De Anima - Couverture rigide

Aristotle

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1605204331 ISBN 13 : 9781605204338

Editeur : Cosimo Classics, 2008

Synopsis

Knowledge, however, is an attribute of the soul, and so are perception, opinion, desire, wish, and appetency generally; animal locomotion also is produced by the soul; and likewise growth, maturity, and decay. Shall we then say that each of these belongs to the whole soul, that we think, that is, and perceive and are moved and in each of the other operations act and are acted upon with the whole soul, or that the different operations are to be assigned to different parts? -from Book I The writings of Greek philosopher ARISTOTLE (384BC-322BC)-student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great-are among the most influential on Western thought, and indeed upon Western civilization itself. From theology and logic to politics and even biology, there is no area of human knowledge that has not been touched by his thinking. In De Anima-which means, literally, On the Soul-the philosopher ponders the very nature of life itself. What is the essence of the lifeforce? Can we consider that plants and animals have souls? How does human intellect divide us from other animals? Is the human mind immortal? All these questions, and others that seem unanswerable, are explored in depth in this, one of the most important works ever written on such eternal questions. Students and armchair philosophers will find it a challenging-and rewarding-read.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Like many cultures then and now, the early Greeks pondered the nature of the soul. Originally conceived as a kind of ghost, surviving in a bloodless existence after the death of the body, the soul was defined by later philosophers - notably the Pythagoreans and Plato - as an immaterial divine being temporarily "imprisoned" in the body. True knowledge was gained not through the senses but from contemplation of external Ideas that were, like the soul itself, immaterial and immortal.
A reformulation as well as a criticism of earlier thinkers, Aristotle's De Anima describes soul and body as complementaries rather than polar opposites, as they stand together in a mutual relation of matter and form. Each living entity, endowed with its own animating and informing principle, realizes its proper end. The human soul, incorporating all the animate properties of the lower life forms - the nutritive, propagative, locomotive, and perceptive - has also a fifth power, the intellective. The mind, to which the fifth and highest part is devoted, is alone capable of forming ideas of abstract concepts and relations. Hence, the human mind alone remains free from union with the corporeal.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Cosimo Classics
• Date d'édition: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1605204331
• ISBN 13: 9781605204338
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 108
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible