"Mens" and "animus"

[Ed Cryer]

nec vero corpori solum subveniendum est, sed menti atque animo multo
magis; nam haec quoque, nisi tamquam lumini oleum instilles,
extinguuntur senectute.
(Cicero. Cato Maior de Senectute)

(Nor, indeed, are we to give our attention solely to the body; much
greater care is due to the mind and soul; for they too are snuffed out
by old age, unless you keep them oiled like a lamp.)

"Mens" and "animus"; what's the difference?

Ed

[Ed Cryer]

I've always assumed that "mens" = rationality , and that "animus" =
Aristotle's rational soul of humans; leaving "anima" to be something
like "soul" (Greek ψυχή). But after a search through Cicero and Vergil,
all I can say is that they confused them utterly.


in primis regina quietum
accipit in Teucros animum mentemque benignam
(Aeneid I)

Principio caelum ac terras camposque liquentis
lucentemque globum lunae Titaniaque astra
spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet
(Aeneid VI)

"Mens agitat molem"; mind moves matter, spread through the limbs.
That's not much different from the souls in Homer; they're like ghostly,
shimmering, translucent images of the body, and they come out of dead
ones and go flitting and whittering down to Hades.

Ed

[Ed Cryer]

Lucretius has a similarly unscientific view. At 3.136 he writes;

Nunc animum atque animam dico coniuncta teneri
inter se atque unam naturam conficere ex se,
sed caput esse quasi et dominari in corpore toto
consilium, quod nos animum mentemque vocamus.
idque situm media regione in pectoris haeret.
(Now I say that "animus" and "anima" are held conjoined together and
fashion one nature from themselves; but that the head as it were and
master of the whole body is understanding, which we call "animus" and
"mens".)

He's playing with words; he's being unscientific; he's no behaviourist!

Ed

[Ed Cryer]

"The anima and animus are described in Carl Jung's school of analytical
psychology as part of his theory of the collective unconscious. Jung
described the animus as the unconscious masculine side of a woman, and
the anima as the unconscious feminine side of a man, with each
transcending the personal psyche. Jung's theory states that the anima
and animus are the two primary anthropomorphic archetypes of the
unconscious mind, as opposed to both the theriomorphic and inferior
function of the shadow archetypes. He believed they are the abstract
symbol sets that formulate the archetype of the Self."
https://goo.gl/P2hCR0

Sheesh! Metaphysics isn't dead!!!

Ed