Aristotle
convert it into something actual and definite;[62] so the percipient
faculty in man is impressed by the substances in nature, not
according to the matter of each but, according to the qualitative
form of each. Such passive receptivity is the first and lowest form
of sensation,[63] not having any magnitude in itself, but residing in
bodily organs which have magnitude, and separable from them only by
logical abstraction. It is a potentiality, correlating with, and in
due proportion to, the exterior _percipibile_, which, when acting
upon it, brings it into full actuality. The actuality of both
(_percipiens_ and _perceptum_) is one and the same, and cannot be
disjoined in fact, though the potentialities of the two are distinct
yet correlative; the _percipiens_ is not like the _percipibile_
originally, but becomes like it by being thus actualized.[64]
[Footnote 59: Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, i. p. 436, b. 12. He
considers sponges to have some sensation (Hist. Animal. I. i. p. 487,
b. 9).]
[Footnote 60: Aristot. De Animâ, II. iii. p. 414, b. 2; p. 415, a. 3;
III. i. p. 424, b. 22; xiii. p. 435, b. 15.]
[Footnote 61: Ibid. II. xii. p. 424, a. 32-b. 4: [Greek: dia\ ti/
pote ta\ phuta\ ou)k ai)stha/netai, e)/chonta/ ti mo/rion psuchiko\n
kai\ pa/schonta/ ti u(po\ tô=n a(ptô=n? kai\ ga\r psu/chetai kai\
thermai/netai; ai)/tion ga\r to\ mê\ e)/chein meso/têta, mêde\
toiau/tên a)rchê\n oi(/an ta\ ei)/dê de/chesthai tô=n ai)sthêtô=n,
a)lla\ pa/schein meta\ tê=s u(/lês.]
Themistius ad loc. p. 144, ed. Spengel: [Greek: pa/schei (ta\ phuta/)
suneisiou/sês tê=s u(/lês tou= poiou=ntos], &c.]
[Footnote 62: Aristot. De Animâ, II. xii. p. 424, a. 19.]
[Footnote 63: Ibid. a. 24: [Greek: ai)sthêtê/rion de\ prô=ton e)n
ô(=| ê( toiau/tê du/namis], &c.--III. xii. p. 434, a. 29.]
[Footnote 64: Ibid. III. ii. p. 425, b. 25: [Greek: ê( de\ tou=
ai)sthêtou= e)ne/rgeia kai\ tê=s ai)sthê/seôs ê( au)tê\ me/n e)sti
kai\ mi/a, to\ d' ei)=nai ou) tau)to\n au)tai=s.]--II. v. p. 418, a.
3: [Greek: to\ d' ai)sthêtiko\n duna/mei e)sti\n oi(=on to\
ai)sthêto\n ê)/dê e)ntelechei/a|,--pa/schei me\n ou)=n ou)ch o(/moion
o)/n, pepontho\s d' ô(moi/ôtai kai\ e)/stin oi(=on e)kei=no.] Also p.
417, a. 7, 14, 20.
There were conflicting doctrines current in Aristotle's time: some
said that, for an agent to act upon a patient, there must be
_likeness_ between the two; others said that there must be
_unlikeness_. Aristotle dissents from both, and adopts a sort of
intermediate doctrine.]
The sentient soul is communicated by the male parent in the act of
generation,[65] and is complete from the moment of birth, not
requiring a process of teaching after birth; the sentient subject
becomes at once and instantly, in regard to sense, on a level with
one that has attained a certain actuality of cognition, but is not at
the moment reflecting upon the _cognitum_. Potentiality and Actuality
are in fact distinguishable into lower and higher degrees; the
Potential that has been actualized in a first or lower stage, is
still a Potential relatively to higher stages of Actuality.[66] The
Potential may be acted upon in two opposite ways; either by deadening
and extinguishing it, or by developing and carrying it forward to
realization. The sentient soul, when asleep or inert, requires a
cause to stimulate it into actual seeing or hearing; the noëtic or
cognizant soul, under like circumstances, must also be stimulated
into actual meditation on its _cognitum_. But there is this
difference between the two. The sentient soul communes with
particulars; the noëtic soul with universals. The sentient soul
derives its stimulus from without, and from some of the individual
objects, tangible, visible, or audible; but the noëtic soul is put
into action by the abstract and universal, which is in a certain
sense _within_ the soul itself; so that a man can at any time
meditate on what he pleases, but he cannot see or hear what he
pleases, or anything except such visible or audible objects as are at
hand.[67]
[Footnote 65: Aristot. De Gener. Animal. II. v. p. 741, a. 13, b. 7;
De Animâ, II. v. p. 417, b. 17.]
