how practical the philosophy is in her/his own outlook toward what life ultimately is, something in my mind, that cannot be known until having lived and died. Obviously, no matter what any human comes up with, no one will know until life ends. Consciousness and/or the human spirit, the heartansoulanmind will either dissipate or continue on in spiritual form. 

       

       You had a late lunch but at Old Bag of Nails on the corner of North State and Main Uptown, and presently you are facing west in the shade at the south end of Heritage Park near the soccer fields. Carol is checking out the various nut trees nearby to see which is which. She appears to be on Chapter Six, page 33, of Meltzer's The House of Secrets. These interspersed paragraphs are to remind you and the reader that you are based in a daily normal environmental reality. No head in the clouds for you orndorff. 

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5.2 The Stoic Theory of Soul

"Stoic physics allows for three different kinds of pneuma (lit. ‘breath’), a breath-like material compound of two of the four Stoic elements, fire and air. The kinds of pneuma differ both in degree of tension that results from the expanding and contracting effects, respectively, of its two constituents, and in their consequent functionality. 

a. The lowest kind accounts for the cohesion and character of inanimate bodies (e.g., rocks); 

b. the intermediate kind, called natural pneuma, accounts for the vital functions characteristic of plant life; 

c. and the third kind is soul, which accounts for the reception and use of impressions (or representations) and impulse or, to use alternative terminology, cognition and desire. . . .

According to the Stoic theory, there are eight parts of the soul, the ‘commanding faculty’ . . . the mind, the five senses, voice and (certain aspects of) reproduction. 

The mind, which is located at the heart, is a center that controls the other soul-parts as well as the body, and that receives and processes information supplied by the subordinate parts. The minds of non-human animals and of non-adult humans have faculties only of impression and impulse. 

Achieving adulthood, for humans, involves gaining assent and reason. Reason (it would seem) makes assent possible, in that it enables the subject to assent to or withhold assent from impressions, and it transforms mere impressions and mere impulses, such as other animals experience, into rational impressions and rational impulses. . . .

It is crucially important not to misunderstand these various faculties as parts or aspects of the mind, items that operate with some degree of autonomy from one another and can therefore conflict. On the Stoic theory, the faculties of the mind are simply things the mind can do. Moreover, it is a central part of the theory that, in the case of an adult human being, there is no such thing as an impulse without an act of assent of the mind to a corresponding practical impression. In a rational subject, the faculty of impulse depends on the faculty of assent, which, like all faculties of such a subject, is a rational faculty.

This theory leaves no room for the Platonic conception that the souls of adult human beings contain non-rational parts which can, and frequently do, generate impulse and behavior independently of, and even contrary to, the designs and purposes of reason. . . .

The Stoic theory has the attractive consequence that each adult person is, through their own reasoned assent, unambiguously and equally responsible for all their voluntary behavior: there are no Platonic non-rational parts, or Platonic-Aristotelian non-rational desires, that could produce actions against one's own reason's helpless protestations. . . .

 . . . At least one prominent Stoic philosopher, Posidonius (first century B.C.), apparently gave up at least part of the classical Stoic theory. The evidence that we have is not easy to interpret, but it very much appears that Posidonius introduced into a basically Stoic psychological framework the idea that even the minds of adult humans include, to put things cautiously, motivationally relevant forces (of two kinds) that do not depend on assent or reason at all and that are not fully subject to rational control."

Selected and Edited From: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Ancient Theory of Souls

[ I divided these selections to make it easier for me to read and understand.]

** **

       Mr. Orndorff has reading difficulties from time to time. He self-studied most of his way out of dyslexia long ago. 

16 July 2019

       Afternoon. You had lunch at McD's on North State and presently Carol is looking for a new bird feeder at Meyers nearby. Later, you are both heading to Kim and Paul's to watch the boys and take them to supper. You are shuttling them to a concert downtown and picking them up much later. Last night you were too tired to write. Today makes the third day of exercises and during the time you thought of Miss Havisham and were asking her to help guide you through them. - Amorella

       1507 hours. We are home and Carol is feeding the cats their soft food for the day. I did attempt contact and asked her to help navigate my exercise modes. What I did was relax, stop counting my arm/leg movements and just moved with the music (Pandora 80's Pop Rock). So basically, I went with the musical flow switching exercises along the way. 

