28Ibid. II i. p. 412, a. 11: οὐσίαι δὲ μάλιστ’ εἶναι δοκοῦσι τὰ σώματα, καὶ τούτων τὰ φυσικά· τῶν δὲ φυσικῶν τὰ μὲν ἔχει ζωήν, τὰ δ’ οὐκ ἔχει· ζωὴν δὲ λέγω, τὴν δι’ αὐτοῦ τροφὴν καὶ αὔξησιν καὶ φθίσιν.
28Ibid. II i. p. 412, a. 11: οὐσίαι δὲ μάλιστ’ εἶναι δοκοῦσι τὰ σώματα, καὶ τούτων τὰ φυσικά· τῶν δὲ φυσικῶν τὰ μὲν ἔχει ζωήν, τὰ δ’ οὐκ ἔχει· ζωὴν δὲ λέγω, τὴν δι’ αὐτοῦ τροφὴν καὶ αὔξησιν καὶ φθίσιν.
“To live� (Aristotle observes) is a term used in several different meanings; whatever possesses any one of the following four properties is said to live:29(1) Intellect, (2) Sensible perception, (3) Local movement and rest, (4) Internal movement of nutrition, growth, and decay. But of these four the last is the only one common to all living bodies without exception; it is the foundation presupposed by the other three. It is the only one possessed by plants,30and common to all plants as well as to all animals — to all animated bodies.
29Ibid. ii. p. 413, a. 22: πλεοναχῶς δὲ τοῦ ζῆν λεγομένου, κἂν ἕν τι τούτων ἐνυπάρχῃ μόνον, ζῆν αὐτό φαμεν, &c.
29Ibid. ii. p. 413, a. 22: πλεοναχῶς δὲ τοῦ ζῆν λεγομένου, κἂν ἕν τι τούτων ἐνυπάρχῃ μόνον, ζῆν αὐτό φαμεν, &c.
30Ibid. I. v. p. 411, b. 27, ad fin.
30Ibid. I. v. p. 411, b. 27, ad fin.
What is the animating principle belonging to each of these bodies, and what is the most general definition of it? Such is the problem that Aristotle states to himself about the soul.31He explains it by a metaphysical distinction first introduced (apparently) by himself intoPhilosophia Prima. He considers Substance or Essence as an ideal compound; not simply as clothed with all the accidents described in the nine last Categories, but also as being analysable in itself, even apart from these accidents, into two abstract, logical, or notional elements orprincipia— Form and Matter. This distinction is borrowed from the most familiar facts of the sensible world — the shape of solid objects. When we see or feel a cube of wax, we distinguish the cubic shape from the waxen material;32we may find the like shape in many other materials — wood, stone, &c.; we may find the like material in many different shapes — sphere, pyramid, &c.; but the matter has always some shape, and the shape has always some matter. We can name and reason about the matter, without attending to the shape, or distinguishing whether it be cube or sphere; we can name and reason about the shape, without attending to the material shaped, or to any of its various peculiarities. But this, though highly useful, is a mere abstraction or notional distinction. There can be no real separation between the two: no shape without some solid material; no solid material without some shape. The two are correlates; each of them implying the other, and neither of them admitting of being realized or actualized without the other.
31Ibid. II. p. 413, b. 11: ἡ ψυχὴ τῶν εἰρημένων τούτων ἀρχή. — Ibid. I. p. 412, a. 5: τίς ἂν εἴη κοινότατος λόγος αὐτῆς.
31Ibid. II. p. 413, b. 11: ἡ ψυχὴ τῶν εἰρημένων τούτων ἀρχή. — Ibid. I. p. 412, a. 5: τίς ἂν εἴη κοινότατος λόγος αὐτῆς.
32Aristot. De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, b. 7: τὸν κηρὸν καὶ τὸ σχῆμα.
32Aristot. De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, b. 7: τὸν κηρὸν καὶ τὸ σχῆμα.
This distinction of Form and Matter is one of the capital features of Aristotle’sPhilosophia Prima. He expands it and diversifies it in a thousand ways, often with subtleties very difficult to follow; but the fundamental import of it is seldom lost — two correlates inseparably implicated in fact and reality in every concrete individual that has received a substantive name, yet logically separable and capable of being named and considered apart from each other. The Aristotelian analysis thus brings out, in regard to each individual substance (orHoc Aliquid, to use his phrase), a triple point of view: (1) The Form; (2) The Matter; (3) The compound or aggregate of the two — in other words, the inseparableEns, which carries us out of the domain of logic or abstraction into that of the concrete or reality.33
33Aristot. Metaphys.Z.iii. p. 1029, a. 1-34; De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, a. 6; p. 414, a. 15.In the first book of the Physica, Aristotle pushes this analysis yet further, introducing threeprincipiainstead of two:—(1 ) Form, (2) Matter, (3) Privation (of Form); he gives a distinct general name to the negation as well as to the affirmation; he provides a signminusas counter-denomination to the signplus. But he intimates that this is only the same analysis more minutely discriminated, or in a different point of view: διὸ ἔστι μὲν ὡς δύο λεκτέον εἶναι τὰς ἀρχάς, ἔστι δ’ ὡς τρεῖς (Phys. I. vii. p. 190, b. 29).Materia Prima(Aristotle says, Phys. I. vii. p. 191, a. 8) is “knowable only by analogyâ€� —i.e., explicable only by illustrative examples: as the brass is to the statue, as the wood is to the couch, &c.; natural substances being explained from works of art, as is frequent with Aristotle.
