Aristotelous peri psyches = Aristotle on the vital principle / translated from the original text, with notes by Charles Collier.

  • Aristotle, 384 B.C.-322 B.C.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aristotelous peri psyches = Aristotle on the vital principle / translated from the original text, with notes by Charles Collier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    48/332 (page 42)
    only by position; and thus the number of Vital Prin- ciple has already locality and 'position. If, again, from any number there be subtracted a number or an unit, there remains a different number; but plants and many creatures, after having been divided, live on, and appear still, in a specific sense, to possess the same Vital Principle. It might also be supposed to make no difference whether we speak of the Vital Principle as formed of units or corpuscles; for if points are substituted for the spherules of Democritus and quantity alone remains, there will still be in that quantity, as in all continuity, a motor and a moved; for the theory takes account neither of greatness or smallness, but only of quantity. Thus, there must of necessity be something to impart motion to the units. But if the Vital Principle is the motor in an animal, so must it be in the number, and thus the Vital Principle, being no longer motor and moved, is the motor only. Even admitting that the Vital Prin- ciple may, in some way, be an unit, there must still ; \ be some distinction between it and other units; ] but what distinction, save that of position, can there be between one unit and another? If then ] the units and points which are in the body are dif- 1 ferent, the units will be on the same spot as the • points, for the unit will occupy the place of the point; 1 but what then is there to prevent them from being infinite in number on the same spot, even if there be