Sublimation of the Body

Paper Summary:

The objective of this paper is to research the topic of sublimation of the body as discussed by Aristotle. The paper also reviews the topic from the perspective of Plato, and compares Plato's view with that of Aristotle. The paper also reviews and researches the related area of mind and body dualism.

Outline:
Objective
Sublimation Defined
Introduction
Aristotle and Alchemy: Sublimation of the Body
Literature That Discusses Aristotle's View
Plato's View
Mind/Body Dualism
The Jewish View of Dualism
The Spiritual View of Dualism
John Beloff on Dualism
Summary

From the Paper:

"Aligned with the mind, 'human sense' is radiant. As organs of the flesh, on the other hand, the senses collapse into an obscuring, destructive sensuality. Sight--the sense closest to the 'mind's eye'--is both a tool for the acquisition of knowledge, and a locus of carnal desire." Stated further in this work is that in the treatise on 'Moral Philosophy' of Roger Bacon written in the mid-thirteenth century, Bacon reasoned that 'In his treatise on 'Moral Philosophy' written in the mid-thirteenth century, Roger Bacon reasoned that 'evil men lose their identity, because the identity of a thing consists in retaining its order and preserving its nature'. Sin, however, 'is contrary to the order of nature . . .' He concludes: 'you cannot regard as a human being the man whom you see transformed by vices'. (Sight and Embodiment in the Middle Ages, nd) Additionally stated is: "Because of the polluting influence of the emotions and appetites, the gods of Plato's Timaeus had 'located the mortal element of man in a separate part of the body, and constructed the neck as a kind of isthmus and boundary between head and breast to keep them apart'.12 The 'mortal element', Plato wrote, is divided in turn by the midriff (or diaphragm), according to its 'better and worse' properties; the emotions being superior to the appetite. To illustrate this idea of the properly ordered and contained body, he used the telling analogy of a house 'divided into men and women's quarters'."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Freud, Sigmund (nd) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Trans. James Strachey. 24 vols. London: Hogarth, 1953-74.
• The Free Dictionary (2006) Online available at: http://www.thefreedictionary.com
• Sublimation ( nd) PTYpes - Personality Types Online available at: http://www.ptypes.com/sublimation.html.
• Brown, Norman Oliver (1959). Life against death: the psychoanalytical meaning of history. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
• The Three Treatises of Philalethes (Part 3) Online available at: http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/hermmuse/philal3.htm.

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