[Footnote 66: Aristot. De Animâ, II. v. p. 417, b. 18-32. See above,
p. 457, note a.
The extent of Potentiality, or the partial Actuality, which Aristotle
claims for the sentient soul even at birth, deserves to be kept in
mind; we shall contrast it presently with what he says about the
Noûs.]
[Footnote 67: Aristot. De Animâ, II. v. p. 417, b. 22: [Greek:
ai)/tion de\ o(/ti, tô=n kath' e(/kaston ê( kat' e)ne/rgeian
ai)/sthêsis, ê( d' e)pistê/mê tô=n katho/lou; tau=ta d' e)n au)tê=|
pô/s e)sti tê=| psuchê=|.] III. iii. p. 427, b. 18.]
We have already remarked, that in many animals the sentient soul is
little developed; being confined in some to the sense of touch (which
can never be wanting),[68] and in others to touch and taste. But even
this minimum of sense--though small, if compared with the variety of
senses in man--is a prodigious step in advance of plants; it
comprises a certain cognition, and within its own sphere it is always
critical, comparing, discriminative.[69] The sentient soul possesses
this discriminative faculty in common with the noëtic soul or
Intelligence, though applied to different objects and purposes; and
possesses such faculty, because it is itself a mean or middle term
between the two sensible extremes of which it takes cognizance,--hot
and cold, hard and soft, wet and dry, white and black, acute and
grave, bitter and sweet, light and darkness, visible and invisible,
tangible and intangible, &c. We feel no sensation at all when the
object touched is exactly of the same temperature with ourselves,
neither hotter nor colder; the sentient soul, being a mean between
the two extremes, is stimulated to assimilate itself for the time to
either of them, according as it is acted upon from without. It thus
makes comparison of each with the other, and of both with its own
mean.[70] Lastly, the sentient faculty in the soul is really one and
indivisible, though distinguishable logically or by abstraction into
different genera and species.[71] Of that faculty the central
physical organ is the heart, which contains the congenital or animal
spirit. The Aristotelian psychology is here remarkable, affirming as
it does the essential relativity of all phenomena of sense to the
appreciative condition of the sentient; as well as the constant
implication of intellectual and discriminative comparison among them.
[Footnote 68: Ibid. III. xii. p. 434, b. 23: [Greek: phanero\n o(/ti
ou)ch oi(=o/n te a)/neu a(phê=s ei)=nai zô=|on.]]
[Footnote 69: Ibid. ix. p. 432, a. 16: [Greek: tô=| kritikô=|, o(\
dianoi/as e)/rgon e)sti\ kai\ ai)sthê/seôs.]--III. iii. p. 427, a.
20; p. 426, b. 10-15. De Generat. Animal. I. xxiii. p. 731, a. 30-b.
5; De Somno et Vigil. i. p. 458**, b. 2. The sentient faculty is
called [Greek: du/namin su/mphuton kritikê/n] in Analyt. Poster.
II. xix. p. 99, b. 35.]
[Footnote 70: Aristot. De Animâ, II. x. p. 422, a. 20; ix. p. 421, b.
4-11; xi. p. 424, a. 5: [Greek: kai\ dia\ tou=to kri/nei ta\
ai)sthêta/--to\ ga\r me/son kritiko/n]. III. vii. p. 431, a. 10:
[Greek: e)/sti to\ ê(/desthai kai\ lupei=sthai to\ e)nergei=n tê=|
ai)sthêtikê=| meso/têti pro\s to\ a)gatho\n ê)\ kako/n, ê(=|
toiau=ta.] III. xiii. p. 435, a. 21.
He remarks that plants have no similar [Greek: meso/tês]--II. xii. p.
