Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy

30
Carl Huffman
of the soul as a harmony of physical elements, has with some justification
labeled my reconstruction ‘Procrustean’ and proposed a quite compelling
different account of the nature of the harmony. 25 Philolaus’ embryology,
as reported in the history of medicine by Aristotle’s pupil,
Meno, presents the newborn child as composed completely of the
hot, which then must be cooled by taking in breath. 26 As Sedley points
out, the word used by Meno to describe this cooling is katapsychousthai
which on its surface suggests a reference to psychÞ. Moreover, in what
immediately follows, Philolaus is presented as using an etymology of
phlegm (from phlegein, ‘to burn’) in order to defend his unorthodox presentation
of it as hot rather than cold. Such bold use of etymology thus
suggests that Philolaus may well have thought of the cooling of the body
(katapsychousthai) with breath that is cool (psychros) as precisely what establishes
the soul (psychÞ) in the body. 27 Indeed, the standard etymology
of psyche connects it to the verb psychô, ‘to breathe’ 28 . Thus the body becomes
ensouled upon birth, when the appropriate harmony of the limiter
cold is established with the unlimited heat of the newborn infant by
breathing. 29 In my own reconstruction, I had placed the psychÞ in the
heart on the basis of fragment 13. Sedley argues that it need not be located
solely in the heart. He points out that fragment 13 also locates perception
in the heart, while the various senses are clearly located in other
25 Sedley 1995, 22 – 26.
26 Huffman 1993, 289 – 306.
27 At Cratylus 399d, Plato suggests that those who gave the name psychÞ to soul did
so because it cools and refreshes (anapsychô) the body. This view is clearly very
similar to the etymology that is implied by Philolaus’ embryology and it is possible
that Plato is referring to Philolaus. The etymology was popular with the
Stoics and others in the later tradition. For references see Sedley 1995, 24, n.
26. Without giving specific names, Aristotle says that some of his predecessors
argued that the soul was composed of the hot or the cold on the basis of etymology
(de An. 405b23 – 29). Those who construct the soul (psychÞ) from the
cold are said to derive its name from the cooling (katapsyxin) associated with
breathing. Since Philolaus makes this exact same connection using katapsychô,
on Sedley’s reconstruction, it is plausible that Aristotle is thinking of Philolaus.
Both ancient commentators (Philoponus and Themistius) and modern scholars
(Hicks 1907, 237) have supposed that Aristotle was referring to Hippon, since
Aristotle earlier says that he declared the soul to be water (de An. 405b1 –2), but
this is just a conjecture. Philolaus’ clearly attested use of etymology to support
theses in natural philosophy in the case of phlegm and phlegein (A 27) makes him
a more likely candidate.
28 Bremmer 1983, 21 – 23.
29 Sedley 1995, 24 – 25.