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Full Idea
That part of the soul which we call rational is desiderative: …it desires truth, knowledge, learning, understanding, and recollection - in short, all the good things.
Gist of Idea
The rational part of the soul is the desire for truth, understanding and recollection
Source
Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170], Kiv.2.772)
Book Ref
Galen: 'Selected Works of Galen', ed/tr. Singer,P.N. [OUP 1997], p.152
A Reaction
Truth is no surprise, but recollection is. Note the separation of knowledge from understanding. This is a very good characterisation of rationality. For the Greeks it has a moral dimension, of wanting what is good.
| 6003 | Galen showed by experiment that the brain controls the body [Galen, by Hankinson] |
| 6030 | Each part of the soul has its virtue - pleasure for appetite, success for competition, and rectitude for reason [Galen] |
| 7453 | Galen's medicine followed the mean; each illness was balanced by opposite treatment [Galen, by Hacking] |
| 21799 | We just use the word 'faculty' when we don't know the psychological cause [Galen] |
| 23248 | Early empiricists said reason was just a useless concept introduced by philosophers [Galen, by Frede,M] |
| 23219 | Stopping the heart doesn't terminate activity; pressing the brain does that [Galen, by Cobb] |
| 23220 | The brain contains memory and reason, and is the source of sensation and decision [Galen] |
| 23268 | We execute irredeemable people, to protect ourselves, as a deterrent, and ending a bad life [Galen] |
| 23269 | Philosophy must start from clearly observed facts [Galen] |
| 23264 | Philosophers think faculties are in substances, and invent a faculty for every activity [Galen] |
| 23265 | The rational part of the soul is the desire for truth, understanding and recollection [Galen] |
| 23266 | The spirit in the soul wants freedom, power and honour [Galen] |