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To: HiTech RedNeck
Pythagorean/Quintessence: Here
218 posted on 05/17/2002 1:10:21 AM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
Aristotle also built his ideas up from the four Platonic solids, (via the four elements manifesting as humours) but added a fifth essence, the 'pneuma' which was carried from the heavens into the lungs and then to the heart, and distributed from the heart to the rest of the body. This 'quintessence' was composed of pentagonal-faced, twelve sided solids called the dodecahedron, (a secret form in the Pythagorean school). In Aristotle's hierarchy of living things, man came at the top and had an extra 'element' which was the body or the fuel of intelligent thought, this was the pneuma and it was evidently (evidence generated by a faulty dissection procedure involving strangulation of the animal) transmitted around the body by the heart. Thus the heart was the seat of the rational soul.
223 posted on 05/17/2002 1:16:40 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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