       This is an aside. You did do just that but I didn't direct you consciously. You remembered I like poetry so you followed the idea that exercise flow should better be (for you) poetic flow. - ml

       Orndorff, Miss Havisham works within your fingertips on the keyboard and that's it. I'm the go-between, and as you know I work only with the fingertips also, but this includes the 'string on the washer' from our early days. You can always consciously contact me through these means. - Amorella

       

       Moving on dusk. You had supper at Potbelly's when the rain began. John of Reflections called to say the Honda is done but because of the rain you are waiting until tomorrow. He said he would keep it in the barn. - Amorella

       1948 hours. I am pumped to see it. I hope it meets my expectations.

       What expectations are those, boy? - Amorella

       1953 hours. I don't know. This is an example of what I will call your 'angelic tone'. From what I have experienced it put me in my place with very few words. It was a jolt in a much deeper way than this example, but the intent marked my behavior immediately. "No place to run. No place to hide inside yourself." An intimate sacred territory is crossed with a question such as that. Wakes you up to a deeper Reality, and a sense of spiritual presence in your head and throughout your physical body and a foot or so beyond your flesh, that's what it does. (2001)

       What I remember, young man, is that the spiritual Presence was to about fifteen feet beyond your physical body. - Amorella

       2009 hours. This is true, Amorella. I forgot, because sometimes the effect finds itself in the ceiling corners in a room where I am present. In fact, when in a quick vision, a fragment of a human spirit sometimes flows from one corner of the room to another. This aspect is as an impression of a spiritual reality, not an actual Reality. When this form of spirituality is Real, I witness this beyond the fragments in my bones. (2015)

       

       To return this blog to an order I can more readily deal with I will lift the words from the Stanford article above and speak of them individually. 

** **

"Achieving adulthood, for humans, involves gaining assent and reason. Reason (it would seem) makes assent possible, in that it enables the subject to assent to or withhold assent from impressions, and it transforms mere impressions and mere impulses, such as other animals experience, into rational impressions and rational impulses. . . .

It is crucially important not to misunderstand these various faculties as parts or aspects of the mind, items that operate with some degree of autonomy from one another and can therefore conflict. On the Stoic theory, the faculties of the mind are simply things the mind can do. Moreover, it is a central part of the theory that, in the case of an adult human being, there is no such thing as an impulse without an act of assent of the mind to a corresponding practical impression. In a rational subject, the faculty of impulse depends on the faculty of assent, which, like all faculties of such a subject, is a rational faculty."

       What you mentioned above as 'angelic-tone' and 'an intimate sense of spirituality beyond the fragment of your bones' is in part what the lines directly are about. You speak of reason and spirituality having a direct connection to one another within the perceptions of your heartansoulanmind. You are my example as you can find it throughout your writings, i.e. blogs and Merlyn novels. -mh

** **

". . . At least one prominent Stoic philosopher, Posidonius (first century B.C.), apparently gave up at least part of the classical Stoic theory. The evidence that we have is not easy to interpret, but it very much appears that Posidonius introduced into a basically Stoic psychological framework the idea that even the minds of adult humans include, to put things cautiously, motivationally relevant forces (of two kinds) that do not depend on assent or reason at all and that are not fully subject to rational control."

       You, Mr. Orndorff, also relate to these words. You do not depend on assent or reason recognizing you are not fully subject to rational control. You can find examples throughout the blogs and your Merlyn novels and beyond going back to your poetry and commentary written during your college years and even some from high school. - mh

       2040 hours. I am embarrassed when you bring up me as an example. 

