Alma, cosmos e intelecto en el pensamiento presocrático: de Tales a Heráclito

this paper follows the development of the conception of the cosmic soul among the earlier presocratic thinkers: according to them, this particular function of the soul makes of it the source and support of the cosmos, insofar as it acts as an intelligent principle that brings about universal order. especially, it will be showed how the cosmic dimension of soul exhibits a perfect parallelism to the role assigned to man's individual soul in contemporary eschatological doctrines: these viewed soul as bearer not just of life but also of every intellective function. moreover, stress will be laid on heraclitus' place as the presocratic philosopher whose fragments contain the most explicit statements on soul's monopoly both of strictly psychic capacities and of rational thought, in spite of being also identified by him with the substratum of the whole world.