In the past several philosophers believed the heart was the organ of intelligence.
In the 5th cent. B.C, Empedocles developed this theory raising it to universal levels.
What was Empedocles’ reasoning about?
According to him cosmic cycle seems a great pulsating heart, whose beats symbolize life.
Indeed, thanks to it, we are able to feel love, build up kind relationships and op
en up to the others.
Two primordial forces: love or quarrel?
The four elements, called “rhizomata” (earth, air, water and fire), compose the whole universe and are ruled by two primordial forces: friendship or love, and quarrel or hate.
These two forces are divine and eternal is their movement.
The living world as we consider it nowadays (full of animals, plants and humans) generated, according to Empedocles, during the cosmic cycle between systole and diastole, when friendship and quarrel are balanced among them.
The importance of feelings is thus highlighted: when we are agitated the heart-beat is faster, while when we are relaxed it slows down.
Union and/or division?
Each change is determined by the action of these two forces on the elements. Indeed, the heart dilates when quarrelling prevails (synonym of separation and division); while it contracts when love imposes energies to mingle together in order to form what Empedocles called “Sphere”.
What does the right beat stand for?
Finding the “right beat” means appreciating positive experiences, accepting disillusions and living, in harmony with others and the world.
The brain as the seat of human thought (Alcmaeon of Croton – Hippocrates)
Although these thoughts are really profound and subtle, it's necessary to remember Alcmaeon from the city of Croton in Southern Italy, who was the first philosopher to identify the seat of human intelligence properly in the brain.
Later, in the 4th century, Hippocrates explained the first theory regarding mental and emotional functions based on the only body's action.
Humans were more and more considered as indissoluble, psychophysical unities and even if their spiritual functions were almost completely located in the brain, the heart kept its reasons valuable and scanning the various phases of life with a regularity in its beats.