33Aristot. Metaphys.Z.iii. p. 1029, a. 1-34; De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, a. 6; p. 414, a. 15.
In the first book of the Physica, Aristotle pushes this analysis yet further, introducing threeprincipiainstead of two:—(1 ) Form, (2) Matter, (3) Privation (of Form); he gives a distinct general name to the negation as well as to the affirmation; he provides a signminusas counter-denomination to the signplus. But he intimates that this is only the same analysis more minutely discriminated, or in a different point of view: διὸ ἔστι μὲν ὡς δύο λεκτέον εἶναι τὰς ἀρχάς, ἔστι δ’ ὡς τρεῖς (Phys. I. vii. p. 190, b. 29).
Materia Prima(Aristotle says, Phys. I. vii. p. 191, a. 8) is “knowable only by analogy� —i.e., explicable only by illustrative examples: as the brass is to the statue, as the wood is to the couch, &c.; natural substances being explained from works of art, as is frequent with Aristotle.
Aristotle farther recognizes, between these two logical correlates, a marked difference of rank. The Form stands first, the Matter second, — not in time, but in notional presentation. The Form is higher, grander, prior in dignity and esteem, moreEns, or more nearly approaching to perfect entity; the Matter is lower, meaner, posterior in dignity, farther removed from that perfection. The conception of wax, plaster, wood, &c., without amy definite or determinate shape, is confused and unimpressive; but a name, connoting some definite shape, at once removes this confusion, and carries with it mental pre-eminence, alike as to phantasy, memory, and science. In the logical hierarchy of Aristotle, Matter is the inferior and Form the superior;34yet neither of the two can escape from its relative character: Form requires Matter for its correlate, and is nothing in itself or apart,35just as much as Matter requires Form; though from the inferior dignity of Matter we find it more frequently described as the second or correlate, while Form is made to stand forward as therelatum. For complete reality, we want the concrete individual having the implication of both; while, in regard to each of the constituentsper se, no separate real existence can be affirmed, but only a nominal or logical separation.
34Aristot. De Gener. Animal. II. i. p. 729, a. 10. Matter and Form are here compared to the female and the male — to mother and father. Form is a cause operative, Matter a cause co-operative, though both are alike indispensable to full reality. Compare Physic. I. ix. p. 192, a. 13: ἡ μὲν γὰρ ὑπομένουσα συναιτία τῇ μορφῇ τῶν γινομένων ἐστίν, ὥσπερ μήτηρ· — ἀλλὰ τοῦτ’ ἔστιν ἡ ὕλη, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ θῆλυ ἄῤῥενος καὶ αἰσχρὸν καλοῦ (ἐφίετο). — De Partibus Animalium, I. i. p. 640, b. 28: ἡ γὰρ κατὰ τὴν μορφὴν φύσις κυριωτέρα τῆς ὑλικῆς φύσεως.Metaphys.Z.iii. p. 1029, a. 5: τὸ εἶδος τῆς ὕλης πρότερον καὶ μᾶλλον ὄν — p. 1039, a. 1.See in Schwegler, pp. 13, 42, 83, Part II. of his Commentary on the Aristotelian Metaphysica.
34Aristot. De Gener. Animal. II. i. p. 729, a. 10. Matter and Form are here compared to the female and the male — to mother and father. Form is a cause operative, Matter a cause co-operative, though both are alike indispensable to full reality. Compare Physic. I. ix. p. 192, a. 13: ἡ μὲν γὰρ ὑπομένουσα συναιτία τῇ μορφῇ τῶν γινομένων ἐστίν, ὥσπερ μήτηρ· — ἀλλὰ τοῦτ’ ἔστιν ἡ ὕλη, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ θῆλυ ἄῤῥενος καὶ αἰσχρὸν καλοῦ (ἐφίετο). — De Partibus Animalium, I. i. p. 640, b. 28: ἡ γὰρ κατὰ τὴν μορφὴν φύσις κυριωτέρα τῆς ὑλικῆς φύσεως.
Metaphys.Z.iii. p. 1029, a. 5: τὸ εἶδος τῆς ὕλης πρότερον καὶ μᾶλλον ὄν — p. 1039, a. 1.
See in Schwegler, pp. 13, 42, 83, Part II. of his Commentary on the Aristotelian Metaphysica.
35Aristot. Metaph.Z.viii. p. 1033, b. 10, seq.
35Aristot. Metaph.Z.viii. p. 1033, b. 10, seq.
This difference of rank between Matter and Form — that the first is inferior and the last the superior — is sometimes so much put in the foreground, that the two are conceived in a different manner and under other names, as Potential and Actual. Matter is the potential, imperfect, inchoate, which the supervening Form actualizes into the perfect and complete; a transition from half-reality to entire reality or act. The Potential is the undefined or indeterminate36— what may be or may not be —what is not yet actual, and may perhaps never become so, but is prepared to pass into actuality when the energizing principle comes to aid. In this way of putting the antithesis, the Potential is not so much implicated with the Actual as merged and suppressed to make room for the Actual: it is as a half-grown passing into a full-grown; being itself essential as a preliminary stage in the order of logical generation.37The three logical divisions — Matter, Form, and the resulting Compound or Concrete (τὸ σύνολον, τὸ συνειλημμένον), are here compressed into two — the Potential and the Actualization thereof. Actuality (ἐνέργεια, ἐντελέχεια) coincides in meaning partly with the Form, partly with the resulting Compound; the Form being so much exalted, that the distinction between the two is almost effaced.38
36Ibid.Θ.viii. p. 1050, b. 10. He says, p. 1048, a. 35, that this distinction between Potential and Actual cannot be defined, but can only be illustrated by particular examples, several of which he proceeds to enumerate. Trendelenburg observes (Notead. Aristot. De Animâ, p. 307):—“Δύναμις contraria adhuc in se inclusa tenet, ut in utrumque abire possit: ἐνέργεια alterum excludit.â€� Compare also ib. p. 302. ThisMay or May not beis the widest and most general sense of the terms δύναμις and δυνατόν, common to all the analogical or derivative applications that Aristotle points out as belonging to them. It is more general than that which he gives as the κύριος ὅρος τῆς πρώτης δυνάμεως — ἀρχή μεταβλητικὴ ἐν ἄλλῳ ἢ ᾗ ἄλλο, and ought seemingly to be itself considered as the κύριος ὅρος. Cf. Arist. Metaphys.Δ.xii. p. 1020, a. 5, with the comment of Bonitz, who remarks upon the loose language of Aristotle in this chapter but imputes to Aristotle a greater amount of contradiction than he seems to deserve (Comm. ad Metaphys. pp. 256, 393).
