How We Experience Life

Anton Wilhelm Amo was a Nzema philosopher who lived in the first half of the 18th century. He was brought to Germany from Axim (Dutch Gold Coast, now Ghana) at the age of four and, according to Wikipedia, "presented as a gift to Dukes Augustus Wilhelm and Ludwig Rudolf of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, being treated as a member of the family by their father, Anthony Ulrich."

He became a doctor of philosopy at Wittenberg University in 1734 and his thesis, On the Absence of Sensation in the Human Mind and its Presence in our Organic and Living Body, from which I suspect this week's quotation came, "argued in favour of a broadly dualist approach of the person. Specifically, he argues that it is correct to talk of a mind and a body, but that it is the body rather than the mind that perceives and feels."

The specific quote reads, "The person does not sense material things from his soul, but from his living, organic body." 

Yes, I agree, up to a point. It is through our five senses, sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, that we access the material world. As I have written before, "I am so grateful for eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell, a mouth to taste, skin to touch." Yet I also believe that our heart and soul are necessary to fully interpret what our senses bring to our attention. It is our senses which bring the glory of Creation into our experience, and our hearts and souls which enable us to be ready to receive and appreciate it.

If I stand outside in front of a tree, for example, I can see the beauty of its trunk and branches and leaves; I can hear the sound of the wind blowing through and around it, of birds singing in its branches; I can smell (almost) the greenness of its leaves, the sap flowing through its heart; and I can touch the smoothness of the leaves, the velvety furriness of new rhus branches, or the roughness of an oak's bark. All these are accessible to my "living organic body", as Amo says. 

Yet it is my heart and soul that glory in their beauty, that rise in appreciation of their wonder. My senses enable, my heart and soul interpret. That's as close as I can get to the duality which Amo speaks of, and which I think is not quite what he meant by it...