The Canon / Foundational / Neoplatonism & Greek Philosophy
Foundational · Classical Greece
On the Soul (De Anima)
Ancient Greek Philosophy (foundational; later read through Neoplatonism)On the Soul (De Anima) is Aristotle's systematic inquiry into the principle of life, and the founding text of the philosophy of mind. He defines the soul not as a separable substance but as the "form" of a living body — the organising activity that makes a thing alive.
He ranks the soul's powers from the nutritive through the sensitive to, in humans, the intellect (nous), and analyses perception and thought as the mind's capacity to take on the forms of things without their matter. His tantalising remarks on the "active intellect" would be debated for two thousand years.
Transmitted through Islamic and Christian commentators, De Anima set the vocabulary — potentiality, actuality, faculty, intellect — in which the West would think about mind, cognition, and the soul.
In its words
Then let the subject consider whether he would affirm the existence of his self. There is no doubt that he would affirm his own existence, although not affirming the reality of any of his limbs or inner organs, his bowels, or heart or brain or any external thing.
There is no doubt that he would affirm his own existence, although not affirming the reality of any of his limbs or inner organs, his bowels, or heart or brain or any external thing.
The ideas it carries
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The author
AristotlePotentiality and actuality
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