36Ibid.Θ.viii. p. 1050, b. 10. He says, p. 1048, a. 35, that this distinction between Potential and Actual cannot be defined, but can only be illustrated by particular examples, several of which he proceeds to enumerate. Trendelenburg observes (Notead. Aristot. De Animâ, p. 307):—“Δύναμις contraria adhuc in se inclusa tenet, ut in utrumque abire possit: ἐνέργεια alterum excludit.â€� Compare also ib. p. 302. ThisMay or May not beis the widest and most general sense of the terms δύναμις and δυνατόν, common to all the analogical or derivative applications that Aristotle points out as belonging to them. It is more general than that which he gives as the κύριος ὅρος τῆς πρώτης δυνάμεως — ἀρχή μεταβλητικὴ ἐν ἄλλῳ ἢ ᾗ ἄλλο, and ought seemingly to be itself considered as the κύριος ὅρος. Cf. Arist. Metaphys.Δ.xii. p. 1020, a. 5, with the comment of Bonitz, who remarks upon the loose language of Aristotle in this chapter but imputes to Aristotle a greater amount of contradiction than he seems to deserve (Comm. ad Metaphys. pp. 256, 393).
37Ens potentiâis a variety ofEns(Arist. Metaph.Δ.vii. p. 1017, b. 6), but an imperfect variety: it is ὂν ἀτελές, which may become matured into ὂν τέλειον, ὂν ἐντελεχείᾳ or ἐνεργείᾳ (Metaphys.Θ.i. p. 1045, a. 34).Matter is either remote or proximate, removed either by one stage or several stages from the σύνολον in which it culminates. Strictly speaking, none but proximate matter is said to exist δυνάμει. Alexander Schol. (ad Metaph.Θ.p. 1049, a. 19) p. 781, b. 39: ἡ πόῤῥω ὕλη οὐ λέγεται δυνάμει. τί δή ποτε; ὅτι οὐ παρωνυμιάζομεν τὰ πράγματα ἐκ τῆς πόῤῥω ἀλλ’ ἐκ τῆς προσεχοῦς· λέγομεν γὰρ τὸ κιβώτιον ξύλινον ἐκ τῆς προσεχοῦς, ἀλλ’ οὐ γήϊνον ἐκ τῆς πόῤῥω.
37Ens potentiâis a variety ofEns(Arist. Metaph.Δ.vii. p. 1017, b. 6), but an imperfect variety: it is ὂν ἀτελές, which may become matured into ὂν τέλειον, ὂν ἐντελεχείᾳ or ἐνεργείᾳ (Metaphys.Θ.i. p. 1045, a. 34).
Matter is either remote or proximate, removed either by one stage or several stages from the σύνολον in which it culminates. Strictly speaking, none but proximate matter is said to exist δυνάμει. Alexander Schol. (ad Metaph.Θ.p. 1049, a. 19) p. 781, b. 39: ἡ πόῤῥω ὕλη οὐ λέγεται δυνάμει. τί δή ποτε; ὅτι οὐ παρωνυμιάζομεν τὰ πράγματα ἐκ τῆς πόῤῥω ἀλλ’ ἐκ τῆς προσεχοῦς· λέγομεν γὰρ τὸ κιβώτιον ξύλινον ἐκ τῆς προσεχοῦς, ἀλλ’ οὐ γήϊνον ἐκ τῆς πόῤῥω.
38Aristot. Metaphys.Η.i. p. 1042, a. 25, seq. He scarcely makes any distinction here between ὕλη and δύναμις, or between μορφὴ and ἐνέργεια (cf.Θ.viii. p. 1050, a. 15).Alexander in his Commentary on this book (Θ.iii. p. 1047, a. 30) p. 542, Bonitz’s edit., remarks that ἐνέργεια is used by Aristotle in a double sense; sometimes meaning κίνησις πρὸς τὸ τέλος, sometimes meaning the τέλος itself. Comp.Η.iii. p. 1043, a. 32; also the commentary of Bonitz, p. 393.
38Aristot. Metaphys.Η.i. p. 1042, a. 25, seq. He scarcely makes any distinction here between ὕλη and δύναμις, or between μορφὴ and ἐνέργεια (cf.Θ.viii. p. 1050, a. 15).
Alexander in his Commentary on this book (Θ.iii. p. 1047, a. 30) p. 542, Bonitz’s edit., remarks that ἐνέργεια is used by Aristotle in a double sense; sometimes meaning κίνησις πρὸς τὸ τέλος, sometimes meaning the τέλος itself. Comp.Η.iii. p. 1043, a. 32; also the commentary of Bonitz, p. 393.
