PHI 2323 Notes on Aristotle's De Anima

Compiled by Ms. Terry Hostler

Book I

Two characteristics of the soul

1. the source of motion of the living being
2. the seat of perception and cognition

the soul IS NOT	the soul IS
a magnitude material an attribute a material continuity	a substance a unity the origin of perception and motion the origin of psychological processes (emotions, desires)

Outline of Argument

• Begins with "everything" and divides until reaching the topic of De Anima
• What belongs to the soul vs. what belongs to soul-and-body composite
• list of affections → argument about "straightness" → new list of affections

Everything
|-- nature
|   |-- living things - (psyche) soul is the first principle
|   |                   (whatever makes plants and animals alive)
|   '-- inanimate things
'-- everything else (timeless universe, mathematics, everything we make)

The soul as substance

• substance and nature should explain attributes
• attributes are active or passive
  • passive attributes (affectations) are traits that make it changeable or moveable

substance

the defining concept of something

the starting point from which attributes of "what the thing is" can be organized

Soul's potentialities and activities to what objects we can sense and understand

Book II

psyche

actualizes matter into a composite;

composite is the substance in the fullest sense

1st and 2nd Actuality

• psyche is 1st actualization
  • not the activity, but the capacity to engage in some sorts of activity
  • not the undeveloped capacity, but the actualized potential to engage in some sort of activities
  • psyche of something = the what-it-is-to-be-that-thing = essential function

phantasia ("imagination")

the ability for at least part of the outside world to appear to you in a certain way

the ability to entertain images (e.g., fish are able to have an image of what is food)

• Thought alone is separable (from the body)
  • WHat is divide substance doing? — Thinking

The Nutritive Psyche

• Everything living reproduces to partake of the everlasting as much as possible
• Must be a universal "urge" to reproduce
• Psyche is the cause of the body... which type of cause?
  1. efficient cause = from which
  2. final cause = for the sake of which
  3. formal cause = by which (substance)
  4. material cause = out of which ← Psyche cannot be this
• Psyche is responsible for the ability of a living thing to feed itself and grow
  • Like fire: the essence of feeding and growth (fire is the only [archaic] element that increases by itself)
• The nature of composite things involves propotion and limit

The Sensible Psyche

• Psyches that have the faculty of perception
• Why do we not perceive the senses themselves?
  • (actual/potential distinction)
• What is the object of perception
  • each sense has a proper object (special object)
  • some common objects which can be perceived incidental to the perceiving of the proper object

sensing

the reception of an object's form without its matter

the medium of sensation acts as a filter that allows the form itself but not the matter into perception

Objects affect the sensory medium

Distinction between senses:

• Light and darkness (objects of sight) do not directly affect body
• touch and taste directly affect the sensory medium (body)

Book III

The Thinking Psyche

• Phantasia differs from perception... how?
• belief and knowledge are distinct
• perceiving vs. imaging — to sense something, you have to have that thing appear to you
• Phantasia is not:
  • knowledge
  • belief
  • a combination of belief and perception.

The Thinking Faculty

• Everything can come to be known by the cognitive psyche
• Therefore
  • intellect must have no nature
  • intellect must be pure potentiality

If the soul had a nature, that nature would interrupt the ability of the intellect to receive the forms of some objects

• slate must be blank (actually blank, potentially full)
• intellect can know everything in principle
• if intellect is so character-less that it can take on the character of anything it thinks about, then it cannot be mixed with the body.

BUT WAIT!

If psyche is form and actuality, then how can intellect (a part of the psyche) be formless and pure potentiality?

• matter is potentiality, form is actuality
• if intellect is without form, it is without actuality
• if it is potentiality, isn't the intellect material?

Even matter has form:

• lower level that that of which the matter is matter
• form limits the potential it has

Two ways perception differs from thought:

1. Thought isn't worsened by having an intense object
2. The intellect can think by itself, but perceptual faculties require an external object

Perception is separate from the body, but thought is not separable.

Passive vs. Active Intellect

• Active intellect is capable of production
• there is an intellect which is pure activity
• therefore pure form and full nature

Summary

Nutritive Soul

• all living things shale this
• takes in nutrition, grows, eventually decays, protects itself, reproduces

Sensible Soul

• perception; allows us to perceive the world around us
• encompasses the senses, but allows us to remember things that happened to us
• experiences pleasure and pain → appetites and desires
• most animals and all humans possess this
• do animals have capacity for belief or conviction?

Rational Soul

• only humans possess capacity for rational thought

1. passive intellect: mind collects info and stores it for later use
2. active intellect: allows us to engage in the actual process of thinking
   • sensory input + memory and skills = our betterment
   • ability to consider abstract concepts we've not perceived