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by Aristotle
Translated by W. D. Ross
Physics, by Aristotle
On the Soul, by
Aristotle
Meteorology, by Aristotle
On the Generation of Animals,
by Aristotle
Politics, by Aristotle
There seems to be also another irrational element in the soul-- one which
in a sense, however, shares in a rational principle. For we praise the
rational principle of the continent man and of the incontinent, and the
part of their soul that has such a principle, since it urges them aright
and towards the best objects; but there is found in them also another
element naturally opposed to the rational principle, which fights
against and resists that principle. For exactly as paralysed limbs when
we intend to move them to the right turn on the contrary to the left, so
is it with the soul; the impulses of incontinent people move in contrary
directions. But while in the body we see that which moves astray, in the
soul we do not. No doubt, however, we must none the less suppose that in
the soul too there is something contrary to the rational principle,
resisting and opposing it. In what sense it is distinct from the other
elements does not concern us. Now even this seems to have a share in a
rational principle, as we said; at any rate in the continent man it
obeys the rational principle and presumably in the temperate and brave
man it is still more obedient; for in him it speaks, on all matters,
with the same voice as the rational principle.
Therefore the irrational element also appears to be two-fold. For the
vegetative element in no way shares in a rational principle, but the
appetitive and in general the desiring element in a sense shares in it,
in so far as it listens to and obeys it; this is the sense in which we
speak of 'taking account' of one's father or one's friends, not that in
which we speak of 'accounting for a mathematical property. That the
irrational element is in some sense persuaded by a rational principle is
indicated also by the giving of advice and by all reproof and
exhortation. And if this element also must be said to have a rational
principle, that which has a rational principle (as well as that which
has not) will be twofold, one subdivision having it in the strict sense
and in itself, and the other having a tendency to obey as one does one's
father.
"Nicomachean Ethics," by Aristotle |
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