       Do you deny Miss Havisham, orndorff? - Amorella

       2042 hours. No. I do not deny her commentary in this context or any context so far. Nor can I deny your own, Amorella, but my sense of private self and private intimacy within is terror stuck when my inner true colors are witnessed. Why, because it makes me naked to a Reality beyond the reality of physically being naked before the readers of all these pages. I have no choice but to share. None. Strange, because I consider myself a writer in my heart of hearts, even before having been a public and private school teacher (I loved my subject. I loved my students.) This is such raw knowledge of myself. I find myself being angry at the whole thought of it, but deny it I cannot. I cannot even deny the anger. It is being Here and There both at once. Such I believe are we, all us human beings - we are beings in two places at once -- the physical and the spiritual. (2055)

       So, this is in your heartansoulanmind. This cannot be denied in life or death. This is one of the reasons the human spirit, the human heartansoulanmind continues beyond life. This is one of the realities of being human, orndorff. - Post. - Amorella

164. Notes - Miss Havisham: a sentence; Amorella: a space

164. 13/14 July 2019

       Mid-afternoon. Lunch at Smashburgers off US 23 after mowing the front and partial sides. Trimming and further mowing in the evening. Let's move ahead with another selected quotation from the Stanford Encyclopedia and an after comment by Miss Havisham.

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4. Aristotle's Theory of Soul

"Aristotle's theory, as it is presented primarily in the De Anima, comes very close to providing a comprehensive, fully developed account of the soul in all its aspects and functions, an account that articulates the ways in which all of the vital functions of all animate organisms are related to the soul . . ..

According to Aristotle's theory, a soul is a particular kind of nature, a principle that accounts for change and rest in the particular case of living bodies, i.e. plants, nonhuman animals and human beings. The relation between soul and body, on Aristotle's view, is also an instance of the more general relation between form and matter: thus, an ensouled, living body is a particular kind of in-formed matter . . ..

The soul of an animate organism, in this framework, is nothing other than its system of active abilities to perform the vital functions that organisms of its kind naturally perform, so that when an organism engages in the relevant activities (e.g., nutrition, movement or thought) it does so in virtue of the system of abilities that is its soul. Given that the soul is, according to Aristotle's theory, a system of abilities possessed and manifested by animate bodies of suitable structure, it is clear that the soul is, according to Aristotle, not itself a body or a corporeal thing. 

Thus, Aristotle agrees with the Phaedo's claim that souls are very different from bodies. Moreover, Aristotle seems to think that all the abilities that are constitutive of the souls of plants, beasts and humans are such that their exercise involves and requires bodily parts and organs. This is obviously so with, for instance, the abilities for movement in respect of place (e.g., by walking or flying), and for sense-perception, which requires sense-organs . . ..

Nevertheless, he does seem to take the view that the activity of the human intellect always involves some activity of the perceptual apparatus, and hence requires the presence, and proper arrangement, of suitable bodily parts and organs; for he seems to think that sensory impressions [phantasmata] are somehow involved in every occurrent act of thought, at least as far as human beings are concerned. If so, Aristotle in fact seems to be committed to the view that, contrary to the Platonic position, even human souls are not capable of existence and (perhaps as importantly) activity apart from the body . . ..

. . . The theory treats mental and other vital functions alike only in that it views both kinds of functions as performed by natural organisms of the right kind of structure and complexity. Viewing mental and other vital functions in this way is perfectly compatible with introducing a distinction between mental and other functions if concerns of some kind or other call for such a distinction. Aristotle is perfectly capable, for instance, of setting aside non-mental vital functions as irrelevant for the purposes of practical philosophy."

Selected and Edited From: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Ancient Theory of Souls

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       Aristotle supposedly said that the soul is an animate organism. I am neither alive nor a life form. I am a form of spiritual consciousness, an embodiment of a basic spiritual structural flow of thought. I am as a sentence being complete within itself. If you will, consider the human spiritual heart and spiritual mind as attached clauses to the soul. I am a being and an act of spiritual thought; complete; whether I hold two clauses or not. - mh

       Fitting with Miss Havisham's response, I, the Amorella, am as a grammatical spiritual space between words, thus simpler than she.

       1349 hours. Totally unexpected, Amorella. You can be, indeed, a spiritual humor within a pregnant pause.

