On the Soul
On the Soul (
Aristotle holds that the soul (
In 1855, Charles Collier published a translation titled On the Vital Principle. George Henry Lewes, however, found this description also wanting.[2]
Division of chapters
The treatise is divided into three books, and each of the books is divided into chapters (five, twelve, and thirteen, respectively). The treatise is near-universally abbreviated "DA", for "De anima", and books and chapters generally referred to by Roman and Arabic numerals, respectively, along with corresponding
Book I
DA I.1 introduces the theme of the treatise;
DA I.2–5 provide a survey of Aristotle’s predecessors’ views about the soul
Book II
DA II.1–3 gives Aristotle's definition of soul and outlines his own study of it,[3] which is then pursued as follows:
DA II.4 discusses nutrition and reproduction;
DA II.5–6 discuss sensation in general;
DA II.7–11 discuss each of the five senses (in the following order: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch—one chapter for each);
DA II.12 again takes up the general question of sensation;
Book III
DA III.1 argues there are no other senses than the five already mentioned;
DA III.2 discusses the problem of what it means to "sense sensing" (i.e., to "be aware" of sensation);
DA III.3 investigates the nature of imagination;
DA III.4–7 discuss thinking and the intellect, or mind;
DA III.8 articulates the definition and nature of soul;
DA III.9–10 discuss the movement of animals possessing all the senses;
DA III.11 discusses the movement of animals possessing only touch;
DA III.12–13 take up the question of what are the minimal constituents of having a soul and being alive.
Summary
Book I contains a summary of Aristotle's method of investigation and a dialectical determination of the nature of the soul. He begins by conceding that attempting to define the soul is one of the most difficult questions in the world. But he proposes an ingenious method to tackle the question:
Just as we can come to know the properties and operations of something through scientific demonstration, i.e. a geometrical proof that a triangle has its interior angles equal to two right angles, since the principle of all scientific demonstration is the essence of the object, so too we can come to know the nature of a thing if we already know its properties and operations. It is like finding the middle term to a syllogism with a known conclusion.
Therefore, we must seek out such operations of the soul to determine what kind of nature it has. From a consideration of the opinions of his predecessors, a soul, he concludes, will be that in virtue of which living things have life.
Book II contains his scientific determination of the nature of the soul, an element of his biology. By dividing substance into its three meanings (matter, form, and what is composed of both), he shows that the soul must be the first actuality of a natural, organized body. This is its form or essence. It cannot be matter because the soul is that in virtue of which things have life, and matter is only being in potency. The rest of the book is divided into a determination of the nature of the nutritive and sensitive souls.
- (1) All species of living things, plant or animal, must be able to nourish themselves, and reproduce others of the same kind.
- (2) All animals have, in addition to the nutritive power, sense-perception, and thus they all have at least the sense of touch, which he argues is presupposed by all other senses, and the ability to feel pleasure and pain, which is the simplest kind of perception. If they can feel pleasure and pain they also have desire.
Some animals in addition have other senses (sight, hearing, taste), and some have more subtle versions of each (the ability to distinguish objects in a complex way, beyond mere
Book III discusses the mind or rational soul, which belongs to humans alone. He argues that thinking is different from both sense-perception and imagination because the senses can never lie and imagination is a power to make something sensed appear again, while thinking can sometimes be false. And since the mind is able to think when it wishes, it must be divided into two faculties: One which contains all the mind's ideas which are able to be considered, and another which brings them into action, i.e. to be actually thinking about them.
These are called the possible and agent intellect. The possible intellect is an "unscribed tablet" and the store-house of all concepts, i.e. universal ideas like "triangle", "tree", "man", "red", etc. When the mind wishes to think, the agent intellect recalls these ideas from the possible intellect and combines them to form thoughts. The agent intellect is also the faculty which abstracts the "whatness" or intelligibility of all sensed objects and stores them in the possible intellect.
For example, when a student learns a proof for the Pythagorean theorem, his agent intellect abstracts the intelligibility of all the images his eye senses (and that are a result of the translation by imagination of sense perceptions into immaterial phantasmata), i.e. the triangles and squares in the diagrams, and stores the concepts that make up the proof in his possible intellect. When he wishes to recall the proof, say, for demonstration in class the next day, his agent intellect recalls the concepts and their relations from the possible intellect and formulates the statements that make up the arguments in the proof.
