Aristotle
[Footnote 189: Ibid. I. ii. p. 404, a. 30, where he censures
Demokritus: [Greek: ou) dê\ chrê=tai tô=| nô=| ô(s duna/mei tini\
peri\ tê\n a)lê/theian, a)lla\ tau)to\ le/gei psuchê\n kai\
nou=n.]--Compare ibid. III. iv. p. 429, a. 21, b. 30.]
[Footnote 190: Aristot. De Animâ, III. vi. p. 430, b. 5: [Greek: to\
de\ e(\n poiou=n, tou=to o( nou=s e(/kaston].--Ibid. xi. p. 434, a.
9.]
He describes, at the end of the Analytica Posteriora and elsewhere,
the steps whereby the mind ascends gradually from sense, memory, and
experience, to general principles. And he indicates a curious
contrast between these and the noëtic functions. Sense, memory,
phantasy, reminiscence, are movements of the body as well as of the
soul; our thoughts and feelings come and go, none of them remaining
long. But the noëtic process is the reverse of this; it is an arrest
of all this mental movement, a detention of the fugitive thoughts, a
subsidence from perturbation--so that the attention dwells steadily
and for some time on the same matters.[191] Analysis, selection, and
concentration of attention, are the real characteristics of the
Aristotelian Noûs. It is not (as some philosophers have thought) a
source of new general truths, let into the soul by a separate door,
and independent of experience as well as transcending experience.
[Footnote 191: Aristot. Physica, VII. iii. p. 247, b. 9: [Greek: ê(
d' e)x a)rchê=s lê=psis tê=s e)pistê/mês ge/nesis ou)k e)/stin; tô=|
ga\r ê)remê=sai kai\ stê=nai tê\n dia/noian e)pi/stasthai kai\
phronei=n le/gomen.]--Also De Animâ, I. iii. p. 407, b. 32, and the
remarkable passage in the Analytica Poster. II. xviii. p. 100,
a. 3-b. 5.]
Passing now to the Emotions, we find that these are not
systematically classified and analysed by Aristotle, as belonging to
a scheme of Psychology; though he treats them incidentally, with
great ability and acuteness, both in his Ethics, where he regards
them as auxiliaries or impediments to a rational plan of life, and in
his Rhetoric, where he touches upon their operation as it bears on
oratorical effect. He introduces however in his Psychology some
answer to the question, What is it that produces local movement in
the animal body? He replies that movement is produced both by Noûs
and by Appetite.
Speaking strictly, we ought to call Appetite alone the direct
producing cause, acted upon by the _appetitum_, which is here the
_Primum Movens Immobile_. But this _appetitum_ cannot act without
coming into the intellectual sphere, as something seen, imagined,
cogitated.[192] In this case the Noûs or Intellect is stimulated
through appetite, and operates in subordination thereto. Such is the
Intellect, considered as Practical, the principle or determining
cause of which is the _appetitum_ or object of desire; the Intellect
manifesting itself only for the sake of some end, to be attained or
avoided. Herein it is distinguished altogether from the Theoretical
Noûs or Intellect, which does not concern itself with any _expetenda_
or _fugienda_ and does not meddle with conduct. The _appetitum_ is
good, real or apparent, in so far as it can be achieved by our
actions. Often we have contradictory appetites; and, in such cases,
the Intellect is active generally as a force resisting the present
and caring for the future. But Appetite or Desire, being an energy
including both soul and body, is the real and appropriate cause that
determines us to local movement, often even against strong opposition
from the Intellect.[193]
[Footnote 192: Aristot. De Animâ, III. x. p. 433, b. 11: [Greek:
prô=ton de\ pa/ntôn to\ o)rekto/n (tou=to ga\r kinei= ou) kinou/menon
tô=| noêthê=nai ê)\ phantasthê=nai).]]
[Footnote 193: Aristot. De Animâ, III. x. p. 433, a. 25, b. 19:
[Greek: dio\ e)n toi=s koinoi=s sô/matos kai\ psuchê=s e)/rgois],
&c.]
Aristotle thus concludes his scheme of Psychology, comprehending all
plants as well as all animals; a scheme differing in this respect, as
well as in others, from the schemes of those that had preceded him,
and founded upon the peculiar principles of his own First Philosophy.
Soul is to organized body as Form to Matter, as Actualizer to the
Potential; not similar or homogeneous, but correlative; the two being
only separable as distinct logical points of view in regard to one
and the same integer or individual. Aristotle recognizes many
different varieties of Soul, or rather many distinct functions of the
same soul, from the lowest or most universal, to the highest or most
peculiar and privileged; but the higher functions presuppose or
depend upon the lower, as conditions; while the same principle of
Relativity pervades them all. He brings this principle prominently
forward, when he is summing up[194] in the third or last book of the
treatise De Animâ:--"The Soul is in a certain way all existent
things; for all of them are either Perceivables or Cogitables; and
the Cogitant Soul is in a certain way the matters cogitated, while
the Percipient Soul is in a certain way the matters perceived." The
Percipient and its _Percepta_--the Cogitant and its _Cogitata_--each
implies and correlates with the other: the Percipient is the highest
Form of all _Percepta_; the Cogitant is the Form of Forms, or the
highest of all Forms, cogitable or perceivable.[195] The Percipient
or Cogitant Subject is thus conceived only in relation to the Objects
perceived or cogitated, while these Objects again are presented as
essentially correlative to the Subject. The realities of Nature are
particulars, exhibiting Form and Matter in one: though, for purposes
of scientific study--of assimilation and distinction--it is necessary
to consider each of the two abstractedly from the other.
