Aristotle's On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection [Hardcover]

Aristotle (Author), Joe Sachs (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1888009160 | ISBN-13: 978-1888009163 | Publication Date: September 1, 2002

On the Soul is also known by its Latin title De Anima or its Greek title Peri Psuchês What does it mean to be a natural living thing? Are plants and animals alive simply because of an arrangement of material parts, or does life spring from something else? In this timeless and profound inquiry, Aristotle presents a view of the psyche that avoids the simplifications both of the materialists and those who believe in the soul as something quite distinct from body. On the Soul also includes Aristotle's idiosyncratic and influential account of light and colors. On Memory and Recollection continues the investigation of some of the topics introduced in On the Soul. Sachs's fresh and jargon-free approach to the translation of Aristotle, his lively and insightful introduction, and his notes and glossaries, all bring out the continuing relevance of Aristotle's thought to biological and philosophical questions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Aristotle's On the Soul is among the most important books on the premodern account of soul. ... But On the Soul is as difficult as it is important and, for the English-language reader, help is needed. Few translators can match Joe Sachs's commitment to letting Aristotle speak for himself and to making clear what Aristotle has said. Sachs's introduction and notes are special. Based on my classroom use of this book, Sachs's work is indispensable for the teaching of Aristotle's On the Soul --Richard F. Hassing, School of Philosophy, Catholic University

About the Author

Aristotle lived from 384 to 322 BCE. he was a student of Plato for twenty years, and for the next twenty five years he was one of the most prolific of philosophic writers, as well as a keen biological observer. For almost 2000 years his teachings dominated the centers of learning in Europe and the Middle East. For all those willing to make the effort to follow his arguments, he is still a living thinker of great power.

Joe Sachs has taught for twenty five years at St. John's College, Annapolis Maryland, where from 1990 to 1992 he held the N.E.H. Chair in Ancient Thought. His other translations of Aristotle include Physics (Rutgers University Press), Metaphysics (Green Lion Press), and Nicomachean Ethics (R. Pullins Company).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Green Lion Press (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888009160
• ISBN-13: 978-1888009163
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Being-At-Work-Staying-Itself of Aristotle, December 3, 2001

By 

Charlene L. Taylor-Burns (Annapolis, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aristotle's On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection (Paperback)

Although the Sachs' translation and phrasing is difficult to ingest upon first glance, it is the only way to go in order to truly understand the meaning in Aristotle's work without reading the original Greek text. He captures Aristotle's subtilties in wording amazingly, while also preserving the literality and spirit of the Greek in a way that no other translator before has. The Greek vocabulary lessons preceding the chapters are extremely helpful, acquainting the unfamiliar with the fundamental words and concepts of Aristotle. He helps to make a deep and difficult treatise more manageable, although I would highly recommend using another translation to boot in any close reading of this work.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbeatable Edition, Masterful Translation of a Classic, September 9, 2008

By 

Timothy Davis (Santa Fe, New Mexico; United States of America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aristotle's On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection (Paperback)

Aristotle's De Anima is a wonderful addition to his corpus. If you're considering buying it, you already know enough and need no further knowledge from me concerning it.

Translation: Joe Sachs is a high-quality translator of Aristotle. His versions are highly accurate and literal, free from most bias. They generally are very reliable. Sachs does not use Latin cognates in his translation, so Greek words like "energeia" are rendered "being-at-work", versus the Latin "activity". If you don't mind this, than Sachs is the man for you.

Aesthetics: Unbeatable. This edition was made for serious study and it shows. There is plenty of room in the margins for taking notes, key terms are given in each chapter for the reader to notice (some might consider this a negative point), and the text itself is beautiful, well-spaced, and easy on the eyes.

Durability: If you know Green Lion Press, you will not be surprised. This book was made for study and is a steel-wrought tome among lesser volumes. The clothbound version has glued AND sewn pages and the spread can be fully opened without breaking the spine. The paper is thick and well-suited for note-taking. I expect my soft-bound edition to last fifty years.

Size: A great size for casual reading. It fits almost anywhere you want it too - suitcase, backpack, etc.

Price: Kind of pricey for such a short book (you can get half of Aeschylus and Herodotus for $20), but not surprising given the awesome durability of the book.

If you're looking for a good De Anima translation, look no further, for Green Lion and Joe Sachs are almost perfect (if only Green Lion would publish Apostle's Aristotle!).

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Humans Desire To Know, May 9, 2008

By 

Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aristotle's On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection (Hardcover)

I read these works for a graduate seminar on Aristotle.

