16. Wonder, Definition, and the Soul as First Act

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Wonder as the Beginning of Philosophy #

• Wonder is the sole beginning of philosophy, according to both Plato (Theaetetus) and Aristotle (Metaphysics, Proem)
• Wonder is a desire to know causes—specifically, a desire to know the unknown cause of a known fact
• A true philosopher must love wisdom for its own sake, not for money, fame, or other extrinsic goods
• Logic is the tool of the man who thinks and wonders; it serves the practical man engaged in inquiry
• The fragment of Democritus exemplifies philosophical wonder: “I would rather discover one cause than be master of the kingdom of the Persians”

Definition and Demonstration in Logic #

• In Posterior Analytics Book 2, Aristotle discusses two fundamental questions: “What is it?” and “Why is it so?”
• Definition answers the question “What”; demonstration answers the question “Why”
• A definition can function in three ways relative to demonstration:
  • As the beginning (premise) of a demonstration
  • As the conclusion of a demonstration
  • As a complete demonstration expressed in different form
• Four kinds of causes yield different types of definitions (formal, material, final, efficient)
• Example: A knife can be defined by its end (cutting), by its matter (blade and handle), or by combining both

The Soul as First Act #

• The soul is the first act (ἐνέργεια πρώτη) of a natural body composed of organs
• The soul is that by which we first live, sense, move, and understand
• The soul must be distinguished from the second act (ἐνέργεια δευτέρα), which is operation or activity
• The soul is form, not matter; matter is only in potency until receiving form
• A natural body becomes capable of life’s operations when it receives its form (the soul)

The Proportional Method of Manifestation #

• Aristotle uses analogies (proportions) to manifest what is less known (the soul) through what is more known (sensible operations)
• First proportion: As the ability to chop is to an axe, so the soul is to the living body
• Second proportion: As sight (the power of seeing) is to the eye, so the soul is to the living body
• These proportions show that the soul enables operations but is not itself the operation

Hierarchy of Living Powers #

• Nutritive power: Present in all living things (plants, animals, humans); enables nourishment, growth, reproduction
• Sensitive power: Present in animals and humans; includes touch and higher senses
• Locomotive power: Present in animals that move from place to place
• Intellective power (νοῦς/thinking power): Present in humans; enables understanding and choice
• Lower powers can exist without higher ones (as plants lack sensation); higher powers require lower ones in mortal things
• Touch is present in all animals; other senses (sight, hearing, smell) are not universally present

The Unity of Soul and Body #

• The soul and body form a substantial unity, not an accidental union
• The soul is never separable from the body in mortal things (except the intellective power, which may be separable—this is mysterious and unclear)
• When a plant is divided and both parts continue to live, each part has the soul’s powers
• This occurs because plants lack diversity of organs; they remain capable of nutrition, growth, and reproduction even when divided
• In animals and humans with greater organ diversity, division would be fatal because necessary conditions for life’s operations would be destroyed

Key Arguments #

Argument for Soul as Form Rather Than Matter #

• Premise 1: That by which we first live, sense, and understand is either matter or form
• Premise 2: Matter is only in potency; form is in act
• Premise 3: A body only becomes capable of life’s operations when it receives form
• Conclusion: The soul must be form, not matter

Argument from the Proportional Method #

• Premise 1: We understand the soul through likeness to things more known to us (tools, sensible operations)
• Premise 2: As the ability to chop is to raw materials (which become an axe when shaped), so the soul is to matter
• Premise 3: An axe cannot chop until it has the proper form; a body cannot live until it has the soul
• Conclusion: The soul is the form that actualizes the body’s capacity for life

Argument for Hierarchy of Powers #

• Premise 1: Nutritive power can exist without sensation (as in plants)
• Premise 2: Sensation cannot exist without nutrition in mortal things
• Premise 3: Higher powers depend on lower powers as their substrate
• Conclusion: There is a natural hierarchy with each power building on those below

Important Definitions #

First Act (ἐνέργεια πρώτη / entelecheia prote) #

• The form or actuality that makes a thing what it is and capable of its operations
• The soul as the principle of life in a living body
• Distinguished from second act (the actual operation or activity)

Second Act (ἐνέργεια δευτέρα / entelecheia deutera) #

• The operation or activity flowing from the first act
• Examples: seeing (operation of the eye), chopping (operation of the axe), eating, moving
• The soul is not the second act but the principle enabling it

Organon (ὄργανον) #

• A body part or instrument designed for a specific operation
• A natural body capable of life is composed of such organs
• Examples: the eye (for seeing), the blade and handle (for cutting)

Proportion (ἀναλογία / analogia) #

• A likeness of ratios; as A is to B, so C is to D
• Used to move from what is more known to us to what is more fundamental in reality
• Requires careful attention to both similarities and differences between terms

Νοῦς (nous) / Theoretike Dynamis (θεωρητικὴ δύναμις) #

• The intellective or thinking power; the power of understanding and contemplation
• Theōrētos (θεωρητικός) means “meant to be looked at”; from theōrea (θέωρεα), “looking/viewing”
• Distinguished from dianoerike (διανοερική) knowledge, which involves “knowing one thing through another” or discursive reasoning

Mean Proportional (μέσος ὅρος) #

• A number or quantity that holds the same relation to two other quantities
• Example: 6 is the mean proportional between 4 and 9 because 4:6 = 6:9
• Used to transform an oblong (rectangle) into a square of equal area

