Part 4

SUB-SECTION B:

To treat now of the definition of the Soul at large, I mean the universal, absolute, generic soul. This will become apparent, according to the tenets I hold, that among truths that are plainly manifest one is that every one of all natural bodies is compounded of “hyle” I mean matter, and of form. As for hyle, one of its properties is that through it a natural body is affected (or acted upon) in its very self; seeing that the sword, for instance, does not cut through its iron, but through its sharpness, which is its form; whereas it gets jagged owing to its iron, and not owing to its form. Another of those properties is that bodies do not differ through it, I mean through the hyle; for earth does not differ from water through its matter, but through its form. Still another property is that it--the hyle or matter--does not afford (supply, furnish) natural bodies their characteristics peculiarly belonging to them, save potentially; since in man, e.g., his humanity--his being man--is not actually derived from the four elements, save potentially.

As for the form, its peculiarity is 1.^o that through it bodies put forth their actions (or perform their manifold deeds and workings); since a sword does not cut through its iron, but through, its sharpness; and 2.^o that bodies differ one from the other only through their genus or kind, I mean the form, since earth does not differ from water save through its form, whereas in its matter it does not; and 3.^o that natural bodies get (derive, acquire) their being what they in fact are from the form, since as to man, his being a man (his humanity) is in fact through his form, and not through his matter, which is of the four elements.

Let us proceed a little further, and we shall say that a live body is a natural compound body that discriminates the non-living through its soul, and not through its body; and that performs multifarious animal works through its soul, and not through its body; and is alive through its soul and not through its body; and its soul is within it. Now, what is within a thing, while this form of its continues, is its form [or, this its form being so and not otherwise, is etc.]. Thus then the soul is a form; and forms are realized perfections (enteléchia), since through them the features (identities, characteristics) of things become perfect. The soul, therefore is a perfection (realized identity). And perfections (enteléchias) come under two divisions: either the principles underlying the doings and their effects, or the very doings and effects themselves. The one of the two divisions is first, and the other is second. The first is the principle (or source and origin), and the second is the doing and the effect (or trace). In this sense the soul is a first perfection (or prime actuality); for it is a principle (source), not an outcome of a principle (source). And of perfections, there are such as belong to bodies, and such as belong to incorporeal substances. In this sense the soul is a prime perfection attaching to a body. And among bodies, there are such as are artificial, and such as are natural. Now the soul is not a perfection of an artificial body; hence it is a prime perfection attaching to a natural body. Again, among natural bodies there are such as perform their multifarious workings through organs (tools, instruments), and such as do not perform their workings through organs (tools); as, for example the simple bodies, and those acting through the prevalence (constraint) of the simple forces. In other words we may say, if we like, that among natural bodies there are those whose design is, among other things, that they produce of themselves [whose task or business is to perform animal acts voluntarily, of their own will,] manifold animal actions; and there are those whose design is, among other things, not so to produce. Hence again, the soul is not a perfection attaching to the two last divisions in both the foregoing manners of statement. Therefore its full and finished definition is to say that--

It is a prime perfection (consummation, realization) attaching to an organic natural body; and, if we wish, to say further, a prime perfection attaching to a natural body having a life potentially (a first, perfection belonging to a natural body which body may have life); that is to say, a source of the manifold animal actions potentially (it is the source and origin of the deeds done by such beings as may be alive). Thus then we have divided (described) the generic soul, and defined it--which is what we had undertaken.

FOOTNOTES:

Logical intension and extension.

In this section the soul-powers are at first separated into Three Chief Classes; afterwards, in the following sections, each one of these is again sub-divided into several parts.

Doctor S. Landauer, in the Notes to his German Translation, quotes fully from the Greek text of Aristotle’s «De Anima,» and comes to the conclusion that Ibn Sînâ has, in the first sub-section, given the contents of de anima II, chap. 3, but has changed the order of the ideas; and to the further conclusion that the second sub-section, dealing with the definition of the soul, is nothing more than an extract from de anima II, chap. 1.

«differs, not through its matter, but through its form»: this resolves matter back to One Element; but he has already named Four, viz. Earth, Air, Fire, and Water; or rather he has declared the elements to be Four.

