100Aristot. Histor. Animal. I. xv. p. 494, b. 17. Man is λεπτοδερμότατος τῶν ζῷων (Aristot. De Partib. Animal. ii. p. 657, b. 2), and has the tongue also looser and softer than any of them, most fit for variety of touch (p. 660, a. 20) as well as for articulate speech.
100Aristot. Histor. Animal. I. xv. p. 494, b. 17. Man is λεπτοδερμότατος τῶν ζῷων (Aristot. De Partib. Animal. ii. p. 657, b. 2), and has the tongue also looser and softer than any of them, most fit for variety of touch (p. 660, a. 20) as well as for articulate speech.
101Aristot. De Animâ, II. xi. p. 423, a. 25-32.
101Aristot. De Animâ, II. xi. p. 423, a. 25-32.
102Ibid. p. 423, b. 12-17: διαφέρει τὸ ἁπτὸν τῶν ὁρατῶν καὶ τῶν ψοφητικῶν ὅτι ἐκείνων μὲν αἰσθανόμεθα τῷ τὸ μεταξὺ ποιεῖν τι ἡμᾶς, τῶν δὲ ἁπτῶν οὐχ ὑπὸ τοῦ μεταξὺ ἀλλ’ ἅμα τῷ μεταξύ, ὥσπερ ὁ δι’ ἀσπίδος πληγείς· οὐ γὰρ ἡ ἀσπὶς πληγεῖσα ἐπάταξεν, ἀλλ’ ἅμ’ ἄμφω συνέβη πληγῆναι.This analogy of the warrior pierced at the same time with his shield illustrates Aristotle’s view of the eighth Category —Habere: of which he gives ὥπλισται as the example. He considers a man’s clothes and defensive weapons as standing in a peculiar relation to him like a personal appurtenance and almost as a part of himself. It is under this point of view that he erectsHabereinto a distinct Category.
102Ibid. p. 423, b. 12-17: διαφέρει τὸ ἁπτὸν τῶν ὁρατῶν καὶ τῶν ψοφητικῶν ὅτι ἐκείνων μὲν αἰσθανόμεθα τῷ τὸ μεταξὺ ποιεῖν τι ἡμᾶς, τῶν δὲ ἁπτῶν οὐχ ὑπὸ τοῦ μεταξὺ ἀλλ’ ἅμα τῷ μεταξύ, ὥσπερ ὁ δι’ ἀσπίδος πληγείς· οὐ γὰρ ἡ ἀσπὶς πληγεῖσα ἐπάταξεν, ἀλλ’ ἅμ’ ἄμφω συνέβη πληγῆναι.
This analogy of the warrior pierced at the same time with his shield illustrates Aristotle’s view of the eighth Category —Habere: of which he gives ὥπλισται as the example. He considers a man’s clothes and defensive weapons as standing in a peculiar relation to him like a personal appurtenance and almost as a part of himself. It is under this point of view that he erectsHabereinto a distinct Category.
103Aristot. De Animâ, II. xi. p. 423, b. 22-26: ᾗ καὶ δῆλον ὅτι ἐντὸς τὸ τοῦ ἁπτοῦ αἰσθητικόν. — τὸ μεταξὺ τοῦ ἁπτικοῦ ἡ σάρξ.
103Aristot. De Animâ, II. xi. p. 423, b. 22-26: ᾗ καὶ δῆλον ὅτι ἐντὸς τὸ τοῦ ἁπτοῦ αἰσθητικόν. — τὸ μεταξὺ τοῦ ἁπτικοῦ ἡ σάρξ.
104Aristot. De Partibus Animal. II. x. p. 656, a. 30; De Vitâ et Morte, iii. p. 469, a. 12: De Somno et Vigil. ii. p. 455, a. 23; De Sensu et Sensili, ii. p. 439, a. 2.
104Aristot. De Partibus Animal. II. x. p. 656, a. 30; De Vitâ et Morte, iii. p. 469, a. 12: De Somno et Vigil. ii. p. 455, a. 23; De Sensu et Sensili, ii. p. 439, a. 2.
Having gone through the five sensesseriatim, Aristotle offers various reasons to prove that there neither are, nor can be, more than five; and then discusses some complicated phenomena of sense. We perceivethatwe see or hear;105do we perceive this by sight or by hearing? and if not, by what other faculty?106Aristotle replies by saying that the act of sense is one and the same, but that it may be looked at in two different points of view. We see a coloured object; we hear a sound: in each case the act of sense is one; the energy or actuality of thevisum, andvidens, of thesonansandaudiens, is implicated and indivisible. But the potentiality of the one is quite distinct from the potentiality of the other, and may be considered as well as named apart.107When we say: I perceivethatI see — we look at the same act of vision from the side of thevidens; thevisumbeing put out of sight as the unnoticed correlate. This is a mental fact distinct from, though following upon, the act of vision itself. Aristotle refers it rather to that general sentient soul or faculty, of which the five senses are partial and separate manifestations, than to the sense of vision itself.108He thus considers what would now be termedconsciousness of a sensation, as being merely the subjective view of the sensation, distinguished by abstraction from the objective.