[Footnote 194: Ibid. viii. p. 431, b. 20, seq.: [Greek: nu=n de\
peri\ psuchê=s ta\ lechthe/nta sugkephalaiô/santes, ei)/pômen pa/lin
o(/ti ê( psuchê\ ta\ o)/nta pô/s e)sti pa/nta. ê)\ ga\r ai)sthêta\
ta\ o)/nta ê)\ noêta/, e)/sti de\ ê( e)pistê/mê me\n ta\ e)pistêta/
pôs, ê( d' ai)/sthêsis ta\ ai)sthêta/.]]
[Footnote 195: Ibid. p. 432, a. 2: [Greek: o( nou=s ei)=dos ei)dô=n,
kai\ ê( ai)/sthêsis ei)=dos ai)sthêtô=n.]]
CHAPTER XIII.
ETHICA.
I.
The Ethics of Aristotle presuppose certain conditions in the persons
to whom they are addressed, without which they cannot be read with
profit. They presuppose a certain training, both moral and
intellectual, in the pupil.
First, the reason of the pupil must be so far developed, as that he
shall be capable of conceiving the idea of a scheme of life and
action, and of regulating his momentary impulses more or less by a
reference to this standard. He must not live by passion, obeying
without reflection the appetite of the moment, and thinking only of
grasping at this immediate satisfaction. The habit must have been
formed of referring each separate desire to some rational measure,
and of acting or refraining to act according as such a comparison may
dictate. Next, a certain experience must have been acquired
concerning human affairs, and concerning the actions of men with
their causes and consequences. Upon these topics all the reasonings
and all the illustrations contained in every theory of Ethics must
necessarily turn: so that a person thoroughly inexperienced would be
incompetent to understand them.
For both these two reasons, no youthful person, nor any person of
mature years whose mind is still tainted with the defects of youth,
can be a competent learner of Ethics or Politics (Eth. Nic. i. 7.
Compare vii. 8). Such a pupil will neither appreciate the reasonings,
nor obey the precepts (i. 3).
Again, a person cannot receive instruction in Ethics with advantage
unless he has been subjected to a good practical discipline, so as to
have acquired habits of virtuous action, and to have been taught to
feel pleasure and pain on becoming occasions and in reference to
becoming objects. Unless the circumstances by which he has been
surrounded and the treatment which he has received, have been such as
to implant in him a certain vein of sentiment and to give a certain
direction to his factitious pleasures and pains--unless obedience to
right precepts has to a certain degree been made habitual with
him--he will not be able to imbibe, still less to become attached to,
even the _principia_ of ethical reasoning (Eth. Nic. i. 4. 7). The
well-trained man, who has already acquired virtuous habits, has within
himself the [Greek: a)rchê\], or beginning, from which happiness
proceeds: he may do very well, even though the reason on which these
habits were formed should never become known to him: but he will at
least readily apprehend and understand the reason when it is
announced. The [Greek: a)rchai\] or beginnings to which ethical
philosophy points and from whence the conduct which it enjoins is
derived, are obtained only by habituation, not by induction nor by
perception, like other [Greek: a)rchai/]: and we ought in all our
investigations to look after the [Greek: a)rchê\] in the way which
the special nature of the subject requires, and to be very careful to
define it well (i. 4, i. 7).
In considering Aristotle's doctrine respecting the [Greek: a)rchai\]
of ethical and political science, and the way in which they are to be
discovered and made available, we should keep in mind that he
announces the end and object of these sciences to be, not merely the
enlargement of human knowledge, but the determination of human
conduct towards certain objects: not theory, but practice: not to
teach us what virtue is, but to induce us to practise it--"Since then
the present science is not concerned with speculation, _like the
others_. For here we enquire, not in order that we may know what
virtue is, but in order that we may become good, otherwise there
would be no profit in the enquiry" (ii. 2. _See_ also i. 2, i. 5, vi.
5).
The remarks which Aristotle makes about the different ways of finding
out and arriving at [Greek: a)rchai\], are curious. Some principles
or beginnings are obtained by _induction_--others by
_perception_--others by habituation in a certain way--others again in
other ways. Other modes of arriving at [Greek: a)rchai\] are noticed
by the philosopher himself in other places. For example, the [Greek:
a)rchai\] of demonstrative science are said to be discovered by
intellect ([Greek: nou=s])--vi. 6-7. There is a passage however in
vi. 8 in which he seems to say that the [Greek: a)rchai\] of the wise
man ([Greek: so/phos]) and the natural man ([Greek: phusiko\s]) are
derived from experience: which I find it difficult to reconcile with
the preceding chapters, where he calls wisdom a compound of intellect
and science ([Greek: e)pistê/mê]), and where he gives Thales and
Anaxagoras as specimens of wise men. By vi. 6--it seems that wisdom
has reference to matters of demonstrative science: how then can it be
true that a youth may be a mathematician without being a wise man?
Moreover, Aristotle takes much pains, at the commencement of his
treatise on Ethics, to set forth the inherent intricacy and obscurity
of the subject, and to induce the reader to be satisfied with
conclusions not absolutely demonstrative. He repeats this observation
several times--a sufficient proof that the evidence for his own
opinions did not appear to himself altogether satisfactory (Eth. Nic.
i. 3, i. 7, ii. 2). The completeness of the proof (he says) must be
determined by the subject-matter: a man of cultivated mind will not
ask for better proof than the nature of the case admits: and human
action, to which all ethical theory relates, is essentially
fluctuating and uncertain in its consequences, so that every general
proposition which can be affirmed or denied concerning it, is subject
to more or less of exception. If this degree of uncertainty attaches