De Anima Book 2; 1-4 PDF

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Lecture notes and also assigned reading for De Anima Book 2, 1-4 ...

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➔ Aristotle claims that matter and form are similar to body and soul because a living thing is a natural body that has the characteristics of sense and nutrition ➔ Living substances hace acts which don’t make it what it is ➔ Having the knowledge to be actualized as habit is like the first act and it’s necessary for the second act ➔ The act of being a substance on matter is necessary to have any other qualifications of this living thing ◆ Substance on matter: act of a body living to its potential ➔ When we consider that all living things have characteristics of having parts that are used for the whole we notice that the soul actualizes those organs as a matter for the whole ◆ Becomes the first act of a natural organ (organized) body ➔ If an axe is a natural substance, it would chop things by itself (organ), but since it doesn’t, the difference must be a substantial form that unites the matter towards an end ➔ Without the soul the eye is just an eye ➔ Matter (potential) and form (actuality/reality) ➔ Forms/acts have two senses: substantial and accidental ◆ First act is knowledge which is similar to living and corresponds to the body having potential to have life ◆ Second act is the exercise of knowledge ➔ Some natural bodies have unique acts: self nutrition and growth ◆ Things that are moved from the outside are called inanimate ➔ Aristotle identifies the soul as the first grade of actuality of a natural body having life potential ➔ Matter is inseparable from form ◆ Follows that the soul cannot leave the body ➔ Since the power of self nutrition can be isolated from touch and sensation, touch can be isolated from sensation ➔ The power to suggest and the power to perceive must be distinct ➔ The way we act is from, and we have the power to actualize relates to matter ➔ Bodies require a soul ➔ Plants only have the nutritive, animals only have the appetitive ◆ Appetitive is the kind of desire, passion, and wish ➔ We move toward the individual principle after we have the formal definition ➔ In order to give the best definition of each particular thing then, we have to start with a definition expressing what it is and discover its properties ◆ Must understand their objects (intelligible, perceptible, and food) ➔ All natural bodies are organs for the soul ➔ Two sense of end: end to achieve;order of perfection & the substance in whose interest anything is done; order of nature/becoming ➔ The soul is essential, has two senses, and is the cause of the body being a substance

➔ The living substance has an end that transcends itself, because it reproduces for the sake of the species ➔ The nutritive power implies being able to assimilate food ➔ Food does not generate man because it is the nutritive power that make it become part of the soul October 9, 2019 ➔ Change is accidental ◆ Qualitative (smell, taste, color, size) ◆ Quantitative ◆ Place (location, position) ➔ Substantial change ◆ Kinds are being distinguished ➔ Any change involves a motion from potency (potentiality for something to be something else) to act ➔ Does all matter have the same potential? ➔ Potentiality is the first grade of reality ◆ Act is the second ➔ Four causes of action ◆ What it’s made of = material cause ◆ What it’s for = final cause/purpose ◆ Who and what made it = efficient cause ● It’s the idea in the mind of the maker ◆ What is it? ● Formal cause, essence ○ Your cause for the thing ○ Invisible ● Shape ● Formal cause is just a shape ➔ A tree’s purpose is to grow and mature (for itself) ◆ Form is a motion from potentiality to act ◆ Change that occurs ➔ Animals are sensitive, they desire, seek pleasure and pain ◆ Have a sense of touch ◆ Don’t have the material organs to be related ◆ Have locomotive souls (can move their souls around) ➔ The universe wakes up and interrogates itself ➔ Final cause is always within the thing ➔ Natural objects are made by us ➔ Humans are artifacts that have souls ◆ Unique exception ➔ Accidental change is an alteration

➔ All matter is potency ➔ We are the thing in the universe that acquires into itself ➔ We are like instance in the universe that wake up and become interested in itself...