Dear Xenophon,

one of my friends and alchemists John D. Nauron send to me his research on the mind-body problem. It is written in the form of a diary. The essence of of his research is a reductionism to properly define the true essence of the body and the mind. He did so without identifiying mind and body as one and the same thing, like the esoteric knight von Schelling did in his early philosophy. I wish you much joy with reading.

Kind regards, Senator L. Paullus Popius

12th February 2776 a.u.c.

Question: Does the soul have substance ?

Thesis: The soul is a monad (a undivisible unique entity) and this monard is the self of a person. The self lies in a body, which has other kinds of atoms than this one of the soul.

Antithesis: The soul is strictly formal and matter is not the substance oft he soul. In other words, the soul has no substance and it is only to define as reflection.

Pro-argument to the thesis: The soul is the supreme commander of the body. The body executes what the soul commands. When the mind acts, the body acts too. Something which has no substance cannot control an substantial thing. (Note: René Descartes though that mind and body are two totally different things. But some critics accused Descartes to leave a question open: how can two different things interact ? Albeit, the idea, that mind consits of matter implore a particular kind of matter. If there is no such thing like a mind material, then this argument lacks on weigh.)

Pro- argument for the antithesis: The mind is in permanent flow, like a river. So it is a moving entity and the entities in the mind are moving things, because they are moving permanently. The mind is like water in spiritual form. When the mind acts, the body acts too. Something constantly on the move cannot have a solid or constant form. Something nearly formless cannot have real material substance, but is only an acting reflexion.

21st February 2021

How can a thought be explained ? Can we explain perceptions without perceptions ? No way ! Perceptions and thoughts are necessary to explain everything else. Mental processes, and especially mind categories, are so pure that it is difficult to grasp. The thought is a spiritual action and a spiritual product. But how can the psyche (Greek for soul) make ideas of the world and at the same time perceive things that it does not control. The physical flesh controls the soul. The flesh takes things true. The nervous system perceives the dynamics and circumstances of the flesh.

(to be continued)

Julien Sita, 12th February 2021.