105In modern psychology the language would be — “Weare consciousthat we see or hear.� But Sir William Hamilton has remarked that the word Consciousness has no equivalent usually or familiarly employed in the Greek psychology.
105In modern psychology the language would be — “Weare consciousthat we see or hear.� But Sir William Hamilton has remarked that the word Consciousness has no equivalent usually or familiarly employed in the Greek psychology.
106Aristot. De Animâ, III. ii. p. 425, b. 14.
106Aristot. De Animâ, III. ii. p. 425, b. 14.
107Ibid. b. 26; p. 426, a. 16-19.
107Ibid. b. 26; p. 426, a. 16-19.
108Aristot. De Somno et Vigil. ii. p. 455, a. 12-17; De Animâ, III. ii. with Torstrick’s note, p. 166, and the exposition of Alexander of Aphrodisias therein cited. These two passages of Aristotle are to a certain extent different yet not contradictory, though Torstrick supposes them to be so.
108Aristot. De Somno et Vigil. ii. p. 455, a. 12-17; De Animâ, III. ii. with Torstrick’s note, p. 166, and the exposition of Alexander of Aphrodisias therein cited. These two passages of Aristotle are to a certain extent different yet not contradictory, though Torstrick supposes them to be so.
It is the same general sentient faculty, though diversified and logically distinguishable in its manifestations, that enables us to conceive many sensations as combined into one; and to compare or discriminate sensations belonging to different senses.109
109Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, vii. p. 449, a. 8-20.
109Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, vii. p. 449, a. 8-20.
White and sweet are perceived by two distinct senses, and at two distinct moments of time; but they must be compared and discriminated by one and the same sentient or cogitant act, and at one moment of time.110This mental act, though in itself indivisible, has yet two aspects, and is thus in a certain sense divisible; just as a point taken in the middle of a line, while indivisible in itself, may be looked upon as the closing terminus of one-half of the line, and as the commencing terminus of the other half. The comparison of two different sensations or thoughts is thus one and the same mental fact, with two distinguishable aspects.111
110Aristot. De Animâ, III. ii. p. 426, b. 17-29: οὔτε δὴ κεχωρισμένοις ἐνδέχεται κρίνειν ὅτι ἕτερον τὸ γλυκὺ τοῦ λευκοῦ, ἀλλὰ δεῖ ἑνί τινι ἄμφω δῆλα εἶναι. — δεῖ δὲ τὸ ἓν λέγειν ὅτι ἕτερον· ἕτερον γὰρ τὸ γλυκὺ τοῦ λευκοῦ. — ἀχώριστον καὶ ἐν ἀχωρίστῳ χρόνῳ. III. vii. p. 431, a. 20.
110Aristot. De Animâ, III. ii. p. 426, b. 17-29: οὔτε δὴ κεχωρισμένοις ἐνδέχεται κρίνειν ὅτι ἕτερον τὸ γλυκὺ τοῦ λευκοῦ, ἀλλὰ δεῖ ἑνί τινι ἄμφω δῆλα εἶναι. — δεῖ δὲ τὸ ἓν λέγειν ὅτι ἕτερον· ἕτερον γὰρ τὸ γλυκὺ τοῦ λευκοῦ. — ἀχώριστον καὶ ἐν ἀχωρίστῳ χρόνῳ. III. vii. p. 431, a. 20.
111Aristot. De Animâ, III. ii. p. 427, a. 10-14: ὥσπερ ἣν καλοῦσί τινες στιγμήν, ᾗ μιὰ καὶ ᾗ δύο, ταύτῃ καὶ ἀδιαίρετος καὶ διαιρέτη· ᾗ μὲν οὖν ἀδιαίρετον, ἓν τὸ κρῖνόν ἐστι καὶ ἅμα, ᾗ δὲ διαίρετον ὑπάρχει, οὐχ ἕν· δὶς γὰρ τῷ αὐτῷ χρῆται σημείῳ ἅμα.It is to be remarked that, in explaining this mental process of comparison, Aristotle three several times applies it both to αἴσθησις and to νόησις, p. 426, b. 22-31; p. 427, a. 9.
111Aristot. De Animâ, III. ii. p. 427, a. 10-14: ὥσπερ ἣν καλοῦσί τινες στιγμήν, ᾗ μιὰ καὶ ᾗ δύο, ταύτῃ καὶ ἀδιαίρετος καὶ διαιρέτη· ᾗ μὲν οὖν ἀδιαίρετον, ἓν τὸ κρῖνόν ἐστι καὶ ἅμα, ᾗ δὲ διαίρετον ὑπάρχει, οὐχ ἕν· δὶς γὰρ τῷ αὐτῷ χρῆται σημείῳ ἅμα.