Two things are to be remembered respecting Matter, in its Aristotelian (logical or ontological) sense: (1) It may be Body, but it is not necessarily Body;39(2) It is only intelligible as the correlate of Form: it can neither exist by itself, nor can it be known by itself (i.e., when taken out of that relativity). This deserves notice, because to forget the relativity of a relative word, and to reason upon it as if it were an absolute, is an oversight not unfrequent. Furthermore, each variety of Matter has its appropriate Form, and each variety of Form its appropriate Matter, with which it correlates. There are various stages or gradations of Matter; fromMateria Prima, which has no Format all, passing upwards through successive partial developments toMateria Ultima; which last is hardly40distinguishable from Form or fromMateria Formata.
39Aristot. Metaph.Z.xi. p. 1036, a. 8: ἡ δ’ ὕλη ἄγνωστος καθ’ αὑτήν. ὕλη δ’ ἡ μὲν αἰσθητή, ἡ δὲ νοητή· αἰσθητὴ μὲν οἷον χαλκὸς καὶ ξύλον καὶ ὅση κινητὴ ὕλη, νοητὴ δὲ ἡ ἐν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ὑπάρχουσα μὴ ᾗ αἰσθητά, οἷον τὰ μαθηματικά. — p. 1035, a. 7.Physica, III. vi. p. 207, a. 26; De Generat. et Corrupt. I. v. p. 320, b. 14-25.
39Aristot. Metaph.Z.xi. p. 1036, a. 8: ἡ δ’ ὕλη ἄγνωστος καθ’ αὑτήν. ὕλη δ’ ἡ μὲν αἰσθητή, ἡ δὲ νοητή· αἰσθητὴ μὲν οἷον χαλκὸς καὶ ξύλον καὶ ὅση κινητὴ ὕλη, νοητὴ δὲ ἡ ἐν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ὑπάρχουσα μὴ ᾗ αἰσθητά, οἷον τὰ μαθηματικά. — p. 1035, a. 7.
Physica, III. vi. p. 207, a. 26; De Generat. et Corrupt. I. v. p. 320, b. 14-25.
40Aristot. De Animâ, II. ii. p. 414, a. 25: ἑκάστου γὰρ ἡ ἐντελέχεια ἐν τῷ δυνάμει ὑπάρχοντι καὶ τῇ οἰκείᾳ ὕλη πέφυκεν ἐγγίνεσθαι. — Physica, II. ii. p. 194, b. 8: ἔτι τῶν πρός τι ἡ ὕλη· ἄλλῳ γὰρ εἴδει ἄλλη ὕλη. — Metaph.Η.vi. p. 1045, b. 17: ἔστι δ’, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, καὶ ἡ ἐσχάτη ὕλη καὶ ἡ μορφὴ ταὐτό καὶ δυνάμει, τὸ δὲ ἐνεργείᾳ. See upon this doctrine Schwegler’s Commentary, pp. 100, 154, 173, 240, Pt. 2nd. Compare also Arist. De Gener. Animal. II. i. p. 735, a. 9; also De CÅ“lo, IV. iii. p. 310, b. 14.
40Aristot. De Animâ, II. ii. p. 414, a. 25: ἑκάστου γὰρ ἡ ἐντελέχεια ἐν τῷ δυνάμει ὑπάρχοντι καὶ τῇ οἰκείᾳ ὕλη πέφυκεν ἐγγίνεσθαι. — Physica, II. ii. p. 194, b. 8: ἔτι τῶν πρός τι ἡ ὕλη· ἄλλῳ γὰρ εἴδει ἄλλη ὕλη. — Metaph.Η.vi. p. 1045, b. 17: ἔστι δ’, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, καὶ ἡ ἐσχάτη ὕλη καὶ ἡ μορφὴ ταὐτό καὶ δυνάμει, τὸ δὲ ἐνεργείᾳ. See upon this doctrine Schwegler’s Commentary, pp. 100, 154, 173, 240, Pt. 2nd. Compare also Arist. De Gener. Animal. II. i. p. 735, a. 9; also De CÅ“lo, IV. iii. p. 310, b. 14.
The distinction above specified is employed by Aristotle in his exposition of the Soul. The soul belongs to the Category of Substance or Essence (not to that of Quantity, Quality, &c.); but of the two points of view under which Essence may be presented, the soul ranks with Form, not with Matter — with the Actual, not with the Potential. The Matter to which (as correlate) soul stands related, is a natural body (i.e., a body having within it an inherent principle of motion and rest) organized in a certain way, or fitted out with certain capacities and preparations to which soul is the active and indispensable complement. These capacities would never come into actuality without the soul; but, on the other hand, the range of actualities or functions in the soul depends upon, and is limited by, the range of capacities ready prepared for it in the body. The implication of the two constitutes the living subject, with all its functions, active and passive. If the eye were an animated or living subject, seeing would be its soul; if the carpenter’s axe were living, cutting would be its soul;41the matter would be the lens or the iron in which this soul is embodied. It is not indispensable, however, that all the functions of the living subject should be at all times in complete exercise: the subject is still living, even while asleep; the eye is still a good eye, though at the moment closed. It is enough if the functional aptitude exist as a dormant property, ready to rise into activity, when the proper occasions present themselves. This minimum of Form suffices to give living efficacy to the potentialities of body; it is enough that a man, though now in a dark night and seeing nothing, will see as soon as the sun rises; or that he knows geometry, though he is not now thinking of a geometrical problem. This dormant possession is what Aristotle calls the First Entelechy or Energy,i.e., the lowest stage of Actuality, or the minimum of influence required to transform Potentiality into Actuality. The Aristotelian definition of Soul is thus: The firstentelechy of a natural organized body, having life in potentiality.42This is all that is essential to the soul; the second or higher entelechy (actual exercise of the faculties) is not a constant or universal property.43
41Aristot. De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, b. 18: εἰ γὰρ ἦν ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς ζῳόν, ψυχὴ ἂν ἦν αὐτοῦ ἡ ὄψις· αὕτη γὰρ οὐσία ὀφθαλμοῦ ἡ κατὰ τὸν λόγον. ὁ δ’ ὀφθαλμὸς ὕλη ὄψεως, ἧς ἀπολειπούσης οὐκέτ’ ὀφθαλμός, πλὴν ὁμωνύμως, καθάπερ ὁ λίθινος καὶ ὁ γεγραμμένος.
