De Anima (On the Soul) by Aristotle

Author:Aristotle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy, Metaphysics, History & Surveys, Ancient & Classical
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2004-07-29T05:28:55+00:00

Chapter Two

Now in our investigation of the soul, if we are in doubt about those things of which we should gain clear knowledge as we proceed, it is necessary that we collate the opinions of as many of our predecessors as have given a view about the soul with the aim of adopting all sensible proposals and of guarding against anything that may have been not so sensibly suggested. And the beginning of the inquiry is to put forward the most widely held beliefs as to what pertains to the soul by its nature. Well then, that which is ensouled is held to be different from that which is unsouled above all in two ways, in producing movement and in perceiving. These two are pretty much the things that we have received from earlier thinkers as main characteristics of the soul. For some hold that especially and primarily the soul is that which produces movement. And thinking that what is not itself moved does not admit of moving something else, they have supposed the soul to be one of those things that is moved. On this basis Democritus asserted it to be a kind of fire and hot stuff. Given an unlimited range of atomic shapes he says that [404a] the spherical atoms are fire and soul (like the things in the air called ‘motes’ which can be seen in rays of light through windows). The mixture of all the atoms forms the elements of the whole of nature (and here Leucippus agrees), while it is the spherical ones among them that make up soul for the reasons that this sort of shape is particularly able to permeate through everything and move the rest, being themselves moved, and this is on the supposition that it is the soul that produces movement for animals. For this reason, too, they say that respiration is the mark of life. For the surrounding atmosphere compresses bodies and squeezes out of them those of the atoms that produce movement for animals by never being at rest themselves, and then in breathing assistance comes from without through the entry into the body of other atoms of the same kind. These in fact even prevent the ones in the animal from being forced out by joint resistance to the compressive and constrictive force. And the animal’s life lasts just as long as it is capable of this. And it seems also that the view expressed by the Pythagoreans reflects the same thinking, as some of these said that the soul was the motes in the air and others that which produces their movement. The reason why the motes are chosen is that they appear to be in constant motion even if there is a complete calm. And the same tendency of thought is shown by those who say that the soul is that which moves itself. For a feature of all these theories is the supposition that the production of movement is the most characteristic feature of

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