The argument for the existence of the agent intellect in Chapter V perhaps due to its concision has been interpreted in a variety of ways. One standard scholastic interpretation is given in the Commentary on De anima begun by Thomas Aquinas.[a] Aquinas' commentary is based on the new translation of the text from the Greek completed by Aquinas' Dominican associate William of Moerbeke at Viterbo in 1267.[4]
The argument, as interpreted by
Aristotle also argues that the mind (only the agent intellect) is immaterial, able to exist without the body, and immortal. His arguments are notoriously concise. This has caused much confusion over the centuries, causing a rivalry between different schools of interpretation, most notably, between the Arabian commentator Averroes and Thomas Aquinas.[citation needed] One argument for its immaterial existence runs like this: if the mind were material, then it would have to possess a corresponding thinking-organ. And since all the senses have their corresponding sense-organs, thinking would then be like sensing. But sensing can never be false, and therefore thinking could never be false. And this is of course untrue. Therefore, Aristotle concludes, the mind is immaterial.
Perhaps the most important but obscure argument in the whole book is Aristotle's demonstration of the
Arabic paraphrase
In
A later Arabic translation of De Anima into Arabic is due to
Some manuscripts
Codex Vaticanus 253
Codex Vaticanus 253 is one of the most important manuscripts of the treatise. It is designated by the symbol L.
The manuscript was cited by Trendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and Ross in their critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. Currently it is housed at the Vatican Library (gr. 253) in Rome.
Codex Vaticanus 260
Codex Vaticanus 260 is one of the most important manuscripts of the treatise. It is designated by the symbol U.
The manuscript was cited by Trendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and Ross in their critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. Currently it is housed at the Vatican Library (Vat. gr. 260) in Rome.
Codex Vaticanus 266
Codex Vaticanus 266 is one of the most important manuscripts of the treatise. It is designated by the symbol V.
Another member of the family κ: Gc
The manuscript was cited by Trendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, and Apelt in his critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. David Ross did not use the manuscript in his own edition. Currently it is housed at the Vatican Library (gr. 266) in Rome.
Codex Vaticanus 1026
Codex Vaticanus 1026 is a manuscript of the treatise. It is designated by symbol W.
The Greek text of the manuscript is eclectic. It belongs to the textual family μ[7] to II book, 7 chapter, 419 a 27. Since 419 a 27 it is a representative of the family κ.[8]
The manuscript was not cited by Trendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and Ross in his critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. It means the manuscript has not high value. Currently it is housed at the Vatican Library (gr. 1026) at Rome.
Codex Vaticanus 1339
Codex Vaticanus 1339 is a manuscript of the treatise. It is designated by symbol P.
The text of the manuscript is eclectic. It represents the textual family σ in book II of the treatise, from II, 2, 314b11, to II, 8, 420a2.[9] After book II, chapter 9, 429b16, it belongs to the family λ.[10]
The manuscript was not cited by Tiendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and Ross in rheir critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. This means the manuscript is not of high value. Currently it is housed at the Vatican Library (gr. 1339) at Rome.
Codex Ambrosianus 435
Codex Ambrosianus 435 is one of the most important manuscripts of the treatise. It is designated by the symbol X.
The manuscript is one of nine manuscripts that was cited by Trendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and one of five cited by Ross in their critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. Currently it is housed at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (435 (H. 50)) in Milan.
Codex Ambrosianus 837
Codex Ambrosianus 837 is a manuscript of the treatise. It is designated by the symbol Dc.
The text of the manuscript is eclectic. It represents to the textual family σ, in I-II books of the treatise.[11] In III book of the treatise it belongs to the family τ.[12]
The manuscript was not cited by Tiendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, or Ross in their critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. Currently it is housed at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (837 (B 7 Inf.)) in Milan.
Codex Coislinianus 386
Codex Coislinianus 386 is one of the important manuscripts of the treatise. It is designated by the symbol C.
The manuscript was cited by David Ross in his critical edition of the treatise On the Soul. Currently it is housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Coislin 386) in Paris.
Codex Vindobonensis Philos. 2
Codex Vindobonensis Philos. 2 is a manuscript of the treatise. It is designated by symbol Td. Dated by a
The text of the manuscript represents the textual family κ.[13]
The manuscript was not cited by Tiendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and Ross in his critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. It means the manuscript has not high value. Currently it is housed at the Austrian National Library (Philos. 2) at Vienna.
Codex Vindobonensis Philos. 75
Codex Vindobonensis Philos. 75 is a manuscript of the treatise. It is designated by symbol Sd. Dated by a
The text of the manuscript represents to the textual family ρ.[14]
The manuscript was not cited by Tiendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and Ross in his critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. It means the manuscript has not high value. Currently it is housed at the Austrian National Library (Philos. 75) at Vienna.
Codex Vindobonensis Philos. 157
Codex Vindobonensis Philos. 157 is a manuscripts of the treatise. It is designated by symbol Rd.
The text of the manuscript represents the textual family π.[15]
The manuscript was not cited by Tiendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and Ross in his critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. It means the manuscript has not high value. Currently it is housed at the Austrian National Library (Philos. 157) at Vienna.
