History of the Concept of Mind – Volume 2

The first volume of this magisterial work concerned the history of the concept of mind within the recognised Western philosophical tradition. Here Paul Macdonald tackles the heterodox and occult tradition with the same thoroughness of scholarship and staggering erudition as was apparent in his earlier book. While most Western philosophy travels along Platonic, Aristotelian and Epicurean (materialist) lines, there are other less well-known heterodox ('other-belief) ideas that only surface in the few universities where there is a chair in Esotericism like Paris, Amsterdam and Exeter (Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke). We are accordingly familiar with mainstream ideas. And as Macdonald points out, there are other distinctive features of heterodox ideas of mind, soul and spirit: they are arcane and esoteric (occult means hidden); they explain techniques for the soul's ascent; they are closely related to magical ideas and their effects are achieved through corresponding techniques. One results in the learning of the philosopher, the other culminates in the wisdom of the magus, initiated into the inner laws of the cosmos and its symbolic correspondences. In modern terms it is the difference between Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore on the one hand and Rudolf Steiner, C.G Jung and Peter Deunov on the other. Philosophy is not inherently transformative; philosophers do not normally 'work on themselves', whereas the mystical process is an alchemical transmutation.

The book begins with an account of life, death and the soul in the Ancient Near East – Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Zoroastrian religion – moving on to shamanic traditions and secret teachings about the soul in the Hermetica, Gnosticism, Manichean ideas and teachings about the soul's ascent. There is a chapter on Byzantine teachings followed an extensive treatment of Christian mystical ideas about the soul's ascent from the neo-Platonic era to the late Middle Ages. Magical ideas about the soul from the mediaeval period to Goethe come next, with a concluding chapter on a plurality of dualisms and the duality of life. All the great names and a good many obscure ones besides are treated in the course of the book. To name but a few: Plotinus, Iamblichus, Porphyry, Dionysus, Eriugena, Eckhart, Bernard of Clairvaux, Mechtild of Magdeburg, St. John of the Cross, Roger Bacon, Francis Bacon, Raimon Lull, Cornelius Agrippa, John Dee, Paracelsus and Robert Fludd. There is an interesting section on mediaeval women mystics including such lesser known names as Hadewijch of Antwerp, Angela of Foligno and Marguerite Porette, who was executed through the Inquisition in 1310. Her Mirror of Simple Souls nevertheless survived in six different versions in four languages, making it one of the most widely read texts of the Middle Ages.

It is appropriate that the main body of the book concludes with Goethe 'in whose long life's work many of the heterodox lines of thought come to life again: Egyptian wisdom, Manicheism, Hermetica, Gnostica, alchemy and high magic.' There is a long analysis of Faust in relation to polarities and the reconciliation of opposites, with what Martin Bidney calls a process of selving and unselving, falling away from and returning to the Source. This is 'a regular oscillation between the creative contraries of contraction and expansion, inhaling and exhaling, opacity and lightness, are the inner law of our human life.' What Macdonald does not say, however, is how this process also relates to Goethe's understanding and methodology in science, which I mention in my review of Arthur Zajonc's book in this issue.

The last chapter provides a fascinating discussion of the different kinds of dualism in Western thought. Cartesian mind-body dualism is the most familiar in philosophy departments but it is a sub-category in relation to cosmic dualism, anthropic dualism (a double nature in humans) and axial dualism (good and evil). There is a variety of dualist worldview ranging from radical (Manichean and Gnostic) to moderate (some variants of Catharism) where the second principle derives from the first. In the West, the world-machine took over from the world-spirit in the 17th century but there are signs that the world-spirit and an esoteric worldview are making a comeback in order to redress the imbalance in our culture. In this context, Macdonald's book can serve as an encyclopaedic point of reference to a relatively neglected aspect of the history of ideas sitting alongside his earlier work. Together these books represent a massive intellectual achievement that deserve a wide readership in the academic community while at the same time being accessible to the informed general reader.