All this implies that the movements of the soul are
identified with the local movements of the heavens.
Now, in the first place, it is a mistake to say that the soul is a
spatial magnitude. It is evident that Plato means the soul of the
whole to be like the sort of soul which is called mind not like the
sensitive or the desiderative soul, for the movements of neither of
these are circular. Now mind is one and continuous in the sense in
which the process of thinking is so, and thinking is identical with
the thoughts which are its parts; these have a serial unity like
that of number, not a unity like that of a spatial magnitude. Hence
mind cannot have that kind of unity either; mind is either without
parts or is continuous in some other way than that which characterizes
a spatial magnitude. How, indeed, if it were a spatial magnitude,
could mind possibly think? Will it think with any one indifferently of
its parts? In this case, the 'part' must be understood either in the
sense of a spatial magnitude or in the sense of a point (if a point
can be called a part of a spatial magnitude). If we accept the
latter alternative, the points being infinite in number, obviously the
mind can never exhaustively traverse them; if the former, the mind
must think the same thing over and over again, indeed an infinite
number of times (whereas it is manifestly possible to think a thing
once only). If contact of any part whatsoever of itself with the
object is all that is required, why need mind move in a circle, or
indeed possess magnitude at all? On the other hand, if contact with
the whole circle is necessary, what meaning can be given to the
contact of the parts? Further, how could what has no parts think
what has parts, or what has parts think what has none? We must
identify the circle referred to with mind; for it is mind whose
movement is thinking, and it is the circle whose movement is
revolution, so that if thinking is a movement of revolution, the
circle which has this characteristic movement must be mind.
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