It is to be remarked that, in explaining this mental process of comparison, Aristotle three several times applies it both to αἴσθησις and to νόησις, p. 426, b. 22-31; p. 427, a. 9.
Aristotle devotes a chapter to the enquiry: whether we can perceive two distinct sensations at once (i.e.in one and the same moment of time). He decides that we cannot; that the sentient soul or faculty is one and indivisible, and can only have a single energy or actuality at once.112If two causes of sensation are operative together, and one of them be much superior in force, it will render us insensible to the other. He remarks that, when we are pre-occupied with loud noise, or with deep reflection, or with intense fright, visual objects will often pass by us unseen and unnoticed.113Often the two simultaneous sensations will combine or blend into one compound, so that we shall feel neither of them purely or separately.114One single act of sensational energy may however have a double aspect; as the same individual object may be at once white and sweet, though its whiteness and its sweetness are logically separable.115
112Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, vii. p. 447, a. 12.
112Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, vii. p. 447, a. 12.
113Ibid. a. 15.
113Ibid. a. 15.
114Ibid. b. 12-20.
114Ibid. b. 12-20.
115Ibid. p. 449, a. 14.
115Ibid. p. 449, a. 14.
To the sentient soul, even in its lowest manifestations, belong the feelings of pleasure and pain, appetite and aversion.116Themovements connected with these feelings, as with all sensation, begin and close with the central organ — the heart.117Upon these are consequent the various passions and emotions; yet not without certain faculties of memory and phantasy accompanying or following the facts of sense.
116Aristot. De Animâ, II. iii. p. 414, b. 3-16; III. vii. p. 431, a. 9; De Somno et Vigil. i. p. 454, b. 29.
116Aristot. De Animâ, II. iii. p. 414, b. 3-16; III. vii. p. 431, a. 9; De Somno et Vigil. i. p. 454, b. 29.
117Aristot. De Partibus Animalium, III. iv. p. 666, a. 12.
117Aristot. De Partibus Animalium, III. iv. p. 666, a. 12.
Aristotle proceeds by gradual steps upward from the Sentient soul to the Noëtic (Cogitant or Intelligent) soul, called in its highest perfection Noûs. While refuting the doctrine of Empedokles, Demokritus, and other philosophers, who considered cogitation or intelligence to be the same as sensible perception, and while insisting upon the distinctness of the two as mental phenomena, he recognizes the important point of analogy between them, that both of them include judgment and comparison;118and he describes an intermediate stage called Phantasy or Imagination, forming the transition from the lower of the two to the higher. We have already observed that, in the Aristotelian psychology, the higher functions of the soul presuppose and are built upon the lower as their foundation, though the lower do not necessarily involve the higher. Without nutrition, there is no sense; without sense, there is no phantasy; without phantasy, there is no cogitation or intelligence.119The higher psychical phenomena are not identical with the lower, yet neither are they independent thereof; they presuppose the lower as a part of their conditions. Here, and indeed very generally elsewhere, Aristotle has been careful to avoid the fallacy of confounding or identifying the conditions of a phenomenon with the phenomenon itself.120
118Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 427, a. 20.
118Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 427, a. 20.
119Ibid. b. 14: φαντασία γὰρ ἕτερον καὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ διανοίας. — Ib. vii. p. 431, a. 16: οὐδέποτε νοεῖ ἄνευ φαντάσματος ἡ ψυχή. — De Memoriâ et Reminiscent. i. p. 449, b. 31: νοεῖν οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνευ φαντάσματος.
119Ibid. b. 14: φαντασία γὰρ ἕτερον καὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ διανοίας. — Ib. vii. p. 431, a. 16: οὐδέποτε νοεῖ ἄνευ φαντάσματος ἡ ψυχή. — De Memoriâ et Reminiscent. i. p. 449, b. 31: νοεῖν οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνευ φαντάσματος.
120Mill’s System of Logic, Book V. ch. 3, s. 8.
120Mill’s System of Logic, Book V. ch. 3, s. 8.
He proceeds to explain Phantasy or the Phantastic department of the soul, with the phantasms that belong to it. It is not sensible perception, nor belief, nor opinion, nor knowledge, nor cogitation. Our dreams, though affections of the sentient soul, are really phantasms in our sleep, when there is no visual sensation; even when awake, we have a phantasm of the sun, as of a disk one foot in diameter, though webelievethe sun to be larger than the earth.121Many of the lower animals have sensible perception without any phantasy: even those amongthem that have phantasy have no opinion; for opinion implies faith, persuasion, and some rational explanation of that persuasion, to none of which does any animal attain.122Phantasy is an internal movement of the animated being (body and soul in one); belonging to the sentient soul, not to the cogitant or intelligent; not identical with the movement of sense, but continued from or produced by that, and by that alone; accordingly, similar to the movement of sense and relating to the same matters.123Since our sensible perceptions may be either true or false, so also may be our phantasms. And, since these phantasms are not only like our sensations, but remain standing in the soul long after the objects of sense have passed away, they are to a great degree the determining causes both of action and emotion. They are such habitually to animals, who are destitute of Noûs; and often even to intelligent men, if the Noûs be overclouded by disease or drunkenness.124
121Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 428, a. 5, b. 3; De Somno et Vig. ii. p. 456, a. 24: κινοῦνται δ’ ἔνιοι καθεύδοντες καὶ ποιοῦσι πολλὰ ἐγρηγορικά, οὐ μέντοι ἄνευ φαντάσματος καὶ αἰσθήσεώς τινος· τὸ γὰρ ἐνύπνιόν ἐστιν αἴσθημα τρόπον τινά. — Ibid. i. p. 454, b. 10.
121Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 428, a. 5, b. 3; De Somno et Vig. ii. p. 456, a. 24: κινοῦνται δ’ ἔνιοι καθεύδοντες καὶ ποιοῦσι πολλὰ ἐγρηγορικά, οὐ μέντοι ἄνευ φαντάσματος καὶ αἰσθήσεώς τινος· τὸ γὰρ ἐνύπνιόν ἐστιν αἴσθημα τρόπον τινά. — Ibid. i. p. 454, b. 10.
122Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 428, a. 10, 22, 25.
122Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 428, a. 10, 22, 25.
123Ibid. b. 10-15; De Somniis, i. p. 459, a. 15.
123Ibid. b. 10-15; De Somniis, i. p. 459, a. 15.
124Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 428, b. 16: καὶ πολλὰ κατ’ αὐτὴν (i.e.κατὰ τὴν φαντασίαν) καὶ ποιεῖν καὶ πάσχειν τὸ ἔχον. — Ibid. p. 429, a. 4: καὶ διὰ τὸ ἐμμένειν καὶ ὁμοίας εἶναι (τὰς φαντασίας) ταῖς αἰσθήσεσι, πολλὰ κατ’ αὐτὰς πράττει τὰ ζῷα, &c.
124Aristot. De Animâ, III. iii. p. 428, b. 16: καὶ πολλὰ κατ’ αὐτὴν (i.e.κατὰ τὴν φαντασίαν) καὶ ποιεῖν καὶ πάσχειν τὸ ἔχον. — Ibid. p. 429, a. 4: καὶ διὰ τὸ ἐμμένειν καὶ ὁμοίας εἶναι (τὰς φαντασίας) ταῖς αἰσθήσεσι, πολλὰ κατ’ αὐτὰς πράττει τὰ ζῷα, &c.
In the chapter now before us, Aristotle is careful to discriminate phantasy from several other psychological phenomena wherewith it is liable to be confounded. But we remark with some surprise, that neither here, nor in any other part of his general Psychology, does he offer any exposition of Memory, the phenomenon more nearly approaching than any other to phantasy. He supplied the deficiency afterwards by a short but valuable tract on Memory and Reminiscence; wherein he recognizes, and refers to, the more general work on Psychology. Memory bears on the past, as distinguished both from the present and future. Memory and phantasy are in some cases so alike, that we cannot distinguish clearly whether what is in our minds is a remembrance or a phantasm.125Both of them belong to the same psychological department — to the central sentient principle, and not to the cogitant or intelligent Noûs. Memory as well as phantasy are continuations, remnants, or secondary consequences, of the primary movements of sense; what in itself is a phantasm, may become an object of remembrance directly andper se; matters of cogitation, being included or implicated in phantasms, may also become objects of remembrance, indirectly and by way of accompaniment.126Wecan remember our prior acts of cogitation and demonstration; we can remember that, a month ago, we demonstrated the three angles of a triangle to be equal to two right angles; but, as the original demonstration could not be carried on without our having before our mental vision the phantasm of some particular triangle, so neither can the remembrance of the demonstration be made present to us without a similar phantasm.127In acts of remembrance we have a conception of past time, and we recognize what is now present to our minds as a copy of what has been formerly present to us, either as perception of sense or as actual cognition;128while in phantasms there is no conception of past time, nor any similar recognition, nor any necessary reference to our own past mental states; the phantasm is looked at by itself, and not as a copy. This is the main point of distinction between phantasm and remembrance:129what is remembered is a present phantasm assimilated to an impression of the past. Some of the superior animals possess both memory and phantasy. But other animals have neither; their sensations disappear, they have no endurance; while endurance is the basis both of phantasy and memory.130
125Aristot. De Memor. et Remin. i. p. 451, a. 5; p. 449, a. 10.
125Aristot. De Memor. et Remin. i. p. 451, a. 5; p. 449, a. 10.
126Ibid. p. 450, a. 22: τίνος μὲν οὖν τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐστὶν ἡ μνήμη, φανερὸν ὅτι οὗπερ καὶ ἡ φαντασία· καὶ ἔστι μνημονευτὰ καθ’ αὑτὰ μὲν ὅσα ἐστὶ φανταστά, κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς δ’ ὅσα μὴ ἄνευ φαντασίας.
