Note 174 — Chapter II · THE PROBLEM OF SOUL AND BODY

Compare the following striking passage from Avenarius, Menschliche Weltbegriff, p. 75: “Let an individual M denote a definite whole of ‘perceived things’ (trunk, arms and hands, legs and feet, speech, movements, etc.) and of ‘presented thoughts’ as I, ... then when M says ‘I have a brain,’ this means that a brain belongs as part to the whole of perceived things and presented thoughts denoted as I. And when M says ‘I have thoughts,’ this means that the thoughts themselves belong as a part to the whole of perceived things and presented thoughts denoted as I. But though thorough analysis of the denotation of I thus leads to the result that we have a brain and thought, it never leads to the result that the brain has the thoughts. The thought is, no doubt, a thought of ‘my Ego,’ but not a thought of ‘my brain’ any more than my brain is the brain of ‘my thought.’ I.e. the brain is no habitation, seat, generator, instrument or organ, no support or substratum of thought. Thought is no indweller or commander, no other half or side, and also no product, indeed not even a physiological function or so much as a state of the brain.”