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Re: Aristotle on the heart 

On Sun, 22 Feb 1998 13:39:31 -0500
Christopher Green wrote:

In a somewhat obscure passage in which he seems to be claiming that the
mind itself does not have emotion (De anima 432b), he writes:

"...for mind as speculative never thinks what is practicable, it never
says anything about an object to be avoided or pursued, while this
movement is always in something which is avoiding or pursuing an object.
No, not even when it is aware of such an object does it at once enjoin
pursuit or avoidance of it; e.g. the mind often thinks of something
terrifying or pleasant without enjoining the emotion of fear. It is the
heart that is moved (or in the case of a pleasant object some other
part)."
____________________________________________

Aristotle distinguished the mind, or better, intellect, into speculative
and practical. The speculative is directed towards contemplation of first
principles. It derives material for speculation from particular sense
objects, but it does not think about them AS particulars, for example, as
things to be either avoided or pursued. Therefore, the speculative
intellect is not thinking about what is practicable, because that always
has to do with particulars to be avoided or pursued, and so no emotions
are stirred. The practical intellect, on the other hand, starts from first
principles, but looks toward achieving them through action; these actions
can only be directed toward particulars as their objects; as the practical
intellect determines whether they are to be pursued or avoided, emotions
are aroused -- in the heart. 

As the practical intellect is directed toward particulars, toward emotions
of desire and avoidance, and toward specific bodily actions, it has to have
a physical organ, i.e. it is a logistic or cogitative power dealing with
sensible particulars as such. The physical "intellect" or "judgement" or
"understanding" is what has a physical organ, whereas for many of the ancient
writers, the speculative intellect does not.

Jeffrey Wollock
<HISTNEUR-L@library.ucla.edu>