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.

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    obvious to require comment; but some commentators have in the term crcpaTpa seen an allusion to the celestial spheres, rather than a ball, because, as the upper controls in its movements the lower sphere, so reason, being superior to appetite, is to control inordinate desires. “ Quibus collatis, non temerarium erit, <r(patpa<? similitu- dinem ita interpretari: consilium tanquam superius (ij a i/oj) ita appetitum in suum mo turn convertere, sicut superior sphsera eas, quae inferiores volvuntur.” The words which follow “ that which is superior is ever naturally more dominant,” may require some such interpretation, for they seem to imply that motion, by translation, may be derived from the motions of the spheres above, which were said to be in three directions; but the knowing faculty, the mind, that is, like the first motor, is, for ever, at rest. Note 3, p. 183. Although the conception of the uni- versal, &c.] This abstruse passage can only be under- stood by reference to the special treatise upon “ the motion of animals, wherein this topic is considered;” it is asked, “ whence comes it, that an individual, after thinking, sometimes acts and sometimes does not act, sometimes moves and sometimes does not move?” and the answer1 is, that “ action or motion is the conclusion of a syllogism,” of which “ the conception of the universal is the major, that of the particular, the middle, and the action following it the minor.” 1 De Motu Animalm, 5. 7. 1.