41Aristot. De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, b. 18: εἰ γὰρ ἦν ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς ζῳόν, ψυχὴ ἂν ἦν αὐτοῦ ἡ ὄψις· αὕτη γὰρ οὐσία ὀφθαλμοῦ ἡ κατὰ τὸν λόγον. ὁ δ’ ὀφθαλμὸς ὕλη ὄψεως, ἧς ἀπολειπούσης οὐκέτ’ ὀφθαλμός, πλὴν ὁμωνύμως, καθάπερ ὁ λίθινος καὶ ὁ γεγραμμένος.
42Aristot. De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, a. 27: διὸ ψυχή ἐστιν ἐντελέχεια ἡ πρώτη σώματος φυσικοῦ δυνάμει ζωὴν ἔχοντος· τοιοῦτο δὲ ὃ ἂν ᾖ ὀργανικόν. Compare Metaphysica,Z.x. p. 1035, b. 14-27.
42Aristot. De Animâ, II. i. p. 412, a. 27: διὸ ψυχή ἐστιν ἐντελέχεια ἡ πρώτη σώματος φυσικοῦ δυνάμει ζωὴν ἔχοντος· τοιοῦτο δὲ ὃ ἂν ᾖ ὀργανικόν. Compare Metaphysica,Z.x. p. 1035, b. 14-27.
43Aristot. De Animâ, II. ii. p. 414, a. 8-18. The distinction here taken between the first or lower stage of Entelechy, and the second or higher stage, coincides substantially with the distinction in the Nikomachean Ethica and elsewhere between ἕξις and ἐνέργεια. See Topica, IV. v. p. 125, b. 15; Ethic. Nikom. II. i.-v. p. 1103 seq.
43Aristot. De Animâ, II. ii. p. 414, a. 8-18. The distinction here taken between the first or lower stage of Entelechy, and the second or higher stage, coincides substantially with the distinction in the Nikomachean Ethica and elsewhere between ἕξις and ἐνέργεια. See Topica, IV. v. p. 125, b. 15; Ethic. Nikom. II. i.-v. p. 1103 seq.
In this definition of Soul, Aristotle employs his ownPhilosophia Primato escape the errors committed by prior philosophers. He does not admit that the soul is a separate entity in itself; or that it is composed (as Empedokles and Demokritus had said) of corporeal elements, or (as Plato had said) of elements partly corporeal, partly logical and notional. He rejects the imaginary virtues of number, invoked by the Pythagoreans and Xenokrates; lastly, he keeps before him not merely man, but all the varieties of animated objects, to which his definition must be adapted. His first capital point is to put aside the alleged identity, or similarity, or sameness of elements, between soul and body; and to put aside equally any separate existence or substantiality of soul. He effects both these purposes by defining them as essentiallyrelatumand correlate; the soul, as therelatum, is unintelligible and unmeaning without its correlate, upon which accordingly its definition is declared to be founded.
The real animated subject may be looked at either from the point of view of therelatumor from that of the correlate; but, though the two are thus logically separable, in fact and reality they are inseparably implicated; and, if either of them be withdrawn, the animated subject disappears. “The soul (says Aristotle) is not any variety of body, but it cannot be without a body; it is not a body, but it is something belonging to or related to a body; and for this reason it is in a body, and in a body of such or such potentialities.�44Soul is to body (we thus read), not as a compound of like elements, nor as a type is to its copy, orvice versâ, but as arelatumto its correlate; dependent upon the body for all its acts and manifestations, and bringing to consummation what in the body exists as potentiality only. Soul, however, is better than body; and the animated being is better than the inanimate by reason of its soul.45
44Aristot. De Animâ, II. ii. p. 414, a. 19: καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καλῶς ὑπολαμβάνουσιν οἷς δοκεῖ μητ’ ἄνευ σώματος εἶναι μήτε σώμά τι ἡ ψυχή· σῶμα μὲν γὰροὐκ ἔστι, σώματος δέ τι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐν σώματι ὑπάρχει καὶ ἐν σώματι τοιούτῳ. Compare Aristot. De Juventute et Senectute, i. p. 467, b. 14.
44Aristot. De Animâ, II. ii. p. 414, a. 19: καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καλῶς ὑπολαμβάνουσιν οἷς δοκεῖ μητ’ ἄνευ σώματος εἶναι μήτε σώμά τι ἡ ψυχή· σῶμα μὲν γὰροὐκ ἔστι, σώματος δέ τι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐν σώματι ὑπάρχει καὶ ἐν σώματι τοιούτῳ. Compare Aristot. De Juventute et Senectute, i. p. 467, b. 14.