SECTION THIRD

=To Establish that not One of the Faculties of the Soul Originates out of a Combination (Blending) of the Elements, but on the contrary Comes upon Them from Outside.=

All the various things that are, however composite they may be, and whatever form may have come about in the compound, will be (a) either inclining towards some one of the forms of the simples, or else will not be so. And if they be not so inclining, they will be (b) either resulting from an aggregate (or mean) of the forms of the simples, according to the degree of disproportion and deviation of the constituents from equality, or else (c) they will not be assimilated to any one of the simples, but there will be made (generated, produced) a form exceeding the requirement of the forms of the simples, both in regard to the measure of its simplicity and in regard to the measure of its complexity. An example of the first division is the bitterish taste on compounding aloe, which is overpoweringly bitter, and honey, which is feebly sweet. An example of the second division is the color grey, holding an equal relationship to both of the extremes (contrasts) blackness and whiteness, which results on compounding a white and a black opposite. An example of the third of the said divisions is the seal’s stamp (imprint) remaining in the clay (mortar, putty) which is composed of dry dust and liquid water on their being mixed up together; for it is known that the imprint remaining in the putty is not in pursuance to the requirement of the forms of the simples, neither whether they be considered in respect of the resultant compound, nor whether they be considered in respect of the simple constituents taken singly.

To recapitulate:--it is known that the first division, if it be produced, from simples whose forms are opposed (contrary) not through mechanical mixture (commingling) but through blending (alloy, amalgam)--it is clear I say in such cases that the overpowered contraries will no longer have an existence of their own, nor an existence of the effects peculiar to them, because of the impossibility of two contraries working together in one and the same carrier (medium), but the utmost effects they can exert will be to introduce a decrease in the strength of the overpowering constituent, and nothing more; and it is known that the second division, in what proportions soever it be found, imposes reciprocity and equality both passive and active, that is to say the manifold workings that the forms of the simples necessarily exert and the corresponding effects that these forms suffer mutually one from the other must of necessity be reciprocal, and in the ratio of their respective proportions and strengths; and lastly, it is known that the third division, if it comes about, will not have resulted from the intrinsic (very) self of the compound, since it in no way at all belongs to it, neither in consideration of its simple nor of its composite form. Hence it is gained (got, acquired) from without.

It is now necessary, since we have prefixed these premisses, that we go deeper into our pursuit, so we say:--

That the soul has only come forth [for us through the foregoing contemplations] in compound bodies whose forms are opposed and in none others; nor will its manifestation in them be devoid (divested) of one of the three divisions; but it is not of the first division; else it is heat or coldness, dryness or moisture (dampness), in any of which soever a decrease has more or less come about; and how shall any one of these powers be fit to put forth from itself multifarious psychical deeds, given the fact of the decrease (defect) occasioned in the very composition, and given also what it would have expended in that decrease out of its strength? nay, how shall any one of these powers cause motion save towards one direction alone? and wherefore has it become necessary to effect mutual exclusion (displacement) among psychical movements so that their mutual exclusion (displacement) shall engender a dullness (or weariness), since in the effect (influence) of one identical thing there does not arise exclusion; nor is it of the second division, since the existence of the second division is an impossibility, and this because the elements, however much they may be compounded, under (proportionate) equality of the powers, this necessitates in them the stoppage (cessation) of all the effects attaching to each one of the two, and thus if the compound were left alone (abandoned to itself) it would never have to move, neither upwards--else the heat is the overpowerer and the cold is the one overpowered--nor downwards--else the cold is the overpowerer and the heat is the one overpowered--nay nor even would it remain at rest in one of the four spots of space (wherein dwell all the four elements)--else Nature which attracts towards itself is the overpowerer therein--whereas it has been asserted that all of them are equal both to overpower and to be overpowered, and this is a contradiction: Therefore this body (such a body) is neither still nor moving,--whereas every body which is surrounded by another body is either still or moving,--and this too is a contradiction; and what leads to contradiction is itself a contradiction; so then our assertion that the elements may possibly be compounded under equality of the powers is a contradiction, and hence its opposite, to wit our saying that such is impossible, is true [reduction ad absurdam]. Wherefore the coming forth of the soul, i.e., its combination with body, occurs only after the method of the third division; and it has been already said that what is after the method of the third division is gained from outside: The soul then is got from without--which is what we wished to show.

FOOTNOTES:

Mechanical mixture, blending, combination, etc.: compare the Greek mixis, krâsis, and synthesis.

