On Aristotle's "On the Soul 2.1 6"

by Philoponus

"In On the Soul 2.1-6 Aristotle gives an account of the soul that is very different from Plato's in that it ties the soul to the body. The soul distinguishes living things and explains their behaviour. Aristotle defines soul and life by reference to the capacities to perceive and desire, to think rationally, and to use food to maintain structure and to reproduce. Capacities have to be defined by reference to the objects to which they are directed. The five senses, for example, are defined by reference to their objects, which are primarily forms like color. In perception we are said to receive these forms without matter." Philoponus understands this reception not physiologically, as the eye-jelly's taking on color patches, but 'cognitively,' like Brentano, who much later thought that Aristotle was treating the forms as intentional objects. Philoponus is the patron of non-physiological interpretations, which are still controversial today.

Hardcover

First published December 1, 2003