424, b. 1.]
[Footnote 71: Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, vii. p. 449, a. 8, 17. De
Motu Animal. x. p. 703, a. 15. De Somno et Vigil. ii. p. 455, a. 15,
21, 35; p. 456, a. 5. De Juventute et Senect. p. 467, b. 27; p. 469,
a. 4-12.]
All the objects generating sensible perception, are magnitudes.[72]
Some perceptions are peculiar to one sense alone, as colour to the
eye, &c. Upon these we never make mistakes directly; in other words,
we always judge rightly what is the colour or what is the sound,
though we are often deceived in judging what the thing coloured is,
or where the sonorous object is.[73] There are, however, some
perceivables not peculiar to any one sense alone, but appreciable by
two or more; though chiefly and best by the sense of vision; such are
motion, rest, number, figure, magnitude. Here the appreciation
becomes less accurate, yet it is still made directly by sense.[74]
But there are yet other matters that, though not directly affecting
sense, are perceived indirectly, or by way of accompaniment to what
is directly perceived. Thus we see a white object; nothing else
affecting our sense **except its whiteness. Beyond this,
however, we judge and declare, that the object so seen is the son of
Kleon. This is a judgment obtained indirectly, or by way of
accompaniment; by _accident_, so to speak, inasmuch as the same does
not accompany all sensations of white. It is here that we are most
liable to error.[75]
[Footnote 72: Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, vii. p. 449, a. 20:
[Greek: to\ ai)sthêto\n pa=n e)sti\ me/gethos.]]
[Footnote 73: Aristot. De Animâ, II. vi. p. 418, a. 10-16.]
[Footnote 74: Aristot. De Sensu et Sensili, i. p. 437, a. 8; iv. p.
442, b. 4-12. He says in this last passage, that the common
perceivables are appreciable _at least by both sight and touch_--if
not by all the senses.]
[Footnote 75: Aristot. De Animâ, II. vi. p. 418, a. 7-25: [Greek:
le/getai de\ to\ ai)sthêto\n trichô=s, ô(=n du/o me\n kath' au(ta/
phamen ai)stha/nesthai, to\ de\ e(\n kata\ sumbebêko/s.] Also, III.
i. p. 425, b. 24; iii. p. 428, b. 18-25.]
Among the five senses, Aristotle distinguishes two as operating by
direct contact between subject and object (touch, taste); three as
operating through an external intervening medium (vision, smell,
taste). He begins with Vision, which he regards as possessing most
completely the nature and characteristics of a sense.[76] The direct
and proper object of vision is colour. Now colour operates upon the
eye not immediately (for, if the coloured object be placed in contact
with the eye, there will be no vision), but by causing movements or
perturbations in the external intervening medium, air or water, which
affect the sense through an appropriate agency of their own.[77] This
agency is, according to Aristotle, the Diaphanous or Transparent.
When actual or in energy, the transparent is called light; when
potential or in capacity only, it is called darkness. The eye is of
watery structure, apt for receiving these impressions.[78] It is the
presence either of fire, or of something analogous to the celestial
body, that calls forth the diaphanous from the state of potentiality
into that of actuality or light; in which latter condition it is
stimulated by colour. The diaphanous, whether as light or as
darkness, is a peculiar nature or accompaniment, not substantive in
itself, but inherent chiefly in the First or Celestial Body, yet also
in air, water, glass, precious stones, and in all bodies to a greater
or less degree.[79] The diaphanous passes at once and simultaneously,
in one place as well as in another, from potentiality to
actuality--from darkness to light. Light does not take time to travel
from one place to another, as sound and smell do.[80] The diaphanous
is not a body, nor effluvium from a body, nor any one of the elements:
it is of an adjective character--a certain agency or attribute
pervading or belonging to bodies, along with their extension.[81]
Colour marks and defines the surface of the body _quâ_ diaphanous, as
figure defines it _quâ_ extended. Colour makes the diaphanous itself
visible, and its own varieties visible through the diaphanous. Air
and water are transparent throughout, though with an ill-defined
superficial colour. White and black, as colours in solid bodies,
correspond to the condition of light or darkness in air. There are