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Full Idea
Assume the rational soul has two parts, one to contemplate things with invariable first principles, one to contemplate variable things.
Clarification
'Soul' is the Greek word 'psuché', which covers mind and consciousness and life
Gist of Idea
Assume our reason is in two parts, one for permanent first principles, and one for variable things
Source
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1139a06)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.204
A Reaction
'Assume' is interesting. He presumably isn't asserting this division as a fact. So his methodology is make assumptions - probably as aids to clear thinking.
| 23252 | Socrates first proposed that we are run by mind or reason [Socrates, by Frede,M] |
| 23307 | Aristotle makes belief a part of reason, but sees desires as separate [Aristotle, by Sorabji] |
| 72 | Assume our reason is in two parts, one for permanent first principles, and one for variable things [Aristotle] |
| 23311 | Aristotle sees reason as much more specific than our more everyday concept of it [Aristotle, by Frede,M] |
| 4017 | Descartes created the modern view of rationality, as an internal feature instead of an external vision [Descartes, by Taylor,C] |
| 19221 | Everybody overrates their own reasoning, so it is clearly superficial [Peirce] |
| 2899 | The fanatical rationality of Greek philosophy shows that they were in a state of emergency [Nietzsche] |
| 22643 | It seems that we feel rational when we detect no irrationality [James] |
| 9591 | The human intellect has not been, and cannot be, fully formalized [Nagel/Newman] |
| 23438 | Full rationality must include morality [Foot] |
| 7611 | Rationality is one part of our conception of human flourishing [Putnam] |
| 6651 | People are wildly inaccurate in estimating probabilities about an observed event [Lowe] |
| 6652 | 'Base rate neglect' makes people favour the evidence over its background [Lowe] |
| 6555 | We are also irrational, with a unique ability to believe in bizarre self-created fictions [Fogelin] |