Codex Marcianus CCXXVIII (406)
Codex Marcianus GR. Z. 228 (=406) contains a partial manuscript of the treatise. It is designated by symbol Oc.
The text of the manuscript represents the textual family κ.[16]
The manuscript was not cited by Tiendelenburg, Torstrik, Biehl, Apelt, and Ross in his critical editions of the treatise On the Soul. It means the manuscript does not have high value.
The codex also has commentary by Pseudo-Diadochus on Plato's Timaeus, commentary by Simplicius of Cilicia on Aristotle's On the Heavens, commentary by Ammonius Hermiae’s on Plato's Phaedrus, and commentary by Proclus on Plato's Parmenides.
Currently, it is housed at the Biblioteca Marciana (BNM Gr. Z. 228 (=406)) in Venice.
English translations
- Mark Shiffman, De Anima: On the Soul, (Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co, 2011). ISBN 978-1585102488
- Joe Sachs, Aristotle's On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection (Green Lion Press, 2001). ISBN 1-888009-17-9
- Hugh Lawson-Tancred, De Anima (On the Soul) (Penguin Classics, 1986). ISBN 978-0140444711
- Hippocrates Apostle, Aristotle's On the Soul, (Grinell, Iowa: Peripatetic Press, 1981). ISBN 0-9602870-8-6
- D.W. Hamlyn, Aristotle De Anima, Books II and III (with passages from Book I), translated with Introduction and Notes by D.W. Hamlyn, with a Report on Recent Work and a Revised Bibliography by Christopher Shields (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968).
- Walter Stanley Hett, On the Soul (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press "Loeb Classical Library", 1957).
- John Alexander Smith, On the Soul (1931)
- R. D. Hicks, Aristotle De Anima with Translation, Introduction, and Notes (Cambridge University Press, 1907).
- Edwin Wallace, Aristotle's Psychology in Greek and English, with Introduction and Notes by Edwin Wallace (Cambridge University Press, 1882).
- ISBN 1-898910-23-5
Footnotes
- ^ Commentary on De anima was begun when Thomas Aquinas was regent at the studium provinciale at Santa Sabina in Rome, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.
References
- ^ On the Soul, by Aristotle written c.350 B.C.E, translation: J. A. Smith, The Internet Classics Archive, MIT, Retrieved 2 February 2016
- OCLC 15174038.
- ^ In chapter 3 of Book II he enumerates five psychic powers: the nutritive (θρεπτικόν), the sensory (αἰσθητικόν), the appetitive (ὀρεκτικόν), the locomotive (κινητικὸν), and the power of thinking (διανοητικόν).
- ^ Torrell, 161 ff.[full citation needed]
- ^
Rüdiger Arnzen (ed.), Aristoteles' De anima, Volume 9 of Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus, 1998.
Alfred L. Ivry, The Arabic Text of Aristotle's "De anima" and Its Translator, Oriens Vol. 36 (2001), pp. 59-77.
On the reception of De Anima in Arabic tradition in general see Rafael Ramo Guerrero, La recepcion arabe del DE ANIMA de Aristoteles: Al Kindi y Al Farabi, Madrid (1992) for an overview of literature.
Compare also the Arabic text known as Six Enneads.
- ^ Josep Puig Montada, Aristotle's On the Soul in the Arabic tradition, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (2012).
- ^ Another manuscripts of that family: Hd Yd Jd Ga Q.
- Td.
- Dc, m, Rc, Xc, Fd, and Hd.
- L, Fc, Lc, and Kd.
- P.
- ^ Another manuscripts of this family: Md Ld Bd Bc Vc.
- VZc Vc Wc f Nd.
- ^ Another members of this group Kc i Pc Cc l Wd y Mc.
- ^ Another members of this group S Od Ed Tc c Dd Sc Uc Vd Yc Qa.
- Td.
Further reading
- Rüdiger Arnzen, Aristoteles' De anima : eine verlorene spätantike Paraphrase in arabischer und persischer Überlieferung, Leiden, Brill, 1998 ISBN 90-04-10699-5.
- J. Barnes, M. Schofield, & R. Sorabji, Articles on Aristotle, vol. 4, 'Psychology and Aesthetics'. London, 1979.
- M. Durrant, Aristotle's De Anima in Focus. London, 1993.
- M. Nussbaum & A. O. Rorty, Essays on Aristotle's De Anima. Oxford, 1992.
- F. Nuyens, L'évolution de la psychologie d'Aristote. Louvain, 1973.
- Paweł Siwek, Aristotelis tractatus De anima graece et latine, Desclée, Romae 1965.
External links
- Greek text: Mikros Apoplous (HTML)
- English text: Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library (HTML)
- De Anima public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- BNM Gr. Z. 228 (=406) on-line