Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Aristotle on the matter of mind 229memory also occurs with other animals, recollection is confined to man, becauserecollection is ‘like inference’ ( ), because it clearlyinvolves searching and deliberation. This, however, does not mean that itis an incorporeal process:That the affection [i.e. recollection] is something physical and that recollection isa search for an image in something of this [i.e. physical] kind, is indicated by thefact that some people are disturbed whenever they cannot recollect, even thoughthey keep their attention fixed, and when they make no more effort, they recollectnonetheless [i.e. the recollective process keeps going on]. This occurs especiallywith the melancholics, for they are particularly moved by images. The reason whythey have no control over their recollective activity is that just as people are unableto stop something they have thrown away, likewise the person who recollects andchases something sets something physical in motion, in which the affection takesplace. This disturbance particularly occurs with those with whom there happensto be moisture around the perceptive place, for this [moisture] does not easily stopwhen set in motion, until the object sought turns up and the movement runs astraight course . . . Those who have large upper parts and those who are dwarfish areless good at memorising than their counterparts because they have much weighton their perceptual faculty, and their movements cannot remain in their originalcondition but are scattered; nor can they easily run a straight course in recollecting.The very young and the very old have poor memories because of the movement:the latter are in a state of decay, the former in rapid growth; and small children arealso dwarfish until they have advanced in age.Again, the thesis (that recollection is a physical process) is demonstratedwith a reference to a disturbance in the act of recollection. The word is used in a context which deals with mental concentration, and also themelancholics make their appearance; reference is made to moisture aroundthe ‘perceptive place’; and in the following section, which again deals withspecial groups, dwarfs, the very young and the very old are mentioned. Sowe have a rational process (although Aristotle, perhaps significantly, doesnot say that it is an affection of the intellectual part of the soul) which takesplace in a bodily part and which is susceptible to influences and disturbancesof bodily conditions. Again, it remains unclear what the normal physicalconditions for a successful operation of recollection (searching ‘along astraight course’, ) 77 are.The passages that I have discussed clearly suggest that, according toAristotle, bodily conditions can be of influence on intellectual activities77 On this expression see above, n. 61. It is also used in Gen. an. 781 a 2 and b 12 to refer to thetransmission of sense movement outside the body (from the perceptible object to the perceivingsubject); cf. also Pr. 934 a 17.