ON THE SOUL
Book II
Chapter 3
Of the psychic powers above enumerated some kinds of living
things, as we have said, possess all, some less than all, others one
only. Those we have mentioned are the nutritive, the appetitive, the
sensory, the locomotive, and the power of thinking. Plants have none
but the first, the nutritive, while another order of living things has
this plus the sensory. If any order of living things has the
sensory, it must also have the appetitive; for appetite is the genus
of which desire, passion, and wish are the species; now all animals
have one sense at least, viz. touch, and whatever has a sense has
the capacity for pleasure and pain and therefore has pleasant and
painful objects present to it, and wherever these are present, there
is desire, for desire is just appetition of what is pleasant. Further,
all animals have the sense for food (for touch is the sense for food);
the food of all living things consists of what is dry, moist, hot,
cold, and these are the qualities apprehended by touch; all other
sensible qualities are apprehended by touch only indirectly. Sounds,
colours, and odours contribute nothing to nutriment; flavours fall
within the field of tangible qualities. Hunger and thirst are forms of
desire, hunger a desire for what is dry and hot, thirst a desire for
what is cold and moist; flavour is a sort of seasoning added to
both. We must later clear up these points, but at present it may be
enough to say that all animals that possess the sense of touch have
also appetition. The case of imagination is obscure; we must examine
it later. Certain kinds of animals possess in addition the power of
locomotion, and still another order of animate beings, i.e., man and
possibly another order like man or superior to him, the power of
thinking, i.e., mind. It is now evident that a single definition can be
given of soul only in the same sense as one can be given of figure.
For, as in that case there is no figure distinguishable and apart from
triangle, etc. , so here there is no soul apart from the forms of soul
just enumerated. It is true that a highly general definition can be
given for figure which will fit all figures without expressing the
peculiar nature of any figure. So here in the case of soul and its
specific forms. Hence it is absurd in this and similar cases to demand
an absolutely general definition which will fail to express the
peculiar nature of anything that is, or again, omitting this, to
look for separate definitions corresponding to each infima species.
The cases of figure and soul are exactly parallel; for the particulars
subsumed under the common name in both cases-figures and living
beings-constitute a series, each successive term of which
potentially contains its predecessor, e.g., the square the triangle,
the sensory power the self-nutritive. Hence we must ask in the case of
each order of living things, What is its soul, i.e., What is the soul
of plant, animal, man? Why the terms are related in this serial way
must form the subject of later examination. But the facts are that the
power of perception is never found apart from the power of
self-nutrition, while-in plants-the latter is found isolated from
the former. Again, no sense is found apart from that of touch, while
touch is found by itself; many animals have neither sight, hearing,
nor smell. Again, among living things that possess sense some have the
power of locomotion, some not. Lastly, certain living beings-a small
minority-possess calculation and thought, for (among mortal beings)
those which possess calculation have all the other powers above
mentioned, while the converse does not hold-indeed some live by
imagination alone, while others have not even imagination. The mind
that knows with immediate intuition presents a different problem.
It is evident that the way to give the most adequate definition of
soul is to seek in the case of each of its forms for the most
appropriate definition.
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