Intellect and Common Sense in Aristotle's De Anima III.7

Abstract

J.F. Finamore: Intellect and Common Sense27 Intellect and Common Sense in Aristotle's De Anima III.7 John F. Finamore Critics have regarded Aristotle's De Anima ??.7 as a collection of unrelated fragments.1 A closer inspection of the various parts of III.7 would show more continuity than these critics suggest. This paper will consider three contiguous "fragments" (431al7-20; a20-bl; b2-9) and show how they are united to each other and to what precedes them. Also, it will suggest a new interpretation for the third passage.2 1 The following woiks will be cited by the author's name alone: H.G. Apostle, Aristotle's On The Soul (De Anima) (Grinnell 1981); E. Barbotin and A. Jannone, Aristote De L'Ame (Paris 1966); C. Baeumker, Aristotles Lehre Von den Äussern und Innern Sinnesvermögen (Leipzig 1 877); G. Biehl, Aristotelis De Anima Libri III (Leipzig 1896); I. Bywater, "Aristotelia UI," Journal ofPhilology 17 (1888) 53-74; W. Christ, Studio in Aristotelis Libros Metaphysicos Collata (Berlin 1853); J. Freudenthal, "Zur Kritik und Exegese von Aristotles' trepl TUf ?????? s?µat?? ??? ????? ????? (Parva Naturalia): ?. Zu de Memoria," RhM 24 (1869) 392-419; D.W. Hamlyn, Aristotle's De Anima Books II and III (With Certain Passages from Book I) (Oxford 1968); R.D. Hicks, Aristotle De Anima (1907; rpt. Salem 1988); D.K. Modrak, Aristotle: The Power ofPerception (Chicago 1987); J. Neuhaeuser, Aristotles' Lehre von dem Sinnlichen Erkenntnissvermägen und seinen Organen (Leipzig 1878); G. Rodier, Aristote Traité de L'Ame (Paris 1900); W.D. Ross, Aristotle De Anima (Oxford 1961); W. Theiler, Aristoteles De Anima Libri III (Berlin 1959); A. Torstrik, Aristoteles De Anima Libri III (1862; rpt. Hildesheim 1970); F.A. Trendelenburg and C. Beiger, De Anima Libri Tres, 2nd ed. (1877; rpt. Berlin 1957); J. Tricot, Aristote De L'Ame (Paris 1947); and E. Wallace, Aristotle's Psychology (Cambridge 1882). References to Aristotle's Parva Naturalia are from the edition of W.D. Ross (Oxford 1955); and to the commentaries of Philoponus, Simplicius, and Themistius from the Commenlaria in AristotelemGraeca (Berlin 1182-1907). 2 Torstrik (199, 205) thinks that the chapter, although it does contain Aristotelian doctrines, has been compiled by an unknown editor. In particular, Torstrik believes that the first two passages (431al7-bl) are out of place with what precedes and what follows. Biehl (90) and Ross (303) follow Torstrik. Theiler (146) finds only a weak association among the various sections. Hamlyn (146-47) thinks that the first two passages are connected to each other, albeit with a lacuna, and that the third is connected with what precedes the first. 28Syllecta Classica 1 (1989) Chapter seven of book three of the De Anima is chiefly concerned with the practical intellect (43 la14 ? d?a???t???; 431b2 t? ???t????/) and its role in action, but Aristotle also compares this thinking faculty with the soul's sensitive faculty (431a5TÖ a?s??t????/; 43 la8 t? a?s???es?a?). In 43 la8- 17, Aristotle compares sensing and thinking. It is through pleasant and painful sensations that the sensitive faculty leads one to pursuit or avoidance, whereas it is through images that the thinking faculty does so. In the first "fragment" under consideration (431al7-20), Aristotle deals with the sensitive faculty or, more precisely, with the common sense faculty, which as a single entity connected with all the individual senses serves as the fundamental perceptive principle. Commentators believe that the first passage is an incomplete fragment and either hypothesize an ellipsis at the end or try to connect it to the previous sentence by means of some additional phrase. If, however, one takes¿krrrep (al7) as parallel with ?a? (al8), there is a single complete sentence:3 And just as the air has made the pupil of such a sort and this in turn makes another of such a sort, hearing also acts in the same way. The end (t? ?s?at??), however, is one and a single mean but many in essence. In III.2.426bl6, Aristotle used the phrase t? ?s?at?? a?s??t????? for the common sense faculty.4 In ??.2 Aristotle stated that each sense faculty discriminates among its own objects...