Aristotle's investigation into the nature of the soul — not as a religious concept but as the principle of life itself. De Anima asks what makes living things alive, how perception works, and what thinking actually is. Its answer — that the soul is the form of the body — shaped philosophy for two thousand years.
Start ReadingA survey of earlier theories of the soul. Aristotle examines and criticises the views of his predecessors — Democritus, Plato, Empedocles, and others — on what the soul is and how it relates to the body.
The definition of the soul, nutrition, and sensation. Aristotle defines the soul as the first actuality of a natural body with organs, then analyses the nutritive and perceptive faculties — the fundamental powers that make living things alive.
Imagination, thought, and the active intellect. Aristotle examines phantasia (the power of forming mental images), analyses the nature of thinking, and introduces the famous but enigmatic distinction between the passive and active intellect.