Aristotle / 2008-10-28 00:00:00

350 BC
ON YOUTH AND OLD AGE, ON LIFE AND DEATH,
ON BREATHING
by Aristotle
translated by G. R. T. Ross
1
WE must now treat of youth and old age and life and death. We must
probably also at the same time state the causes of respiration as
well, since in some cases living and the reverse depend on this.
We have elsewhere given a precise account of the soul, and while
it is clear that its essential reality cannot be corporeal, yet
manifestly it must exist in some bodily part which must be one of
those possessing control over the members. Let us for the present
set aside the other divisions or faculties of the soul (whichever of
the two be the correct name). But as to being what is called an animal
and a living thing, we find that in all beings endowed with both
characteristics (viz. being an animal and being alive) there must be a
single identical part in virtue of which they live and are called
animals; for an animal qua animal cannot avoid being alive. But a
thing need not, though alive, be animal, for plants live without
having sensation, and it is by sensation that we distinguish animal
from what is not animal.
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