Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'lectures' and 'De Anima'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts


2 ideas

15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 1. Faculties
If we divide the mind up according to its capacities, there are a lot of them [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: For those who divide the soul into parts, and divide and separate them in accord with their capacities, the parts turn out to be very many.
     From: Aristotle (De Anima [c.329 BCE], 433a32)
     A reaction: I accept the warning. The capacities which interest me are those which seem to generate our basic ontology, but if the capacities become fine-grained, they are legion.
15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 2. Imagination
Self-moving animals must have desires, and that entails having imagination [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: If an animal has a desiring part, it is capable of moving itself. A desiring part, however, cannot exist without an imagination, and all imagination is either rationally calculative or perceptual. Hence in the latter the other animals also have a share.
     From: Aristotle (De Anima [c.329 BCE], 433b27)
     A reaction: Maybe if you asked people whether other animals are imaginative they would say no, but this argument is strong support for the positive view.