Did most major ancient cultures (e.g. the Mesopotamians) consider the heart as the main cognitive organ?
Upvote:2
This is not a definitive answer, but I just read some lists of proverbs from various cultures and compiled a few below.
The two things I would say are held in common by the samples below:
The heart is the seat of emotion, whether joy or sorrow.
The heart is the seat of moral character, whether virtue or wickedness.
In our modern understanding, we might distinguish those things from the role of the "cognitive organ". For us, that phrase suggests reason and logic. However, their absence in the proverbs below does not, in my opinion, mean that they thought that reason and logic were situated elsewhere. Rather, I think they would fold it into (2) above; decision-making ultimately reflects your character.
At least one author, Silva (1975), says that the Hebrew term for heart denotes "the seat of the mental faculties" (p. 106) (and even says this influenced the range of Greek kardia), which I'd take as the same conclusion: "mental faculties" refers both to "cognitive organ" and to (1) and (2) above.
Random sampling of "heart"-related proverbs. (I tried to exclude ones that could easily have been paraphrases by the translator, e.g. "I was sick at heart". You could of course find better, more comprehensive collections, throw out mine, and improve methodology in other ways, but this is just to suggest a direction.)
When I married a malicious husband, when I bore a malicious son, an unhappy heart was assigned to me.
A loving heart builds houses. A hating heart destroys houses.
As if it were a fertile spot, the heart does not abandon the good.
Utu's glance is prayerful. Utu's heart is compassionate.
The rich man's heart is sick, it is very sick indeed.
That which matches my tears hurts my heart alike.
- Upon a glad heart oil is poured out of which no one knows.
As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Let love and faithfulness never leave you ... write them on the tablet of your heart.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil, but those who promote peace have joy.
More post
- 📝 Was it not possible to exploit the gaps between each pre-modern melee formation?
- 📝 Why did officers fire revolvers with just one hand, while wielding a sword in the other hand despite being too far away to use swords?
- 📝 In Romance of the Three Kingdoms why do people still use bamboo sticks when paper had already been invented?
- 📝 White on Polish coat of arms
- 📝 What was a "Qua" in a "Subsidy of Armour" in 1590?
- 📝 Was there a Japanese equivalent of the Gestapo during WW2
- 📝 Question about Medals of the U.S. Navy
- 📝 How well can cavalry fight infantry?
- 📝 Are there any hypotheses on how the Dorset people disappeared?
- 📝 Why did Hideyoshi invade Korea?
- 📝 Is there an objective measure of decadence?
- 📝 What is the ancestry of the Robertians, progenitors of the Bourbon dynasty?
- 📝 Can you identify this US Army uniform?
- 📝 Why does Edinburgh Castle's one o'clock gun fire at 1pm instead of, say, noon?
- 📝 Origins of "Still on patrol"
- 📝 What are the social preconditions for division of labour, when compared in different emerging civilizations?
- 📝 First Roman battles after the Marian reforms
- 📝 Which fortress east of Ancient Megiddo did Thutmose III go to during the siege?
- 📝 What is the meaning of George S Patton's quote "Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more?"
- 📝 What were British voting qualifications in the 1770's?
- 📝 In ancient Rome, could free-born Romans become slaves?
- 📝 What was this 1917 shell casing used for?
- 📝 What are the historical equivalents of cooperative storytelling like modern role-playing games?
- 📝 Did Ancient Roman insulae reach more than 10 storeys?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 Did the Germans try to "Pearl Harbor" Russia's Black Sea fleet?
- 📝 Any idea what type of 1920-1930s tank this is?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union name their strongest bomb Tsar Bomba?
- 📝 What is the most widely accepted theory on the ancient "Sea Peoples"?
- 📝 How many proofs does History require?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did most major ancient cultures (e.g. the Mesopotamians) consider the heart as the main cognitive organ?
- 📝 Did ancient and/or medieval cultures that emphasized the danger of religious pollution also exert more control over women?
- 📝 Why did ancient cultures (e.g. the Mesopotamians) use sexagesimal?
- 📝 Why did the English name of "Pacific Ocean" stick if it has been known by many cultures since ancient times?
- 📝 Did any ancient historian consider Tiberius' first year as Emperor to be the first year of his co-regency with Augustus?
- 📝 Did the ancient Greeks ever climb Mt. Olympus?
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
- 📝 How did the ancient Greeks synchronize time?
- 📝 Why did modern "Romania" remain the most "Roman" part of the Balkans?
- 📝 When Israel won the Six Day War, did they consider expelling all Arabs from the annexed territories?
- 📝 Did ancient Romans anticipate the fall of Rome?
- 📝 When did the term "Nationality" first come into use? How did ancient civilizations refer to themselves? By ethnicity?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 Did the Ancient Egyptians understand the importance of the brain?
- 📝 Did American policymakers seriously consider scaling down Lend Lease Aid to the Soviet Union after the battle of Kursk?
- 📝 Why did the island of Bali remain Hindu when most of the rest of Indonesia converted to Islam?
- 📝 What names did the ancient Egyptians give to different stages of their history?
- 📝 Did foreign language phrase books exist in the ancient world?
- 📝 Do any historians consider superior German airpower as the most important factor in the Battle of France?
- 📝 What are the most comprehensive historical references for ancient India?
- 📝 Did the Seljuk consider themselves Roman?
- 📝 Did any ancient polytheistic religion hold that theirs was the only pantheon?
- 📝 How did ancient armies keep the route of supplies to their battlefield?
- 📝 What role did the Ancient Samurai heritage play on Modern Japan during WW2?
- 📝 What did the letter theta symbolize in ancient Greece?
- 📝 How did the ancient Chinese coordinate armies of tens and hundreds of thousands?
- 📝 Did Nazi leaders consider continuing guerrilla warfare after the collapse of Germany?
- 📝 How did corn become the most produced crop in the world?
- 📝 Did the ancient Greeks revere the Titans?