126Ibid. p. 450, a. 22: τίνος μὲν οὖν τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐστὶν ἡ μνήμη, φανερὸν ὅτι οὗπερ καὶ ἡ φαντασία· καὶ ἔστι μνημονευτὰ καθ’ αὑτὰ μὲν ὅσα ἐστὶ φανταστά, κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς δ’ ὅσα μὴ ἄνευ φαντασίας.
127Aristot. De Memor. et. Rem. i. p. 449, b. 18.
127Aristot. De Memor. et. Rem. i. p. 449, b. 18.
128Ibid. b. 22: ἀεὶ γὰρ ὅταν ἐνεργῇ κατὰ τὸ μνημονεύειν, οὕτως ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ λέγει, ὅτι πρότερον τοῦτο ἤκουσεν ἢ ᾔσθετο ἢ ἐνόησεν. — Ibid. p. 452, b. 28.
128Ibid. b. 22: ἀεὶ γὰρ ὅταν ἐνεργῇ κατὰ τὸ μνημονεύειν, οὕτως ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ λέγει, ὅτι πρότερον τοῦτο ἤκουσεν ἢ ᾔσθετο ἢ ἐνόησεν. — Ibid. p. 452, b. 28.
129Ibid. p. 450, a. 30; p. 451, a. 15: τὸ μνημονεύειν, ὡς εἰκόνος οὗ φάντασμα, ἕξις. ThemistiusadAristot. De Memoriâ, p. 240, ed. Spengel.
129Ibid. p. 450, a. 30; p. 451, a. 15: τὸ μνημονεύειν, ὡς εἰκόνος οὗ φάντασμα, ἕξις. ThemistiusadAristot. De Memoriâ, p. 240, ed. Spengel.
130Aristot. Analyt. Poster. ii. p. 99, b. 36: μονὴ τοῦ αἰσθήματος. It may be remarked that in the Topica Aristotle urges a dialectical objection against this or a similar doctrine (Topic. IV. iv. v. p. 125, b. 6-19), and against his own definition cited in the preceding note, where he calls μνήμη an ἕξις. Compare the first chapter of the Metaphysica.
130Aristot. Analyt. Poster. ii. p. 99, b. 36: μονὴ τοῦ αἰσθήματος. It may be remarked that in the Topica Aristotle urges a dialectical objection against this or a similar doctrine (Topic. IV. iv. v. p. 125, b. 6-19), and against his own definition cited in the preceding note, where he calls μνήμη an ἕξις. Compare the first chapter of the Metaphysica.
But though some animals have memory, no animal except man has Reminiscence. Herein man surpasses them all.131Aristotle draws a marked distinction between the two; between the (memorial) retentive and reviving functions, when working unconsciously and instinctively, and the same two functions, when stimulated and guided by a deliberate purpose of our own — which he calls reminiscence. This last is like a syllogism or course of ratiocinative inference, performable only by minds capable of taking counsel and calculating. He considers memory as a movement proceeding from the centre and organs of sense to the soul, and stamping an impression thereupon; while reminiscence is a counter-movement proceeding from the soul to the organs of sense.132In the process of reminiscence, movements of the soul and movements of the body are conjoined,133more or less perturbing and durable according to the temperament of the individual. The process is intentional and deliberate, instigated by the desire to search for and recover some lost phantasm or cognition; its success depends upon the fact that there exists by nature a regular observable order of sequence among the movements of the system, physical as well as psychical. The consequents follow their antecedents either universally, or at least according to customary rules, in the majority of cases.134
131Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 453, a. 8. He draws the same distinction in Hist. Animal. I. i. p. 488, b. 26.
131Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 453, a. 8. He draws the same distinction in Hist. Animal. I. i. p. 488, b. 26.
132Aristot. De Animâ, I. iv. p. 408, b. 17. De Memor. et Remin. i. p. 450, a. 30; ii. p. 453, a. 10: τὸ ἀναμιμνήσκεσθαί ἐστιν οἷον συλλόγισμός τις.
132Aristot. De Animâ, I. iv. p. 408, b. 17. De Memor. et Remin. i. p. 450, a. 30; ii. p. 453, a. 10: τὸ ἀναμιμνήσκεσθαί ἐστιν οἷον συλλόγισμός τις.
133Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 453, a. 14-23.
133Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 453, a. 14-23.
134Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 451, b. 10: συμβαίνουσι δ’ αἱ ἀναμνήσεις, ἐπειδὴ πέφυκεν ἡ κίνησις ἥδε γενέσθαι μετὰ τήνδε.
134Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 451, b. 10: συμβαίνουσι δ’ αἱ ἀναμνήσεις, ἐπειδὴ πέφυκεν ἡ κίνησις ἥδε γενέσθαι μετὰ τήνδε.
