IV. Whether the
Soul is Incorporeal.
That the soul is in our body, has been shown
above. We ought now, therefore, to ascertain in what manner it is
in the body. Now, if it is in juxtaposition with it, as one
pebble with another, it follows that the soul will be a body, and also
that the whole body will not be animated with soul,
451
inasmuch as with a certain part it will only
be in juxtaposition. But if again, it is mingled or fused with
the body, the soul will become multiplex,
452
and not simple, and will thus be despoiled
of the rationale proper to a soul. For what is multiplex is also
divisible and dissoluble; and what is dissoluble, on the other hand, is
compound;
453
and what is
compound is separable in a threefold manner. Moreover, body
attached to body makes weight;
454
but
the soul, subsisting in the body, does not make weight, but rather
imparts life. The soul, therefore, cannot be a body, but is
incorporeal.
Again, if the soul is a body, it is put in action either
from without or from within. But it is not put in action from
without; for it is moved neither by impulsion nor by traction, like
soulless things. Nor is it put in action from within, like
objects animated with soul; for it is absurd to talk of a soul of the
soul: it cannot, therefore, be a body, but it is incorporeal.
And besides, if the soul is a body, it has sensible
qualities, and is maintained by nurture. But it is not thus
nurtured. For if it is nurtured, it is not nurtured corporeally,
like the body, but incorporeally; for it is nurtured by reason.
It has not, therefore, sensible qualities: for neither is
righteousness, nor courage, nor any one of these things, something that
is seen; yet these are the qualities of the soul. It cannot,
therefore, be a body, but is incorporeal.
Still further, as all corporeal substance is divided
into animate and inanimate, let those who hold that the soul is a body
tell us whether we are to call it animate or inanimate.
Finally, if every body has colour, and quantity,
and figure, and if there is not one of these qualities perceptible in
the soul, it follows that the soul is not a body.
455
451
ἔμψυχον
.
452
πολυμερής
.
453
σύνθετον
.
454
ὄγκον
.
455
[These are Aristotle’s
accidents
, of which, see
Thomas Aquinas and the schoolmen
passim.
]