45Aristot. De Generat. Animal. II. i. p. 731, b. 29.
45Aristot. De Generat. Animal. II. i. p. 731, b. 29.
The animated subject is thus a form immersed or implicated in matter; and all its actions and passions are so likewise.46Each of these has its formal side, as concerns the soul, and its material side, as concerns the body. When a man or animal is angry, for example, this emotion is both a fact of the soul and a fact of the body: in the first of these two characters, it may be defined as an appetite for hurting some one who has hurt us; in the second of the two, it may be defined as an ebullition of the blood and heat round the heart.47The emotion, belonging to the animated subject or aggregate of soul and body, is a complex fact having two aspects, logically distinguishable from each other, but each correlating and implying the other. This is true not only in regard to our passions, emotions, and appetites, but also in regard to our perceptions, phantasms, reminiscences, reasonings, efforts of attention in learning, &c. We do not say that the soul weaves or builds (Aristotle observes48): we say that the animated subject, the aggregate of soul and body,the man, weaves or builds. So we ought also to say, not that the soul feels anger, pity, love, hatred, &c., or that the soul learns, reasons, recollects, &c., but that the man with his soul does these things. The actual movement throughout these processes is not in the soul, but in the body; sometimes goingtothe soul (as in sensible perception), sometimes proceedingfromthe soul to the body (as in the case of reminiscence). All these processes are at once corporeal and psychical, pervading the whole animated subject, and having two aspects coincident and inter-dependent, though logically distinguishable. The perfect or imperfect discrimination by the sentient soul depends upon the good or bad condition of the bodily sentient organs; an old man that has become shortsighted would see as well as before, if he could regain his youthful eye. The defects of the soul arise from defects in the bodily organism to which it belongs, as in cases of drunkenness or sickness; and this is not less true of the Noûs, or intellective soul, than of the sentient soul.49Intelligence, as well as emotion, are phenomena, not of the bodily organism simply, nor of the Noûs simply, but of the community or partnership of which both are members; and, when intelligencegives way, this is not because the Noûs itself is impaired, but because the partnership is ruined by the failure of the bodily organism.
46Aristot. De Animâ, I. i. p. 403, a. 25: τὰ πάθη λόγοι ἔνυλοί εἰσιν. Compare II. p. 412, b. 10-25; p. 413, a. 2.
46Aristot. De Animâ, I. i. p. 403, a. 25: τὰ πάθη λόγοι ἔνυλοί εἰσιν. Compare II. p. 412, b. 10-25; p. 413, a. 2.
47Ibid. I. i. p. 403, a. 30.
47Ibid. I. i. p. 403, a. 30.
48Ibid. iv. p. 408, b. 12. τὸ δὲ λέγειν ὀργίζεσθαι τὴν ψυχὴν ὅμοιον κἂν εἴ τις λέγοι τὴν ψυχὴν ὑφαίνειν ἢ οἰκοδομεῖν· βέλτιον γὰρ ἴσως μὴ λέγειν τὴν ψυχὴνἐλεεῖν ἢ μανθάνειν ἢ διανοεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰτὸν ἄνθρωποντῇ ψυχῇ· τοῦτο δὲ μὴ ὡς ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῆς κινήσεως οὔσης, ἀλλ’ ὅτε μὲν μέχρι ἐκείνης, ὅτε δ’ ἀπ’ ἐκείνης, &c. Again, b. 30: ὅτι μὲν οὖν οὐχ οἷόν τε κινεῖσθαι τὴν ψυχήν, φανερὸν ἐκ τούτων.
48Ibid. iv. p. 408, b. 12. τὸ δὲ λέγειν ὀργίζεσθαι τὴν ψυχὴν ὅμοιον κἂν εἴ τις λέγοι τὴν ψυχὴν ὑφαίνειν ἢ οἰκοδομεῖν· βέλτιον γὰρ ἴσως μὴ λέγειν τὴν ψυχὴνἐλεεῖν ἢ μανθάνειν ἢ διανοεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰτὸν ἄνθρωποντῇ ψυχῇ· τοῦτο δὲ μὴ ὡς ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῆς κινήσεως οὔσης, ἀλλ’ ὅτε μὲν μέχρι ἐκείνης, ὅτε δ’ ἀπ’ ἐκείνης, &c. Again, b. 30: ὅτι μὲν οὖν οὐχ οἷόν τε κινεῖσθαι τὴν ψυχήν, φανερὸν ἐκ τούτων.
49Ibid. b. 26. Compare a similar doctrine in the Timæus of Plato, p. 86, B.-D.
49Ibid. b. 26. Compare a similar doctrine in the Timæus of Plato, p. 86, B.-D.
Respecting the Noûs (the theorizing Noûs), we must here observe that Aristotle treats it as a separate kind or variety of soul, with several peculiarities. We shall collect presently all that he says upon that subject, which is the most obscure portion of his psychology.
In regard to soul generally, the relative point of view with body as the correlate is constantly insisted on by Aristotle; without such correlate his assertions would have no meaning. But the relation between them is presented in several different ways. The soul is the cause and principle of a living body;50by which is meant, not an independent and pre-existent something that brings the body into existence but, an immanent or indwelling influence which sustains the unity and guides the functions of the organism. According to the quadruple classification of Cause recognized by Aristotle — Formal, Material, Movent, and Final — the body furnishes the Material Cause, while the soul comprises all the three others. The soul is (as we have already seen) the Form in relation to the body as Matter, but it is, besides, the Movent, inasmuch as it determines the local displacement as well as all the active functions of the body — nutrition, growth, generation, sensation, &c.; lastly, it is also the Final Cause, since the maintenance and perpetuation of the same Form, in successive individuals, is the standing purpose aimed at by each body in the economy of Nature.51Under this diversity of aspect, soul and body are reciprocally integrant and complementary of each other, the real integer (the Living or Animated Body) including both.
