Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Aristotle on the matter of mind 221drunkenness) is the dissolution of movement and confusion brought about by pneuma. 52 How exactly these processes interactand influence cognitive processes, Aristotle does not make very clear; but itis evident that he believes that healthy bodily conditions (such as an emptystomach) may be conducive to a successful operation of the intellectualpart of the soul. 53Another passage, however, suggests that movement and even‘agility’ are essential to thinking and that physical impedimentto movement also affects thinking. At Part. an. 686 a 25ff.wearetold that man’s body is in an upright position in order to promote the performanceof his ‘divine’ function, namely thinking and being intelligent . 54Man, instead of forelegs and forefeet, has arms and the so-called hands. For manis the only animal that stands upright, and this is because his nature and essence isdivine. The activity of that which is most divine is to think and to be intelligent; butthis is not easy when there is a great deal of the upper body weighing it down , for weight hampersthe motion of the intellect and of the common sense . Thus, when the weight and thecorporeal condition (of the soul) become too great, the bodies themselves mustlurch forward towards the ground; consequently, for the purpose of safety, natureprovided quadrupeds with forefeet instead of arms and hands. All animals whichwalk must have two hind feet, and those I have just mentioned became quadrupedsbecause their soul could not sustain the weight bearing it down . In fact, compared with man, all the other animals aredwarf-like . . . In humans, the size of the trunk is proportionate to the lower parts,and as they are brought to pefection , it becomes much smaller inproportion. With young people, however, the contrary happens: the upper partsare large and the lower are small . . . In fact, all children are dwarfs. The genera ofbirds and fishes, as well as every animal with blood in it, as I have said, are dwarflike.This is also the reason why all animals are less intelligent thanman. Even among human beings children, for example, when compared to adults,and among those who are adults those who have a dwarf-like nature, though havingsome exceptional capacity, 55 are nevertheless inferior in their having intelligence . The reason, as has already been said, is that inmany of them the principle of the soul is sluggish and corporeal 52 Insomn. 461 a 23–5.53 It is interesting to note that ancient commentators on De an. 403 a 16 were already worried aboutthe implications of this belief for the doctrine of the separateness of the intellect (see Philoponus,In Arist. De anima I comment. p.51, 10ff. Hayduck).54 Cf. Part. an. 653 a 30;cf.Pol. 1254 b 30 and the comments ad loc. by Saunders (1995). For a discussionof the various physiological factors mentioned in this passage (Part. an. 686 a 25ff.) see Coles (1997).55 For Aristotle’s appreciation of cf. Rh. 1390 b 27; see also Pr. 30.1, which exploits thisnotion for the explanation of the melancholics’ exceptional performances.