SECTION FOURTH

=Specification of the Vegetable (Plant) Powers, and Mention of the Need there is for Each One of Them.=

Souled bodies, I mean having souls, if considered from the side of their vegetable powers, are found to have in common the getting of nourishment, and to differ in growth and generation (reproduction of offspring); since, among nourishment-taking beings, there are such as do not grow, for example a living individual that has reached full growth and the period of stand still, or that has declined therefrom through withering. Yet every growing thing gets nourishment. Again, among nutriment-taking beings there are such as do not propagate, as seeds that are not yet harvest-ripe, and an animal that has not yet reached puberty. Nevertheless, every propagating thing has inevitably passed through a preceding stage of nutrition; nor will the state (stage) of propagating ever be deprived of nutrition. Further, we find them, beside having the getting of nourishment in common, to have growth also in common, but to differ in the propagation (of offspring) since there are, among growing things, such as do not beget, as an animal not yet arrived at puberty, and the worm. Nevertheless every begetter has already passed through a period of growth; nor will the state (stage) of begetting be deprived of the power of giving growth [to the young that are being produced]. Hence the vegetable powers are three:

1. the nutritive; 2. the growth promoting; and 3. the propagating. Of these the nutritive is as the starting-point; the propagating as the aim and end; and the growth-promoting as the means binding the end to the starting-place. Indeed the souled body stands in absolute need of these three powers for the following reasons: Whereas the Divine Command came down upon Nature enjoining (imposing) upon her the task of forming a compound living being out of the four elements after such wise fashion as they called for in it; and whereas Nature of herself is unable to originate a souled body at one stroke, but can do so only by promoting its growth little by little; and whereas an individual that is put together after the manner of animal composition is susceptible of being again decomposed and melting away by the natures of its constituents; and whereas a thing composed of opposites will not keep up so protracted a duration and last so long a time as is expected of it--therefore Nature is in want of a power by which she can fabricate a living body by promotion of growth; so she has been supplied by Divine Providence with the growth-giving power; and is in want of a power whereby she can preserve the souled body at an even standard over against the waste which it undergoes in making up for what disintegration wears away from it; so she has been succoured by Divine Providence with the nutritive power; and is in want of a power that shall mould, out of the living natural body, a piece that she shall dwell in, in order that if corruption permeate the body it shall have sought for itself a successor as a substitute, whereby to arrive at the preservation of species; so she has been helped by the Divine Providence with the propagating (generating) power.

And we ought, in this connection, to bear in mind as a certain and true fact that the growth-giving power, although it has been found, from the standpoint that we have mentioned, to be following close upon the nutritive, and the propagating (generating) to be following close upon the growth-imparting (promoting), yet the precedence of the part played by each one of the three, in their undertaking the task of creating the living body and preserving it through their special and peculiar workings, is the other way about; for the first to enthrall the material predisposed to receive life is the generating (procreating, propagating) power, since this power clothes the material at first with the form (prototype) of that which is intended to be realized through the ministry (service) of the growth-promoting and nutritive powers; and as soon as it has achieved in that material a perfect form it delivers over the sway to the growth-promoting power, which assumes it through the ministry (service) of the nutritive power, and imparts to the material--all the time keeping up the form of the material within the due proportions of the [three] dimensions [length, breadth and thickness]--a motion (activity) of growth towards the end striven after by it, the growth-promoting power aforesaid. Then this latter stops; and the nutritive power enthralls the material. Again, the generating (propagating) power is the one served, not the servant; and in comparison with it, the nutritive power is the servant, not the one served. Thus too the growth-promoting power is served in one sense, and serving in an other sense. And the nutritive power, although it does not exist as the one served in the spiritual powers, yet it does sometimes employ the four forces of Nature--to wit, the attracting, the holding, the digesting, and the excreting (repelling). And, even as that which is striven after in the process of form-making is solely the bringing about of the form in matter in the shape (kind, design) proposed, and not at all the bringing about of growth or of nutrition,--only that there is need for the two latter for the sake of realizing the desired form, and not the converse--so also the final aim in the [several] powers is the procreating (propagating) power, to the exclusion of the growth-promoting and of the nutritive. Wherefore, the procreating power is given precedence for a teliological reason.

And through God is fitness to be achieved.

FOOTNOTES:

Probably his view was that worms arise out of a germ of moist clay or mud, and are a sort of developed protoplasm. Compare §6 of Ibn Tufayl’s «Hayy b. Yaqzân,» and the Note thereto in the English Translation about field-rats.

The germ of the Doctrine of Evolution as against Instantaneous Creation.

See Ibn Sînâ’s «Qânûn,» Section 2, where he says: As to the nutritive power, it is that power which transforms the nutriment into a resemblance with the nourishment-taker, in order that this nutriment may succeed in the stead of what shall be wasted, and attach itself to the taker instead of the waste.--See also «Kitâb-ul-Najât,» by Ibn Sînâ.