The treatises of Aristotle on the soul, etc / Translated from the Greek with copious elucidations from the commentaries of Simplicius on the first of these treatises. By Thomas Taylor.

  • Aristotle
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatises of Aristotle on the soul, etc / Translated from the Greek with copious elucidations from the commentaries of Simplicius on the first of these treatises. By Thomas Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    being conjoined with eternal natures. And this power, indeed, always possesses stability genuinely in a separate life, but in a certain respect departing from itself in verging to subordinate natures, yet not so as in no respect to be permanent. It is, therefore, a stable nature in a secondary degree. That part of the soul, however, which verges to externals is not immortal, as being conversant with mutation, and as not being present in a separate life. Dividing, also, the orectic from the gnostic powers of the soul, he dis- cusses what are the loco-motive powers of animals; and the whole of this theory is completed in the second and third books. But in the first book, after having explained the scope of the treatise, and shown what are to be considered as the objects of its investigation, he also defines the mode of discussion, beginning from opposites, and through energy, as a medium leading us to the essence of the soul. He like- wise, in this book, relates the opinions of the ancients concerning the soul, and through those which he admits, and those which he rejects, asserts it to be both gnostic and motive; and, besides this, that it is incorporeal, impartible, and unmoved with corporeal motions. He also demonstrates, that it is neither corporeal harmony, nor corporeal composition, nor any ratio of mixture. But he asserts that it is a prin- ciple, not as an element, nor as a composite from the elements, but as reason and form. And he is of opinion that there is one soul in each animal, and that the soul in rational animals has all the vital essences and powers; according to which its appetite is rational, or is charac- terized by anger and desire; and according to which it knows intellec- tually, or doxastically, (i. e. by opinion), or imaginatively, or sensibly. And, besides these, he considers the soul as in the last place possessing the physical powers, Again
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