Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Aristotle on the matter of mind 235Let us finally turn to the question of the kind of connection or correspondencebetween the bodily conditions referred to and the intellectualactivities they are said to accompany or influence. Of course, Aristotle hasappropriate language at his disposal: on a structural level (where bodilyinfluences are related to constitution types such as the melancholic nature,to deformations such as dwarfs, or to natural conditions such as hardnessof the flesh) he may say (as he often does in Parts of Animals and Generationof Animals) that form does not completely ‘master’ matter,which results in deformed or ‘imperfect’ structuralcapacities, or that material natural factors ‘impede’ thefull realisation of the formal nature. 97 He may say that physical factorsare responsible as additional causes, as in De an. 416 a 14, where he saysthat fire is a of the real , the soul, or at Part. an. 652 b10ff., where he says that of all bodily factors heat is ‘most serviceableto the activities of the soul’ , although these passages relateespecially to the nutritive activities of the soul which constitute, as Aristotlehimself recognises, ‘the most physical’ of the psychicfunctions (De an. 415 a 26). 98 Passages (as discussed above) in which weightis said to ‘make’ the soul slow, or disease or sleep are said to ‘overshadow’the intellect, or certain material substances are said to ‘confuse’ and‘change’ the intellect, indicate an active role of bodily factors in the operationsof the intellect. Thus apart from saying that bodily changes‘correspond with’ or ‘accompany’ psychic activities, which does not commititself to a specific type of causal relationship, 99 we may go furtherand say that bodily states and processes act on psychic powers or activitiesjust as well as psychic powers may be said to ‘inform’ bodilystructures.97 See Gen. an. 766 a 15ff.; 767 b 10ff.; 772 b 30ff.; 737 a 25; 780 b 10. See the discussion by A. L. Peckin his Loeb edition of Generation of Animals, pp. xlv–xlvii.98 For a similar reason, the remark in Part. an. 667 a 11ff. that differences in the size and the structureof the heart ‘also in a certain way extend to’ character cannot beused as evidence of bodily influence on the intellectual part of the soul.99 Cf. De motu an. 701 b 17ff., in particular b 34: , on which see the useful comments by Kollesch (1985) 51–2. See alsoher comments on De motu an. 703 a 15 and Gen. an. 736 b 31ff. ( , sc. of the pneuma): ‘DieUnterschiede, die das Pneuma aufweist, sind abhängig von der unterschiedlichen Wertigkeit dereinzelnen Seelenvermögen, mit denen das Pneuma jeweils verbunden ist. Das heisst, einer höherenSeelentätigkeit, wie sie z.B. die Wahrnehmung gegenüber der Ernährung und Zeugung darstellt,entspricht auch eine höhere Qualität des Pneumas’ (p. 60).