Aristotle / 2008-06-30 00:00:00
350 BC
ON THE SOUL
by Aristotle
translated by J. A. Smith
Book I
1
HOLDING as we do that, while knowledge of any kind is a thing to
be honoured and prized, one kind of it may, either by reason of its
greater exactness or of a higher dignity and greater wonderfulness
in its objects, be more honourable and precious than another, on
both accounts we should naturally be led to place in the front rank
the study of the soul. The knowledge of the soul admittedly
contributes greatly to the advance of truth in general, and, above
all, to our understanding of Nature, for the soul is in some sense the
principle of animal life. Our aim is to grasp and understand, first
its essential nature, and secondly its properties; of these some are
taught to be affections proper to the soul itself, while others are
considered to attach to the animal owing to the presence within it
of soul.
To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most
difficult things in the world. As the form of question which here
presents itself, viz. the question 'What is it?', recurs in other
fields, it might be supposed that there was some single method of
inquiry applicable to all objects whose essential nature (as we are
endeavouring to ascertain there is for derived properties the single
method of demonstration); in that case what we should have to seek for
would be this unique method.
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