DE ANIMA

For the Pre-Socratic philosophers the soul was the source of movement and sensat
ion, while for Plato it was the seat of being, metaphysically distinct from the
body that it was forced temporarily to inhabit. Plato's student Aristotle was de
termined to test the truth of both these beliefs against the emerging sciences o
f logic and biology. His examination of the huge variety of living organisms the
enormous range of their behaviour, their powers and their perceptual sophistica
tion convinced him of the inadequacy both of a materialist reduction and of a Pl
atonic sublimation of the soul.



In De Anima, he sought to set out his theory
of the soul as the ultimate reality of embodied form and produced both a masterp
iece of philosophical insight and a psychology of perennially fascinating subtle
ty.