Page:Aristotelous peri psuxes.djvu/327

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
CH. X]
NOTES.
317

CHAPTER X.

Note 1, p. 178. Thus it is the object longed for alone, &c.] Food, that is, being necessary both for stilling the appetite and preserving the body, is the first motor; for, were there, as the text says, two motors, then, as the practical mind never impels to move without appetite, appetite could not impel to move without the mind, which is not the case. This is the argument; but it is less distinct than might be wished for owing to the nature of the practical mind not having been defined, and to insufficient knowledge concerning both muscular agency and the brain and nervous system.

Note 2, p. 178. The mind then is always right, &c.] The intellect, that is, when neither moved by appetite nor perverted by imagination, (for both may be wrong) is, when freed from those influences, always right; but food incites to move because it is either good or appears to be a good, in the sense, not of a moral but, of a practical good, and, as such, it may, by abuse, be the opposite of good.

Note 3, p. 179. The appetites admit of being opposed, &c.] "Appetite and reason are not always in accordance," Aristotle[1] observes, and as, when any one desire is

  1. Eth. Eud. II. 8. 5.