50Aristot. De Animâ, II. iv. p. 415, b. 7: ἔστι δ’ ἡ ψυχὴ τοῦ ζῶντος σώματος αἰτία καὶ ἀρχή· ταῦτα δὲ πολλαχῶς λέγεται.
50Aristot. De Animâ, II. iv. p. 415, b. 7: ἔστι δ’ ἡ ψυχὴ τοῦ ζῶντος σώματος αἰτία καὶ ἀρχή· ταῦτα δὲ πολλαχῶς λέγεται.
51Ibid. b. 1.
51Ibid. b. 1.
Soul, in the Aristotelian point of view — what is common to all living bodies, comprises several varieties. But these varieties are not represented as forming a genus with co-ordinate species under it, in such manner that the counter-ordinate species, reciprocally excluding each other, are, when taken together, co-extensive with the whole genus; like man and brute in regard to animal. The varieties of soul are distributed into successive stages gradually narrowing in extension and enlarging in comprehension; the first or lowest stage being co-extensive with the whole, but connoting only two or three simple attributes; the second, or next above, connoting all these and more besides, butdenoting only part of the individuals denoted by the first; the third connoting all this and more, but denoting yet fewer individuals; and so on forward. Thus the concrete individuals, called living bodies, include all plants as well as all animals; but the soul, called Nutritive by Aristotle, corresponding thereto connotes only nutrition, growth, decay, and generation of another similar individual.52In the second stage, plants are left out, but all animals remain: the Sentient soul, belonging to animals, but not belonging to any plants, connotes all the functions and unities of the Nutritive soul, together with sensible perception (at least in its rudest shape) besides.53We proceed onward in the same direction, taking in additional faculties — the Movent, Appetitive, Phantastic (Imaginative), Noëtic (Intelligent) soul, and thus diminishing the total of individuals denoted. But each higher variety of soul continues to possess all the faculties of the lower. Thus the Sentient soul cannot exist without comprehending all the faculties of the Nutritive, though the Nutritive exists (in plants) without any admixture of the Sentient. Again, the Sentient soul does not necessarily possess either memory, imagination, or intellect (Noûs); but no soul can be either Imaginative or Noëtic, without being Sentient as well as Nutritive. The Noëtic Soul, as the highest of all, retains in itself all the lower faculties; but these are found to exist apart from it.54
52In the Aristotelian treatise De Plantis, p. 815, b. 16, it is stated that Empedokles, Anaxagoras, and Demokritus, all affirmed that plants had both intellect and cognition up to a certain moderate point. We do not cite this treatise as the composition of Aristotle, but it is reasonably good evidence in reference to the doctrine of those other philosophers.
52In the Aristotelian treatise De Plantis, p. 815, b. 16, it is stated that Empedokles, Anaxagoras, and Demokritus, all affirmed that plants had both intellect and cognition up to a certain moderate point. We do not cite this treatise as the composition of Aristotle, but it is reasonably good evidence in reference to the doctrine of those other philosophers.
53Aristot. De Animâ, I. v. p. 411, b. 28.
53Aristot. De Animâ, I. v. p. 411, b. 28.
54Ibid. II. ii. p. 413, a. 25-30, b. 32; iii. p. 414, b. 29; p. 415, a. 10.
54Ibid. II. ii. p. 413, a. 25-30, b. 32; iii. p. 414, b. 29; p. 415, a. 10.
We may remark here that the psychological classification of Aristotle proceeds in the inverse direction to that of Plato. In the Platonic Timæus we begin with the grand soul of the Kosmos, and are conducted by successive steps of degradation to men, animals, plants; while Aristotle lays his foundation in the largest, most multiplied, and lowest range of individuals, carrying us by successive increase of conditions to the fewer and the higher.
The lowest or Nutritive soul, in spite of the small number of conditions involved in it, is the indispensable basis whereon all the others depend. None of the other souls can exist apart from it.55It is the first constituent of the living individual — the implication of Form with Matter in a natural body suitablyorganized; it is the preservative of the life of the individual, with its aggregate of functions and faculties, and with the proper limits of size and shape that characterize the species;56it is, moreover, the preservative of perpetuity to the species, inasmuch as it prompts and enables each individual to generate and leave behind a successor like himself; which is the only way that an individual can obtain quasi-immortality, though all aspire to become immortal.57This lowest soul is the primary cause of digestion and nutrition. It is cognate with the celestial heat, which is essential also as a co-operative cause; accordingly, all animated bodies possess an inherent natural heat.58
55Ibid. iv. p. 415, a. 25: πρώτη καὶ κοινοτάτη δύναμίς ἐστι ψυχῆς, καθ’ ἣν ὑπάρχει τὸ ζῆν ἅπασιν. — p. 415, b. 8: τοῦ ζῶντος σώματος αἰτία καὶ ἀρχή. — III. xii. p. 434, a. 22-30, b. 24. Aristot. De Respiratione, viii. p. 474, a. 30, b. 11.