Soul- De Anima Latin for Greek word Psuche=Life. It is a Phenomenology of Life. Living things are Aristotle¡¦s primary interest. Renee Descartes says thinking is only aspect of soul, not life. For Descartes the soul is the mind. Aristotle classifies features of living things. A soul can¡¦t be a body, (like a corpse). Psuche=life is a living form of the body, the phenomenon of life. Capacity to live is what he means. Ergon=function or work, thus when he talks about soul it is a body¡¦s function. Thus, a corpse is a deactivated body. Dunamis=capacity, Energia= actuality, thus both words are active words and can be seen as ¡§activating capacity.¡¨ Like a builder while building a house, past potential but not actual until the house is complete.
Entelecheia=¡¨living things have their ends inside them.¡¨ A living being has an end in itself.

What is the soul? Psuche= soul is being working toward ends of a self-moving body having the capacity to live. This is another way of talking about desire (like an animal that is hungry). Desire-animals have this as we do. Orexis=desire. The phenomenology of desire is to be motivated towards something that is lacking at the time, hunger, etc. Pleasure and pain.
Desire and action there are 3 kinds of desire.

1. Appetite like hunger and sex.
2. Emotion-like love not on crude level as appetite.
3. Wish-desire of the mind, (I want a good job).

All three strive towards something that is lacking. ¡§Desire is movement of the soul.¡¨ Human life is a set of desires. Human desires are more complicated. Desires clash like dieting and appetite.

¡§All humans desire to know.¡¨ This is the first line of the Metaphysics. Knowledge examined in terms of distinction between matter and form, perception has to do with intelligible form. Perception takes in visible form of something without the matter. Like imagination, an animal and human can do this. All knowledge starts with perception thus memory. Ultimate knowledge is intelligible form from visible form but mind is also using abstractions, this is a human capacity only. Humans use language to do this. Animals have image of a cat, word ¡§cat¡¨ is an abstraction for us. True knowledge organizes language.

Seing<³being seen. Two beings, seer and seen, this is act of vision it is only one actuality and two potentialities. In effect, Aristotle is saying that the capacity to see can only be actualized by seeing something. However, he goes the other way as well; something seeable only actualizes its seeability by being seen. One actuality, two potentials, the potential to see, the potential to be seen. In the modern world since Descartes, it is spoken as two actualities, the mind, and the outside world and there is a split between the two, two actualities, the mind as a separate thing and the object as a separate thing being seen. This is the source of the classic problem of skepticism. When there is seeing obviously you have two beings, the seer and the seen, but the act of vision is one actuality. Aristotle does not have this skeptical problem because he seems to stipulate this idea of single actuality and the whole point of the capacity to know is meant to hook up with things known. The whole point of knowable things is to be known by knower¡¦s, that is what he means by one actuality, thus there is no split between the mind and the world. There is no purely inside and outside. It isn¡¦t that minds are in here and the world is out there, and we might wonder about how they hook up. The nature of things and the nature of the mind are meant to hook up. Thus, Aristotle is not a radical skeptic like Descartes or Hume. Act of seeing the desk is joint actuality of seer and seen.

Actual hearing and actual sounding occur at the same time. Berkeley¡¦s famous question¡K¡¨If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? For Berkeley, to be is to be perceived. Aristotle answers Berkeley¡¦s question that it does make a sound, but you have to have the capacity to hear, it is a joint venture. The mind and the world are not separated like for Descartes. Aristotle doesn¡¦t buy the idea that ¡§everything in my mind can be false¡¨ like the skeptics argue, Aristotle would say this is impossible. Getting things true and false are part of what the mind has to do, but the possibility that the whole mental realm could be put into question is impossible. Thus, he doesn¡¦t have to answer the question put to skeptics. ¡§If you are right that there is a radical doubt about the possibility of our knowledge hooking up with reality, why would the human situation ever come to pass in this way that it is possible that we could be totally wrong.¡¨ The skeptics answer we are not sure that we are wrong, they are saying we can¡¦t be sure that we are right. If that were the case then Aristotle can say, well is this a recipe for the human condition? One can be skeptical about this or that, but not about everything.

Aristotle moves from perception to thought. The thinking of the world and world to be thought is actualization. Nous=highest capacity of intellect for Aristotle. Mind is potential and until it thinks isn¡¦t actualization. The implication of this the world wants to be known according to Aristotle. The world also activates our desire. One actualization of two potentialities. Taking in form without matter that is what knowledge is. A knowing soul cannot be separation from the body. The mind has built in capacity to understand for Aristotle, no actual knowledge until intellect engages with objects. ¡§Actually thinking mind is the thing that it thinks. In this respect the soul is all existing things.¡¨ Soul is capacity to think the world in the passage.

I recommend Aristotle¡¦s works to anyone interested in obtaining a classical education, and those interested in philosophy. Aristotle is one of the most important philosophers and the standard that all others must be judged by.