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Soul, Seat of the

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Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

Introduction

This article surveys metaphysical and physiological investigations of the seat of the soul. After introducing the Scholastic background of the problem (section “From the Scholastics to Vesalius”), I focus on the turn that is represented by Cartesian philosophy (section “The Cartesian Turn”), then address the metaphysical (section “Metaphysical Controversies”) and physiological (section “Experimental Traditions and Physiological Hypotheses”) controversies between the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Kant’s criticism that the quest for the seat of the soul is an “impossible” task introduces a conclusion on the legacy of the problem in neurophysiology (section “Kant’s Critique and the Fate of the Seat of the Soul”).

From the Scholastics to Vesalius

The question concerning the seat of the soul traditionally involved both a metaphysical and a medical dimension: on the one hand, different conceptions of the soul determined whether it made sense to search for its place...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts, Università Roma Tre, Rome, Italy

    Paolo Pecere

Authors
  1. Paolo Pecere
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Correspondence to Paolo Pecere .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. Dept. of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University Dept. Philosophy & Moral Sci, Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

    Charles T. Wolfe

Section Editor information

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Sarton Centre for History of Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Charles T. Wolfe

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Pecere, P. (2020). Soul, Seat of the. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_556-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_556-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

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