55Ibid. iv. p. 415, a. 25: πρώτη καὶ κοινοτάτη δύναμίς ἐστι ψυχῆς, καθ’ ἣν ὑπάρχει τὸ ζῆν ἅπασιν. — p. 415, b. 8: τοῦ ζῶντος σώματος αἰτία καὶ ἀρχή. — III. xii. p. 434, a. 22-30, b. 24. Aristot. De Respiratione, viii. p. 474, a. 30, b. 11.
56Aristot. De Animâ, II. iv. p. 416, a. 17.
56Aristot. De Animâ, II. iv. p. 416, a. 17.
57Ibid. p. 415, b. 2; p. 416, b. 23: ἐπεὶ δ’ ἀπὸ τοῦ τέλους ἅπαντα προσαγορεύειν δίκαιον, τέλος δὲ τὸ γεννῆσαι οἷον αὐτό, ἂν ἡ πρώτη ψυχὴ γεννητικὴ οἷον αὐτό. Also De Generat. Animal. II. i. p. 731, b. 33.
57Ibid. p. 415, b. 2; p. 416, b. 23: ἐπεὶ δ’ ἀπὸ τοῦ τέλους ἅπαντα προσαγορεύειν δίκαιον, τέλος δὲ τὸ γεννῆσαι οἷον αὐτό, ἂν ἡ πρώτη ψυχὴ γεννητικὴ οἷον αὐτό. Also De Generat. Animal. II. i. p. 731, b. 33.
58Aristot. De Animâ, II. iv. p. 416, a. 10-18, b. 29.
58Aristot. De Animâ, II. iv. p. 416, a. 10-18, b. 29.
We advance upwards now from the nutritive soul to that higher soul which is at once nutritive and Sentient; for Aristotle does not follow the example of Plato in recognizing three souls to one body, but assigns only one and the same soul, though with multiplied faculties and functions, to one and the same body. Sensible perception, with its accompaniments, forms the characteristic privilege of the animal as contrasted with the plant.59Sensible perception admits of many diversities, from the simplest and rudest tactile sensation, which even the lowest animals cannot be without, to the full equipment of five senses which Aristotle declares to be a maximum not susceptible of increase.60But the sentient faculty, even in its lowest stage, indicates a remarkable exaltation of the soul in its character of form. The soul,quâsentient and percipient, receives the form of theperceptumwithout the matter; whereas the nutritive soul cannot disconnect the two, but receives and appropriates the nutrient substance, form and matter in one and combined.61Aristotle illustrates this characteristic feature of sensible perception by recurring to his former example of the wax and the figure. Just as wax receives from a signet the impression engraven thereon, whether the matter of the signet be iron, gold, stone, or wood; as the impression stamped has no regard to the matter, but reproduces only the figure engraven on the signet,the wax being merely potential and undefined, until the signet comes to convert it into something actual and definite;62so the percipient faculty in man is impressed by the substances in nature, not according to the matter of each but, according to the qualitative form of each. Such passive receptivity is the first and lowest form of sensation,63not having any magnitude in itself, but residing in bodily organs which have magnitude, and separable from them only by logical abstraction. It is a potentiality, correlating with, and in due proportion to, the exteriorpercipibile, which, when acting upon it, brings it into full actuality. The actuality of both (percipiensandperceptum) is one and the same, and cannot be disjoined in fact, though the potentialities of the two are distinct yet correlative; thepercipiensis not like thepercipibileoriginally, but becomes like it by being thus actualized.64
59Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, i. p. 436, b. 12. He considers sponges to have some sensation (Hist. Animal. I. i. p. 487, b. 9).
59Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, i. p. 436, b. 12. He considers sponges to have some sensation (Hist. Animal. I. i. p. 487, b. 9).
60Aristot. De Animâ, II. iii. p. 414, b. 2; p. 415, a. 3; III. i. p. 424, b. 22; xiii. p. 435, b. 15.
60Aristot. De Animâ, II. iii. p. 414, b. 2; p. 415, a. 3; III. i. p. 424, b. 22; xiii. p. 435, b. 15.
61Ibid. II. xii. p. 424, a. 32-b. 4: διὰ τί ποτε τὰ φυτὰ οὐκ αἰσθάνεται, ἔχοντά τι μόριον ψυχικὸν καὶ πάσχοντά τι ὑπὸ τῶν ἁπτῶν; καὶ γὰρ ψύχεται καὶ θερμαίνεται· αἴτιον γὰρ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν μεσότητα, μηδὲ τοιαύτην ἀρχὴν οἵαν τὰ εἴδη δέχεσθαι τῶν αἰσθητῶν, ἀλλὰ πάσχειν μετὰ τῆς ὕλης.Themistius ad loc. p. 144, ed. Spengel: πάσχει (τὰ φυτά) συνεισιούσης τῆς ὕλης τοῦ ποιοῦντος, &c.
61Ibid. II. xii. p. 424, a. 32-b. 4: διὰ τί ποτε τὰ φυτὰ οὐκ αἰσθάνεται, ἔχοντά τι μόριον ψυχικὸν καὶ πάσχοντά τι ὑπὸ τῶν ἁπτῶν; καὶ γὰρ ψύχεται καὶ θερμαίνεται· αἴτιον γὰρ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν μεσότητα, μηδὲ τοιαύτην ἀρχὴν οἵαν τὰ εἴδη δέχεσθαι τῶν αἰσθητῶν, ἀλλὰ πάσχειν μετὰ τῆς ὕλης.
Themistius ad loc. p. 144, ed. Spengel: πάσχει (τὰ φυτά) συνεισιούσης τῆς ὕλης τοῦ ποιοῦντος, &c.