Source edition
Aristotle. Aristoteles De anima. Ross, W.D., editor. Oxford: Clarendon, 1956.
Source data
Open Greek and Latin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a philosophical inquiry into nature that attempts to define the "soul" (psyche) as the essence of life and to elucidate its specific capacities. In the introductory section, a general definition of the soul is sought using distinctions between substance, potentiality, and actuality, establishing that the soul is the cause of the body in three ways: as its substance, end, and source of movement. The discussion then progresses from nutrition and reproduction—the fundamental activities of life that allow individuals to participate in the divine eternal—to the examination of specific sensory capacities such as smell, taste, and touch. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of touch as the foundation of human intellectual excellence and the sensory organs functioning as a "mean" to perceive contraries. Finally, the work concludes by defining sensation in general as "the reception of form without matter," thereby clarifying the boundary between sentient living beings and non-sentient things like plants and inanimate objects.