The consequent is either (1) like its antecedent, wholly or partially; or (2) contrary to it; or (3) has been actually felt in juxtaposition with it. In reminiscence, we endeavour to regain the forgotten consequent by hunting out some antecedent whereupon it is likely to follow; taking our start either from the present moment or from some other known point.135We run over many phantasms until we hit upon the true antecedent; the possibility of reminiscence depends upon our having this within our mental reach, among our accessible stock of ideas: if such be not the case, reminiscence is impracticable, and we must learn over again.136We are most likely to succeed, if we get upon the track or order wherein events actually occurred; thus, if we are trying to recollect a forgotten verse or sentence, we begin to repeat it from the first word; the same antecedent may indeed call up different consequents at different times, but it will generally call up what has habitually followed it before.137
135Ibid. b. 18: διὸ καὶ τὸ ἐφεξῆς θηρεύομεν νοήσαντες ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἢ ἄλλου τινός, καὶ ἀφ’ ὁμοίου ἢ ἐναντίου ἢ τοῦ σύνεγγυς.About the associative property of Contraries see also De Somno et Vigil. i. p. 453, b. 27.
135Ibid. b. 18: διὸ καὶ τὸ ἐφεξῆς θηρεύομεν νοήσαντες ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἢ ἄλλου τινός, καὶ ἀφ’ ὁμοίου ἢ ἐναντίου ἢ τοῦ σύνεγγυς.
About the associative property of Contraries see also De Somno et Vigil. i. p. 453, b. 27.
136Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 452, a. 7: πολλάκις δ’ ἤδη μὲν ἀδυνατεῖ ἀναμνησθῆναι, ζητεῖν δὲ δύναται καὶ εὑρίσκει. τοῦτο δὲ γίνεται κινοῦντι πολλά, ἕως ἂν τοιαύτην κινήσῃ κίνησιν, ᾗ ἀκολουθήσει τὸ πρᾶγμα. τὸ γὰρ μεμνῆσθαί ἐστι τὸ ἐνεῖναι δυνάμειτὴνκινοῦσαν· τοῦτο δέ, ὡστ’ ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ ὧν ἔχει κινήσεων κινηθῆναι, ὥσπερ εἴρηται.
136Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 452, a. 7: πολλάκις δ’ ἤδη μὲν ἀδυνατεῖ ἀναμνησθῆναι, ζητεῖν δὲ δύναται καὶ εὑρίσκει. τοῦτο δὲ γίνεται κινοῦντι πολλά, ἕως ἂν τοιαύτην κινήσῃ κίνησιν, ᾗ ἀκολουθήσει τὸ πρᾶγμα. τὸ γὰρ μεμνῆσθαί ἐστι τὸ ἐνεῖναι δυνάμειτὴνκινοῦσαν· τοῦτο δέ, ὡστ’ ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ ὧν ἔχει κινήσεων κινηθῆναι, ὥσπερ εἴρηται.
137Ibid. ii. p. 452, a. 2.
137Ibid. ii. p. 452, a. 2.
The movements of Memory and of Reminiscence are partly corporeal and partly psychical, just as those of Sensation and Phantasy are. We compare in our remembrance greater and less (either in time or in external magnitudes) through similar internal movements differing from each other in the same, proportion, but all on a miniature scale.138These internal movements often lead to great discomfort, when a person makes fruitless efforts to recover the forgotten phantasm that he desires; especially with excitable men, who are much disturbed by their own phantasms. They cannot stop the movement once begun;and, when their sensitive system is soft and flexible, they find that they have unwittingly provoked the bodily movements belonging to anger or fear, or some other painful emotion.139These movements, when once provoked, continue in spite of the opposition of the person that experiences them. He brings upon himself the reality of the painful emotion; just as we find that, after we have very frequently pronounced a sentence or sung a song, the internal movements left in our memories are sometimes so strong and so persistent, that they act on our vocal organs even without any volition on our parts, and determine us to sing the song or pronounce the sentence over again in reality.140Slow men are usually good in memory, quick men and apt learners are good in reminiscence: the two are seldom found together.141
138Ibid. b. 12: ἔστι γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ τὰ ὅμοια σχήματα καὶ κινήσεις. — πάντα γὰρ τὰ ἐντὸς ἐλάττω, ὥσπερ ἀνάλογον καὶ τὰ ἐκτός.
138Ibid. b. 12: ἔστι γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ τὰ ὅμοια σχήματα καὶ κινήσεις. — πάντα γὰρ τὰ ἐντὸς ἐλάττω, ὥσπερ ἀνάλογον καὶ τὰ ἐκτός.
139Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 453, a. 22: ὁ ἀναμιμνησκόμενος καὶ θηρεύων σωματικόν τι κινεῖ, ἐν ᾧ τὸ πάθος.
139Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 453, a. 22: ὁ ἀναμιμνησκόμενος καὶ θηρεύων σωματικόν τι κινεῖ, ἐν ᾧ τὸ πάθος.
140Ibid. p. 453, a. 28: ἔοικε τὸ πάθος τοῖς ὀνόμασι καὶ μέλεσι καὶ λόγοις, ὅταν διὰ στόματος γένηταί τι αὐτῶν σφόδρα· παυσαμένοις γὰρ καὶ οὐ βουλομένοις ἐπέρχεται πάλιν ᾄδειν ἢ λέγειν.
