Book 1, Chapter 10

“Those views I have mentioned—the heart, the brain, breath, fire—are widely held; the rest belong mostly to individual thinkers. For example, some early philosophers long ago, and more recently Aristoxenus, a musician as well as a philosopher, held the soul to be a kind of tension in the body itself, like what is called ἁρμονία, harmony, in singing and on stringed instruments. Thus, from the nature and configuration of the whole body, various movements are aroused, like sounds in music.

20 “He did not stray from his own profession; yet what he said was something whose nature Plato had discussed and explained long before. Xenocrates denied that the soul had any shape or, so to speak, body; he said it was a number, whose power in nature was supreme, as Pythagoras had already held. His teacher Plato devised a threefold soul: he placed its ruling part, reason, in the head as in a citadel, and made two parts subject to it, anger and desire, assigning them separate places—anger in the chest and desire below the diaphragm.

21 “Dicaearchus, however, in the three books in which he presents a conversation held at Corinth among learned men, gives many speakers a voice in the first book. In the other two he introduces a certain Pherecrates, an old man from Phthia whom he says was descended from Deucalion, arguing that there is no soul at all: the whole word is meaningless, and living things are pointlessly called creatures with souls. Neither human nor beast contains a soul or breath of life; all the power by which we act or perceive is spread evenly through every living body and cannot be separated from the body, since it has no existence of its own. There is nothing but a single, uncompounded body, formed so as to live and feel through the blending of its natural constituents.

22 “Aristotle, far surpassing everyone—I always except Plato—in both genius and diligence, after embracing the four familiar kinds of first elements from which everything arises, believes there is a certain fifth substance from which the mind is made. For he thinks that thinking, foreseeing, learning, teaching, discovering something, remembering so many [other] things, loving, hating, desiring, fearing, feeling anguish or joy—these and similar activities cannot reside in any of those four kinds. He introduces a fifth kind, which has no name, and gives the soul itself a new name, ἐνδελέχεια, ‘continuous activity,’ as though it were a kind of uninterrupted and everlasting motion.”

“The views I’ve just mentioned—heart, brain, breath, fire—are widely held. Most of the others belong to individual thinkers. Aristoxenus, both a musician and a philosopher, proposed a view that earlier thinkers had held long before him. He said the soul was a kind of tension in the body itself, like what’s called harmonía, or harmony, in singing and stringed music. On this view the makeup and shape of the whole body produce different movements, just as they produce notes in music.

20 “That kept him within his own trade. Even so, Plato had already stated and explained the character of this idea long before. With Xenocrates, the soul has no shape and nothing that could count as a body: it’s a number. For him, number is the most powerful thing in nature, as it had been for Pythagoras before him. Plato, who taught Xenocrates, imagined three parts to the soul. Reason commands from the head, its fortress. The two others must obey: anger has its separate place in the chest, while desire belongs below the diaphragm.

21 “Then there’s Dicaearchus. In the first of his three books presenting a discussion among learned men at Corinth, he has many people speak. In the other two he introduces an old man from Phthia, a certain Pherecrates, whom he says is descended from Deucalion. Pherecrates argues that there is no soul at all: the word means absolutely nothing, and it’s pointless to call creatures ‘animals’ or ‘living beings.’ Neither a human nor an animal has a soul or breath of life inside it. All the power by which we do anything or sense anything is spread evenly throughout every living body. It can’t be separated from the body, since it doesn’t exist as a thing at all. There’s nothing but a single, simple body, formed in such a way that its natural balance gives it life and sensation.

22 “No one matches Aristotle for talent and thoroughness, leaving Plato aside, as I always do. Aristotle accepted the familiar four basic kinds of matter that give rise to everything. But for the mind he proposed a fifth substance. None of the four, he thought, could contain the abilities to think, to think ahead, to learn or teach, to discover something or remember so much, to love or hate, want or fear, suffer distress or feel joy, and all the other activities like these. So he brings in a fifth kind without a name. For the soul itself, he coins the name endelécheia: something like movement that goes on continuously, forever.”