But, all the same, in each of the
bodily parts there are present all the parts of soul, and the souls so
present are homogeneous with one another and with the whole; this
means that the several parts of the soul are indisseverable from one
another, although the whole soul is divisible. It seems also that
the principle found in plants is also a kind of soul; for this is
the only principle which is common to both animals and plants; and
this exists in isolation from the principle of sensation, though there
nothing which has the latter without the former.
Book II
1
LET the foregoing suffice as our account of the views concerning the
soul which have been handed on by our predecessors; let us now dismiss
them and make as it were a completely fresh start, endeavouring to
give a precise answer to the question, What is soul? i.e. to formulate
the most general possible definition of it.
We are in the habit of recognizing, as one determinate kind of
what is, substance, and that in several senses, (a) in the sense of
matter or that which in itself is not 'a this', and (b) in the sense
of form or essence, which is that precisely in virtue of which a thing
is called 'a this', and thirdly (c) in the sense of that which is
compounded of both (a) and (b). Now matter is potentiality, form
actuality; of the latter there are two grades related to one another
as e.g. knowledge to the exercise of knowledge.
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