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A Note on Aristotle, De Anima, A. 3, 406b1-3

Author(s): H. de LeySource: The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 20, No. 1 (May, 1970), pp. 92-94Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/637511 .

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A NOTE ON ARISTOTLE, DE ANIMA,

A. 3, 406bl-3

S' orW/L KWEtC-Lt opt wUTCE Kat tq'vX't7 (ETaflaAot aV Karaa? To% c'4

o0Xq Kara1/pIoLa~EOLcrat/iEV?7.

EVER ince the firstedition of the De animaby Trendelenburg,modern scholarshave been in trouble as to the exact interpretationof this phraseand especiallyof the expressionKara'rToca. Although the right one, as we think, was sug-gested a long time ago by Shorey,Ia restatement of it seemsjustified, becausethe later treatment of the problem in the edition of Sir David Ross2 has ap-

parently established a different (and, as we believe, a wrong) communispinio.3The first detailed examination of the whole passagewas given by Bonitz,4who saw no other possibilityof makingthe text render the requiredsensethanto alter Kara7Tr

cr6,ato Karardrrov.sThis is indeed 'a rather improbable

corruption'.6It is also clear that such an emendation of a readingdefendedbythe consensusf all our manuscriptsshouldonly be accepted if there really is noother way out.

Nevertheless,Bonitz'sarguments against an interpretationsuch as was later

proposedby Ross still seem valid.7So it is a pity that the latter did not explainhimself,especiallyas the expression'in accordance with the body' ('dem Leibe

entsprechend')is reallyambiguous: if it means that the soulmoves in the samemanner as the body, i.e. from place to place,8 'the expressionis almost in-

credibly clumsy, because then the conclusion would be an exact repetition ofthe major premiss'; but in its more restrictedsense, i.e. that the movement of

the soul is one of 'an exact correspondence n every detail' with the body, it

'would render impossible the further inference that the soul may leave the

body and return to it'.9Let us reconsiderfor a moment the main trend of the argument. Aristotle

begins his discussionrTEpt%wM•qOEWy drawing our attention to the fact that

I P. Shorey, 'Aristotle's De anima',A.J.Ph. xxii (1901), 149-64 (on the edition

and translation of G. Rodier, Paris, 1900).2 D. Ross (Oxford, I961), 187-8, who

does not formulate, however, any explicitobjection against Shorey.

3 Cf. the translation ofJ. A. Smith, Oxf.Transl.,vol. iii: 'Hence it would follow thatthe soul too must in accordance with the body

change either its place as a whole or therelative places of its parts'; P. Siwek (Roma,1965), 69: omnino ac corpus locum mutabit;

and A. Jannone-E. Barbotin (Bud6, Paris,1966), 13: 'changement de la meme manibreque le corps'. Cf. Rodier's 'comme le corps'.Only O. Gigon, Arist. vomHimmel, von der

Seele, vonderDichtkunst Ztirich, 1950), 269,translates it by 'innerhalb des Leibes'.

4 H. Bonitz, 'Zur Erklirung einiger StellenausAristoteles Schrift Uber die Seele,' Hermes,

vii (1873), 422-8. His arguments are fullystated and discussed in the edition of R. D.

Hicks (London, 1907), 246-9.s Bonitz, op. cit., 424 (he appeals to the

texts of Philoponus and Themistius, but see

Hicks, 248). This emendation was recently

adopted again in the translation of W.Theiler (Berlin, 1966), I3. 9 ('ortlich').

6 Ross, 187. The words K.-.a. appear also

in the text quoted by Simpl., p. 37. 3-7 Bonitz, op. cit., 423-4. We shall quote

his objections in the rewording of Hicks,

247 (for Hicks's own propositions, see Ross,187).

8 So Simpl., p. 37. 4:"rov1-a7-rT

aIOcLEpaocJLa 70TLKCJ.SPhilop., p. io6. 19-21, saysthe same thing, but without quoting the

words of Aristotle).9 Hicks, 247.

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A NOTE ON ARISTOTLE, DE ANIMA, A. 3, 406b1-3 93

everything either moves per se (KaO' ai`r7) or in virtue of something else (KaG'

ETEpov), e.g. like the passengerson a ship.' Considering hen theconsequences orthe soul of the firstpossibility,2he ends this with the statement that, since it is

reasonable to conceive that the soul impartsto the body the samekind of move-ment which it has itself, so, conversely,it must have the kind of movement the

body has. Then follows our passage, the consequenceof which, Aristotle says,would be that the soul might also conceivably leave the body and re-enter it,which would mean that living beings might die and, afterwards,riseup again.3

We do not think that, with the currentinterpretation4of the foregoingsen-

tence, in the eyes of Aristotlesuch a consequencecould have seemednecessaryat all, as it indicates the sortof motion (sc. Oopa)only, and nothing more. Ifa movement of the body is actually a movement of the soul, the body's move-ment fromplace to place is the soul's movement fromplace to place,s so it doesnot follow at all that the soul must necessarilybe able to leave the body as well.

What we really need here is the statement that the soul can move itself

independentlyf the body, i.e. that it moves really KaO'Eavcrqv.Practically contra-

dicted by the translation 'in accordance with the body', this sense is easilyobtained if we translate Ka7d by 'throughout'.6 While the use of wLErapLdAAELvalone to indicate change of place is perfectly normal in Aristotle,7 KaRTrO aou6Lanow (I) supplies the required specification of the

y•E'osof this fEIjrapldAAcE

(a movement throughoutthe body clearly implies that it movesOop-:Aristotleis thus avoiding a 'clumsy repetition'), giving us at the same time the rdrrosof

thismovement (seesupra),and (2) it clearlydescribesa movementindependentof the body, so that the soul may leave it as well.8As we have said, this interpretation had been suggested already by Shorey.9

It is possible, however, that, in doing so, he connected in his mind KaCT-

c•cutawith the participle

LEO•L~ra'v6g.IOThis connection was already rejected by

Bonitzas it too would make impossiblethe followingconclusion on 'EA0E•OEnd

lacrEvatI (which is also the reasonwhy we prefer the translation'throughout'instead of the more ambiguous 'within'). But the phrase reads much more

naturally, we think, if we connect Kamr7crt4a with tLEraPfldAAoLv, taking the

followingparticipialclause as a furtherspecificationof thismotion 'throughout

the body'.To support his suggestion,Shorey referred to the comparisonin 4o6b15ff-

with quicksilver.We do not think, however, that this is completely to the

'4o6a4-io.

2Stating, e.g., that if the soul does move by

its essence and not per accidens,t must have

a place (rd6Tro): 4o6a 4-22.

3 406b3_5.4 Bonitz's emendation too belongs with

this interpretation, for it tries to make Aris-totle express more explicitly the same idea.

5 This is actually presented as a new pointof view in 4o6b 5 iff.

6 See LSJ, s.v., B. I. 2: 'with or without

signf. of motion, on, over, throughouta space'.7 See Bonitz, op. cit., 423.8 Bonitz, loc. cit., already admitted: 'Es

legt nahe, die inI/E--aPdiAAELt

allein nicht zu

findende Beschrankung auf die raumliche

Veranderung in den Worten K. 7. a. zu

suchen', but as he only understood it as

meaning 'dem Leibe entsprechend', he hadto reject this.

9 Shorey, op. cit., 152: 'In spite of theGreek commentators may this not mean"within the body" rather than "comme le

corps" ?'

ioThough Shorey does not express an

opinion on this point (his quoting of the

phrase only up to and including K. 7. a.rather suggests the contrary), Ross, in-fluenced probably by Bonitz's note, writes,

p. 187: 'Shorey keeps 7-ra-o4ta, connecting it

with pLEOct-a~jrLE' rather than with t~era-

PfdAAoLv.'

" Bonitz, op. cit., 424.

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94 H. DE LEY

point, because in that passageAristotleis dealing with a mechanical explana-tion of the movement of the bodyby that of the soul. More suggestive, perhaps,is Heraclitus'comparisonof the soulwith a spider,which, as soonas one of the

threads of its web is damaged, dashes to its help: sic hominis nimaaliquapartecorporisaesa illuc estine meat;or the aphorism in the Hippocratic Epidemics

OvX' 7TEp7TracroSpovrti-avOpo0rrotnv, 'the perambulationof soul (in the body)appears to men as thinking'.'

In conclusion I offer the following translation: 'Now, the body moves bylocomotion; so the soul as well mustbe able to change its place throughoutthe

body, whether in moving as a whole or in its parts.'

University f Ghent H. DE LEY

I Vorsokr. 2 B 67 a; Epid. 6. 5. 5 (Littre,v. 316). See K. Deichgraber, Die Epidemienund das C.H., 54 and 6I ; M. Pohlenz, Hippo-kratesstudienN.A.G., 1937, I. 2, 4], 86-7 =Kl. Schriften,ii. I94 f., who refers to the

Morb. Sacr., 'wo die eingeatmete Luft, dieTragerin des Seelischen, stiindig durch den

ganzen Leib zirkuliert (c. 4)'. Compare alsoVict. 6 ? 3: 'EKaCaTq EvXn . . . 7TEP

LoLrr7rd ptodpta Ewovr2gS.