Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

220 Aristotle and his schoolis sometimes justified by means of the alleged etymological relation between and , 46 and it occurs a number of times inAristotle’s works. 47 There is nothing to suggest that this should be understoodin a metaphorical way; on the contrary, the reference to bodilymotion and to children who because of their structural state of motionare not capable of thinking strongly suggests that Aristotle actually believesthat thinking emerges from the ‘coming to a standstill’ of a bodily process.Where this coming to a standstill takes place (the heart?) and whatbodily factors are involved (the blood?) are not explained in any of thesetexts. 48 Whether thoughts ‘emerge’ from the standing still of movements,or whether thought brings about the standing still of images (e.g. by abstraction)remains unclear. 49 The physiological picture to be drawn withthe transition from having knowledge to using it, which is said to occurat the transition from drunkenness (or sleep) to sobriety (or waking), isalso referred to in Aristotle’s discussion of akrasia in Eth. Nic. 1147 b 6ff.,where it is said: ‘The explanation of how the ignorance (which caused theweak person’s action) is dissipated and the weak person returnsto a state of knowing is the same as concerning a drunk and a sleepingperson, and it is not peculiar to this condition: it is to be obtained fromthe physiologists.’ This physiological explanation is provided by scatteredremarks in Aristotle’s physical works and is conveniently summarised byTracy: ‘knowledge is acquired and activated only when the body, and thesensory system in particular, calms down, being freed from disturbance andbrought to a state of stable equilibrium in all respects, that is, to a state ofmaturity, health, sobriety and moral excellence. Some of these may be producedby natural processes alone; others, like health and moral excellence,may require assistance from the physician and trainer, the moral guide andstatesman.’ 50 As emerges from On Sleep and Waking and On Dreams, oneof these ‘natural processes’ is the restoration of the balance between warmand cold in the body which is brought about when the process of digestion(the material cause of sleep) has been completed; another, which accompaniesthis, is the process of separation of blood into a thinner, clearerpart and a thicker, more troubled part; 51 and yet another (in the case of46 See Plato, Phaedo 96 b 8.47 See De motu an. 701 a 27; An. post. 100 a 1ff. and 15ff.; Int. 16 b 20; De an. 407 a 32–3.Cf.Pr. 956 b39ff.; 916 b 7ff.48 Except in Pr. 916 b 7ff., where, perhaps significantly, a disturbance in intellectual activity (,in this case reading) is attributed to the cooling effect of ‘pneumatic movements’ and melancholichumours; a few lines later on, however, the intellect () is localised in the head (916 b 16).49 Perhaps one should think of an act of viewing () the relevant items in a confused whole; seeInsomn. 461 a 8–25; Div. somn. 464 b 7–16 (cf. 463 b 15–22); Mem. 450 b 15ff.50 Tracy (1969) 276.51 On the physiological explanation of sleep in Somn. vig. see Wiesner (1978).