140Ibid. p. 453, a. 28: ἔοικε τὸ πάθος τοῖς ὀνόμασι καὶ μέλεσι καὶ λόγοις, ὅταν διὰ στόματος γένηταί τι αὐτῶν σφόδρα· παυσαμένοις γὰρ καὶ οὐ βουλομένοις ἐπέρχεται πάλιν ᾄδειν ἢ λέγειν.
141Ibid. i. p. 449, b. 7.
141Ibid. i. p. 449, b. 7.
In this account of Memory and Reminiscence, Aristotle displays an acute and penetrating intelligence of the great principles of the Association of Ideas. But these principles are operative not less in memory than in reminiscence: and the exaggerated prominence that he has given to the distinction between the two (determined apparently by a wish to keep the procedure of man apart from that of animals) tends to perplex his description of the associative process. At the same time, his manner of characterizing phantasy, memory, and reminiscence, as being all of them at once corporeal and psychical — involving, like sensation, internal movements of the body as well as phases of the consciousness, sometimes even passing into external movements of the bodily organs without our volition — all this is a striking example of psychological observation, as well as of consistency in following out the doctrine laid down at the commencement of his chief treatise: Soul as the Form implicated with Body as the Matter, — the two being an integral concrete separable only by abstraction.
We come now to the highest and (in Aristotle’s opinion) most honourable portion of the soul — the Noûs or noëtic faculty, whereby we cogitate, understand, reason, and believe or opine under the influence of reason.142According to the uniform schemeof Aristotle, this highest portion of the soul, though distinct from all the lower, presupposes them all. As the sentient soul presupposes the nutrient, so also the cogitant soul presupposes the nutrient, the sentient, the phantastic, the memorial, and the reminiscent. Aristotle carefully distinguishes the sentient department of the soul from the cogitant, and refutes more than once the doctrine of those philosophers that identified the two. But he is equally careful to maintain the correlation between them, and to exhibit the sentient faculty not only as involving in itself a certain measure of intellectual discrimination, but also as an essential and fundamental condition to the agency of the cogitant, as a portion of the human soul. We have already gone through the three successive stages — phantastic, memorial, reminiscent — whereby the interval between sensation and cogitation is bridged over. Each of the three is directly dependent on past sensation, either as reproduction or as corollary; each of them is an indispensable condition of man’s cogitation; moreover, in the highest of the three, we have actually slid unperceived into the cogitant phase of the human soul; for Aristotle declares the reminiscent process to be of the nature of a syllogism.143That the soul cannot cogitate or reason without phantasms — that phantasms are required for the actual working of the human Noûs — he affirms in the most explicit manner.144
142Aristot. De Animâ, III. iv. p. 429, a. 10: περὶ δὲ τοῦ μορίου τοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς ᾧ γινώσκει τε ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ φρονεῖ. He himself defines what he means by νοῦς a few lines lower; and he is careful to specify it as ὁ τῆς ψυχῆς νοῦς — ὁ ἄρα καλούμενος τῆς ψυχῆς νοῦς (λέγω δὲ νοῦν, ᾧ διανοεῖται καὶ ὑπολαμβάνει ἡ ψυχή) — a. 22.In the preceding chapter he expressly discriminates νόησις from ὑπόληψις. This last word ὑπόληψις is the most general term forbelievingoropiningupon reasons good or bad; the varieties under it are ἐπιστήμη, δόξα, φρόνησις καὶ τἀναντία τούτων (p. 427, b. 16-27).
142Aristot. De Animâ, III. iv. p. 429, a. 10: περὶ δὲ τοῦ μορίου τοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς ᾧ γινώσκει τε ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ φρονεῖ. He himself defines what he means by νοῦς a few lines lower; and he is careful to specify it as ὁ τῆς ψυχῆς νοῦς — ὁ ἄρα καλούμενος τῆς ψυχῆς νοῦς (λέγω δὲ νοῦν, ᾧ διανοεῖται καὶ ὑπολαμβάνει ἡ ψυχή) — a. 22.
In the preceding chapter he expressly discriminates νόησις from ὑπόληψις. This last word ὑπόληψις is the most general term forbelievingoropiningupon reasons good or bad; the varieties under it are ἐπιστήμη, δόξα, φρόνησις καὶ τἀναντία τούτων (p. 427, b. 16-27).
143Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 453 a. 10.
143Aristot. De Memor. et Rem. ii. p. 453 a. 10.
144Ibid. p. 449, b. 31-p. 450, a. 12: νοεῖν οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνευ φαντάσματος — ἡ δὲ μνήμη καὶ ἡ τῶν νοητῶν οὐκ ἄνευ φαντάσματός ἐστιν. — De Animâ, III. vii. p. 431, a. 16.
