On the Soul, from the Asclepius of Mercury

Immortality:
Galen.

Galen says in his book On Seed that just as the light of the sun, which is incorruptible, performs its duty without suffering any division, so too the soul is incorruptible. For just as the light of the sun is separated from the air and from all sight of the eyes without its own corruption, so also is the soul separated from the body.

Avicenna.

Avicenna also uses a sufficiently fitting example for the sake of establishing this matter in the sixth part of his Natural Philosophy, section 5. "Let some man," he says, "be created by God suddenly, established at a perfect age, but so disposed that he perceives nothing through the five senses. The mind of a man so affected, disturbed by nothing, will contemplate the present substance of the soul for itself." This is Avicenna’s famous "Floating Man" or "Suspended Man" thought experiment, intended to prove that self-awareness is independent of physical sensation. For this reason, he will affirm that he exists, yet he will not perceive anything corporeal in himself. What then are you, O Soul, if small things do not fill you? Most beautiful, if you shudder at base things; eternal, if you have no defect. Therefore, seek yourself outside the world; fly outside yourself.

Plato.

The opinion of Democritus, Epicurus, and Dicaearchus regarding the dissolution of the soul is therefore false. Hence Plato says that from this it can be known that souls are immortal and divine: because in children, their natural talents are nimble and quick to perceive; because they grasp what they learn so swiftly that they do not seem to be learning those things then, but rather recognizing and remembering them. This refers to Plato’s doctrine of anamnesis, the idea that the soul possesses innate knowledge from before birth and that "learning" is actually a process of recollection.

Laertius.
Diogenes.
Thales.
Macrobius.

Thales of Miletus, according to Laertius, is said to be the first among the philosophers to have treated astrology, the first to have posited that souls are immortal, and to have disputed concerning nature. Macrobius, in the first book of his Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, says that the origin of souls flows from heaven, and that this is an undisputed opinion among those who philosophize. And this is perfect wisdom: that the soul should recognize from where it arose and from what fountain it came.

Cicero.

For which reason Cicero argued correctly in his book On the Laws. "The fact," he says, "that the law commands the worship of those consecrated from the human race, such as Hercules and others, indicates that the souls of all are indeed immortal." For Aristotle says the mind is made of a fifth nature original: "quinta natura"; refers to the aether or quintessence, a celestial element believed to be distinct from the four terrestrial elements of earth, water, air, and fire.. Is it not the greatest argument that nature itself judges silently concerning the immortality of souls, because all people care for—and especially so—those things which will be after death? This very thing is indicated by the procreation of children, the propagation of a name, the adoption of sons, the diligence of wills, and the monuments of tombs. No origin of souls can be found on earth; for nothing is mixed into souls, nothing is concrete, nothing is double, nothing is joined together. Since this is so, the human mind certainly cannot be severed, nor divided, nor pulled apart, nor can it perish; for death is, as it were, the departure and separation of those parts which were held together by some union before death. Therefore, since the parts of the soul cannot be separated from themselves, there is no doubt that the soul cannot perish.

Socrates.

"O, therefore, what a glorious day!" Socrates used to say, "when I shall set out for that council of divine souls, where that life is lived which is to be called the true life!" For while we are shut up in these offshoots of the body, we perform a certain duty of necessity and heavy labor. Therefore, death is not to be mourned, for immortality follows it. For this reason, we depart from life joyful, and we consider ourselves to be snatched from custody and elevated from chains, so that we may return to our eternal and truly our own home.

Seneca,
Porphyry,
Al-Farabi,
Al-Ghazali.

Truly, death, as Seneca says to Lucilius, changes the journey but does not take away life. And what wonder is it, says Porphyry, if the soul, which is an incorporeal substance, is separated from the body without its own corruption, when even the sun departs from the air without corruption? Al-Farabi, in his book On the Intellect and the Intelligible, says: "The soul separated from the body understands things through its own essence, just as other abstract intelligences moving the sphere." Al-Ghazali is of the same opinion in his physical commentaries: "When," he says, "the soul has been separated from the body, its coherence with the active intellect original: "intelligentia agente"; in Aristotelian and Islamic philosophy, the 'Agent Intellect' is a bridge between the divine mind and human reason. will endure, and it will delight in a pleasure whose existence cannot be explained." Clearly, this is a wondrous doctrine, which has flowed so clearly to us from so many most distinguished men that no room for doubt is left.

Isaac.

Isaac asserts this same thing in his Book of Definitions, where he says there are three orders of souls, namely the vegetative, the sensitive, and the intellectual, and of these the intellectual is the more excellent, since it was created by the supreme intelligence and bears the image of its very nature. Refers to Isaac Israeli, a 10th-century Jewish Neoplatonist physician.

Moses.

Moses the Hebrew This refers to the philosopher Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon). feels the same: "The soul," he says, "from..."