Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/188

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178
ARISTOTLE ON THE
[BK. III.

Now, every appetite tends to some object, for the appetite, which is the beginning of the practical mind, has ever some object in view, and that object is the beginning of the action. So that these two, appetite and practical thought, may reasonably be regarded as motor powers—for the object longed for impels to move, and then, through it, the practical intelligence impels, because its origin is the object longed for; and when imagination may incite to move, it never does set in motion without appetite. Thus, it is the object longed for alone which produces motion; for if there were two motives, mind and appetite, they would produce motion according to some common formula. But as the case is, the mind does not appear to produce motion without appetite, for volition is appetite; and even when a creature may move by calculation, it still moves by volition; the appetite, on the contrary, impels to move against calculation, for desire is a kind of appetite.

The mind then is always right; but appetite as well as imagination may be right and may be wrong. It is, therefore, the object desired which always excites to move, but then that object is a good or an apparent good; not however, a good in every sense, but a practical good, and a practical good admits of being otherwise than good.

It is manifest then, that it is that faculty of Vital Principle, the so-called appetite which excites to