De anima. On the soul: translated, with an introduction and notes by Hugh Lawson-Tancred

'The soul is, so to speak, the first principle of living things. We seek to contemplate and know its nature and substance' For the Pre-Socratic philosophers the soul was the source of movement and sensation, 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 determined to test the truth of both these beliefs against the emerging sciences of logic and biology. His examination of the huge variety of living organisms - the enormous range of their behaviour, their powers and their perceptual sophistication - convinced him of the inadequacy both of a materialist reduction and of a Platonic 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 masterpiece of philosophical insight and a psychology of perennially fascinating subtlety. Hugh Lawson-Tancred's masterly translation makes De Anima fully accessible to modern readers. In his introduction, he places Aristotle's theories at the heart of contemporary debates on the philosophy of life and being. __'The soul is, so to speak, the first principle of living things. We seek to contemplate and know its nature and substance'__For the Pre-Socratic philosophers the soul was the source of movement and sensation, 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 determined to test the truth of both these beliefs against the emerging sciences of logic and biology. His examination of the huge variety of living organisms - the enormous range of their behaviour, their powers and their perceptual sophistication - convinced him of the inadequacy both of a materialist reduction and of a Platonic 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 masterpiece of philosophical insight and a psychology of perennially fascinating subtlety.Hugh Lawson-Tancred's masterly translation makesfully accessible to modern readers. In his introduction, he places Aristotle's theories at the heart of contemporary debates on the philosophy of life and being. Entelechism -- The Life Of Aristotle -- The Philosophical Background -- The Development And Scope Of Entelechism -- Perception, Imagination, And Desire -- Intellect -- Entelechism In The Modern Debate -- Conclusion -- The Translation -- The Scope Of The Work -- Some Earlier Theories -- Comments On Earlier Views -- General Remarks -- Soul As Form -- The Psychic Hierarchy -- Methodological Remarks -- Sensation -- The Types Of Sense-object -- Sight -- Hearing -- Smell -- Taste -- Touch -- Perception As The Reception Of Form Without Matter -- General Problems Of Perception -- Imagination -- Intellect -- Intellect: Active And Passive -- Intellect: Simple And Complex -- Appendix To Sense And Mind -- Summary Of Account Of Sense-perception And Thought -- Motivation: The Division Of The Soul -- Motivation -- Appendix To Motivation -- Animal Survival -- The Teleological Context. Aristotle ; Translated, With An Introduction And Notes, By Hugh Lawson-tancred. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 252-[254]). Supposing that knowledge is one of the things that is fine and valuable, and one kind rather so than another either for its accuracy or by its being of better or more wonderful things, on both these grounds we would be right to place the inquiry into the soul among the first kinds of knowledge. For Plato the soul was the seat of being, metaphysically distinct from the body that it was forced temporarily to inhabit. In 'De Anima', Plato's student, Aristotle sought to set out his theory of soul as the ultimate reality of embodied form and produced a masterpiece of philosophical insight.