144Ibid. p. 449, b. 31-p. 450, a. 12: νοεῖν οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνευ φαντάσματος — ἡ δὲ μνήμη καὶ ἡ τῶν νοητῶν οὐκ ἄνευ φαντάσματός ἐστιν. — De Animâ, III. vii. p. 431, a. 16.
The doctrine of Aristotle respecting Noûs has been a puzzle, even from the time of his first commentators. Partly from the obscurity inherent in the subject, partly from the defective condition of his text as it now stands, his meaning cannot be always clearly comprehended, nor does it seem that the different passages can be completely reconciled.
Anaxagoras, Demokritus, and other philosophers, appear to have spoken of Noûs or Intellect in a large and vague sense, as equivalent to Soul generally. Plato seems to have been the first to narrow and specialize the meaning; distinguishing pointedly (as we have stated above) the rational or encephalic soul, in the cranium, with its circular rotations, from the two lower souls,thoracicand abdominal. Aristotle agreed with him in this distinction (either of separate souls or of separate functions in the same soul); but he attenuated and divested it of all connexion with separate corporeal lodgment, or with peculiar movements ofany kind. In his psychology, the brain no longer appears as the seat of intelligence, but simply as a cold, moist, and senseless organ, destined to countervail the excessive heat of the heart: which last is the great centre of animal heat, of life, and of the sentient soul. Aristotle declares Noûs not to be connected with, or dependent on, any given bodily organs or movements appropriated to itself: this is one main circumstance distinguishing it from the nutrient soul as well as from the sentient soul, each of which rests indispensably upon corporeal organs and agencies of its own.
It will be remembered that we stated the relation of Soul to Body (in Aristotle’s view) as that of Form to Matter; the two together constituting a concrete individual, numerically one; also that Form and Matter, each being essentially relative to the other, admitted of gradations, higher and lower;e.g.a massive cube of marble is alreadymateria formata, but it is still purelymateria, relative to the statue that may be obtained from it. Now, the grand region of Form is the Celestial Body — the vast, deep, perceivable, circular mass circumscribing the Kosmos, and enclosing, in and around its centre, Earth with the other three elements, tenanted by substances generated and perishable. This Celestial Body is the abode of divinity, including many divine beings who take part in its eternal rotations, viz. the Sun, Moon, Stars, &c., and other Gods. Now, every soul, or every form that animates the matter of a living being, derives its vitalizing influence from this celestial region. All seeds of life include within them a spiritual or gaseous heat, more divine than the four elements, proceeding from the sun, and in nature akin to the element of the stars. Such solar or celestial heat differs generically from the heat of fire. It is the only source from whence the principle of life, with the animal heat that accompanies it, can be obtained. Soul, in all its varieties, proceeds from hence.145
145Aristot. De Generat. Animal. II. iii. p. 736, b. 29: πάσης μὲν οὖν ψυχῆς δύναμις ἑτέρου σώματος ἔοικε κεκοινωνηκέναι καὶ θειοτέρου τῶν καλουμένων στοιχείων· ὡς δὲ διαφέρουσι τιμιότητι αἱ ψυχαὶ καὶ ἀτιμίᾳ ἀλλήλων, οὕτω καὶ ἡ τοιαύτη διαφέρει φύσις· πάντων μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῷ σπέρματι ἐνυπάρχει, ὅπερ ποιεῖ γόνιμα εἶναι τὰ σπέρματα, τὸ καλούμενον θερμόν.
145Aristot. De Generat. Animal. II. iii. p. 736, b. 29: πάσης μὲν οὖν ψυχῆς δύναμις ἑτέρου σώματος ἔοικε κεκοινωνηκέναι καὶ θειοτέρου τῶν καλουμένων στοιχείων· ὡς δὲ διαφέρουσι τιμιότητι αἱ ψυχαὶ καὶ ἀτιμίᾳ ἀλλήλων, οὕτω καὶ ἡ τοιαύτη διαφέρει φύσις· πάντων μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῷ σπέρματι ἐνυπάρχει, ὅπερ ποιεῖ γόνιμα εἶναι τὰ σπέρματα, τὸ καλούμενον θερμόν.
But though all varieties of Soul emanate from the same celestial source, they possess the divine element in very different degrees, and are very unequal in comparative worth and dignity. The lowest variety, or nutritive soul — the only one possessed by plants, among which there is no separation of sex146— is contained potentially in the seed, and is thus transmitted whenthat seed is matured into a new individual. In animals, which possess it along with the sensitive soul and among which the sexes are separated, it is also contained potentially in the generative system of the female separately; and the first commencement of life in the future animal is thus a purely vegetable life.147The sensitive soul, the characteristic of the complete animal, cannot be superadded except by copulation and the male semen. The female, being comparatively impotent and having less animal heat, furnishes only the matter of the future offspring; form, or the moving, fecundating, cause, is supplied by the male. Through the two together the new individual animal is completed, having not merely the nutritive soul, but also the sentient soul along with it.148