       Fittingly, it is a good time to take a break, boy. - Amorella

       Dusk. You are at a new spot on the right just off Africa Road north of Lewis Center Road. You are on an isolated overlook east and below the dam at Alum Creek Reservoir and west across the valley basin below the dam and earth construction. Windows are down and sunroof open on the revamped 2005 green Accord. Pleasant evening. Carol is reading 'a fast-paced thriller,' The House of Secretsby Brad Meltzer and Todd Goldberg. You are a bit apprehensive because the decent looking fellow parked in the black truck behind you put on a back pack and you noticed he was carrying a black leathered holstered gun on his right side. You cannot write under these conditions. Later, Dude. - Amorella

       

       2040 hours. We are home and waiting for a renewed PBS series, Grantchester, at nine. It has been a very pleasant evening out and about, plus we talked to Craig and Alta who are heading East in Missouri. You will see them on the twenty-third. You called as today is Alta's birthday. She is now a few weeks older than you, and she will be even at your own birthday, the sixth of August. - Amorella

       After the show if you wish so at that time, we can finish up with Miss Havisham's commentary on this next subtitle from Stanford's "Ancient Theory of Souls". 

       2055 hours. I just noticed Miss Havisham's poetic line in her last commentary: I am a being and an act of spiritual thought; complete; whether I hold two clauses or not. Most cool. 

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5. Hellenistic Theories of Soul

". . . A number of Stoic arguments for the claim that the soul is a body have come down to us. The best one of these is that the soul is a body because (roughly) only bodies affect one another, and soul and body do affect one another, for instance in cases of bodily damage and emotion . . .. 

. . . Both Epicurus and the Stoics hold that the soul is a particularly fine kind of body, diffused all the way through the perceptible (flesh-and-blood) body of the animate organism . . .. 

Epicurus thinks that the soul is dispersed at death along with its constituent atoms, losing the powers that it has while it is contained by the body of the organism that it ensouls. 

The Stoics agree that the human soul is mortal, but they also take it that it can and does survive the person's death — that is, its separation from the perceptible body. 

Chrysippus apparently thought that the souls of wise persons persist (as fine, imperceptible corporeal structures) all the way to the next conflagration in the cosmic cycle, whereas the souls of other people last for some time, and then get dispersed. 

Selected and Edited From: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Ancient Theory of Souls

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       Epicurus thought the soul was dispersed in death, losing the powers within the body that it ensouled. Chrysippus thought the soul persisted if it held a wise human heartanmind, and that when the soul was eventually dispersed it carried another wise person's heartanmind. How is it a soul would understand what human wisdom is by its own cognition? Can a human heartanmind understand what it is to be immortal and alone? Can a human understand what it is to carry an alien-like heartanmind? What does the soul gain by this? And, by the same token, what does a soul lose by carrying a mortal human heartanmind? Is the soul morally bound or is it duty bound to carry a mortal heartansoul? A soul has no word for 'wisdom' or 'good' or 'evil' within its own self. Why would it? The soul comes to understand the theatre of such human dilemma, but once the soul eventually loses a human heartanmind the soul's memory is put away of such is put away out of the honor and dignity a spiritual human heartansoul is due. It is put away elsewhere, a cemetery for visitation when the soul is alone and privately needs the company of its past human memories, warts and all, as the human saying goes. We are educated in the material world, but like old books, the memories of human thought and activity are each bound and separate for souls alone to contemplate. Such contemplation is as knowledge to be absorbed spiritually. Souls are the library a repository of what human life was. - mh

       2345 hours. Miss Havisham, it sounds like we human spirits are used by souls; we are bound up as a kind of spiritual nourishment, and that you, as a soul, do not really care about the human heartanmind other than for spiritual self-education and knowledge, that the human heartanmind is put away so that another might be carried. That in a sense the immortal soul provides a taxi service of protection and comfort for the mortal human heartanmind; carrying it basically from one spiritual point to another. 

       

       This is indeed a human perspective you present, Mr. Orndorff. An immortal soul expects nothing more and nothing less. - mh

       Post. - Amorella

       2355 hours. But what if I have a rebuttal Amorella?

       Do you? - Amorella

       2356 hours. No, not at this time. 

       Then post. - Amorella