Examples & Illustrations #

The Axe Example #

• Raw materials (wood, metal) are only potentially an axe
• When shaped and formed with proper arrangement, they become actually an axe
• The ability to chop is the first act; the actual chopping is the second act
• If the axe were a natural body, its form would be its soul
• This shows how form (not matter) enables operation

The Knife Example #

• Can be defined by its end/purpose: “a tool for cutting”
• Can be defined by its matter/parts: “a tool composed of a blade and handle”
• Can combine both: “a tool composed of a blade and handle for the sake of cutting”
• One can reason from the functional definition to the material definition through demonstration
• The functional definition acts as a middle term; the material definition as conclusion

The Eye Example #

• The eye has matter (physical organ) and form (power of sight)
• Sight (the power of seeing) is the first act; seeing (the operation) is the second act
• A dead eye or painted eye has the matter but lacks the form; therefore it is only equivocally an eye
• This exemplifies how the soul (form) is essential to make a body actually capable of its operation

The Plant Division Example #

• When a plant is divided, both parts may continue to live
• This is because plants have little diversity of organs
• Each part retains enough organs to perform nutrition, growth, and reproduction
• Unlike animals and humans, plants can be divided while maintaining the conditions necessary for life
• In humans, division would destroy the necessary conditions for life because organs are highly differentiated and interdependent

The Movie Example (The Heiress) #

• A wealthy father tests a suitor’s love by offering him money to abandon his homely daughter
• The suitor takes the money, proving he loves money, not the daughter
• This illustrates the distinction between loving something for itself versus loving it for the sake of something else
• Just as a true lover of the woman cannot prefer money to her, a true lover of wisdom cannot prefer external goods (wealth, fame) to wisdom itself

The Wild Horse Example (From Irving’s Tour on the Prairies) #

• Wild horses are captured and tamed through habituation and pressure
• Initially, the horse resists and tries to throw off the rider
• Through consistent training, the horse becomes habituated and obeys
• This exemplifies Plato’s analogy: the spirited part (emotions) is like a wild horse that must be trained by reason (the rider)
• Shows how appetitive powers, while present by nature, must be ordered and habituated

The Touch and Food Analogy #

• Touch is the sense present in all animals
• Some lower animals may have only touch and taste (which is a kind of touch)
• These animals react only to what comes in direct contact with them
• Animals that hunt require senses of distance (sight, hearing, smell) in addition to touch
• Nutrition is the power present in all living things; it is like touch in this respect

Questions Addressed #

Why is wonder the true beginning of philosophy? #

• Wonder is a desire to know causes for their own sake, not for practical benefit
• It distinguishes the philosopher from those who pursue knowledge for money, fame, or other extrinsic goods
• The intense desire expressed in Democritus’s fragment shows that wonder moves the philosopher to seek understanding above all other goods

How can definition relate to demonstration? #

• A definition can function as a premise from which we demonstrate further truths
• A definition can be the conclusion of a demonstration
• A definition can express everything that would be in a demonstration but in the unified form of a definition rather than the sequential form of a syllogism
• The four kinds of causes explain why different definitions of the same thing are possible

Why must the soul be form rather than matter? #

• Matter is only in potency; the body becomes capable of life only when it receives form
• The soul is the principle that actualizes the body’s capacity for life
• If the soul were matter, it could not explain how the body becomes capable of operations
• The soul as form makes the body actually alive, not merely potentially so

How is the soul related to the body? #

• The soul is the form of the body; body and soul constitute a substantial unity
• The soul is not in the body as a sailor in a ship (extrinsic relation)
• The soul cannot be separated from the body in mortal things (though the intellective power presents a difficulty)
• This unity explains how one being (I) both thinks and feels pain

Why is the soul the first act rather than the second act? #

• The second act (operation) depends on and flows from the first act (form/principle)
• The soul must be the principle that enables operations, not the operations themselves
• Before a body can see, sense, or move, it must have the form (soul) that makes it capable of these operations
• The first act is logically and metaphysically prior to the second act

Why can plants be divided and still live while animals cannot? #

• Plants have little diversity of organs and distributed powers throughout their bodies
• When divided, each part retains enough organs to perform the necessary operations of nutrition, growth, and reproduction
• Animals have highly differentiated and interdependent organs
• Division of an animal destroys the necessary conditions for the operation of its powers
• This shows that the soul’s powers are distributed according to the diversity and unity of organs in the body

What is the relationship between the higher and lower powers of the soul? #

• The nutritive power is found alone in plants
• The sensitive power is found only with the nutritive power in animals
• The intellective power is found only with the lower powers in humans
• In mortal things, higher powers cannot exist without lower powers as their substrate
• In immortal beings (angels, God), the higher powers can exist without the lower

Notable Quotes #

“There is no other beginning of philosophy than wonder.” — Socrates in Plato’s Theaetetus

“I would rather discover one cause than be master of the kingdom of the Persians.” — Democritus

“If a man loves the woman for her money, would you say he loves the woman or he loves money?” — Berquist’s illustration of loving something for itself versus for extrinsic goods

“If the knife is a tool for cutting, and a tool for cutting has to have a blade, right, to cut with, and something that we can hold without being cut ourselves, then a tool for cutting is going to be a tool composed of a line of your blade and a hammer.” — Berquist demonstrating how definition functions as premise in demonstration