Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Aristotle on sleep and dreams 189dreamer) it is very likely that all we are dealing with is a coincidence of twooccurrences without any physical relation (463 b 1–11).As for question (iii), we need to look more closely at one of the mostfamous – but also rather controversial – passages from On Divination inSleep (463 b 12–18) In general, since some other animals have dreams too, dreams are not sent by a god,nor do they exist for this purpose; however, they are beyond human control, forthe nature [of the dreamer] is beyond human control, though not divine. A signof this is that quite simple people are inclined to having foresight and to havingclear dreams, which suggests that it is not a god who sends them, but rather thatall people who have, so to speak, a garrulous and melancholic nature, see all kindsof visions [in their sleep].This passage is very characteristic of Aristotle’s method in tackling thephenomenon of dreams and prophecy in sleep. He firmly rejects the belief –which was generally accepted in his time, even in intellectual circles – thatdreams are sent by a god. The argument he produces against this beliefconsists of an intriguing combination of two empirical claims with ana priori presupposition. The empirical claims are that some other animals(apart from human beings) also dream (no. 5) – an inference based onthe observation that dogs often bark during their sleep, as we learn fromHist. An. 536 b 27ff. – and that prophecy in sleep particularly occurs withpeople of mediocre intellectual capacities (no. 6). These two claims arecombined with a rather sophisticated belief about the conditions of divinedispensation of mantic knowledge. Aristotle silently presupposes that gods,if they sent foreknowledge of the future to humans, would not send this tosimple-minded people but rather (or even exclusively) to the best and mostintelligent of people. This appears from another passage further on in thetreatise (464 a 19–21): ’ And for this reason this experience [i.e. foresight of the future concerning eventswhose origins lie outside the dreamer] occurs with simple people and not with themost intelligent; for it would present itself both during the day and with intelligentpeople, if it were a god who sends them.