De Anima

Description

De Anima (On the Soul) is one of Aristotle’s most important works, a detailed and beautiful treatise about the nature of all living things and about the different types of souls they have.

The fundamental premise Aristotle departs from is that any living entity possesses a soul and that the soul is the essential possession of any entity – in his view, the notion of a body without a soul is not comprehensible at all and there is no soul existing independently, without a body either.

The treatise is divided into three books – the first one introduces the premise and the theme of the treatise and provides an overview of the philosophic tradition of attributing a soul to living entities; the second book provides a detailed definition of the notion of the soul and discusses the relationship between the soul and the five senses as well as aspects of nutrition and reproduction, while the third book enriches the discussion even further by introducing the notion of intellect and imagination and continues the discussion of the nature of the soul as related to motion and senses.

Although, in Aristotle’s view, the soul and the body cannot exist independent of each other, the mind is able to act without requiring the presence of matter and therefore it is considered to be eternal, immortal and it is not susceptible to any attempts of corruption by either the body or the soul.

In the treatise, Aristotle uses a systematic approach towards the subject matter. He first explains existence in terms of the three forms of substance to be found in any entity of the world: matter, form and the combination of the two. He then diversifies the definition of both matter and form and categorizes living things based on their composition in terms of the two basic principles.
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