Key Arguments

• Aristotle reports that 'those who looked to knowing and perceiving beings said that it was their starting-point or starting-points', and illustrates with Empedocles, who 'says that it is composed of the elements, each of these also being soul'.
• Empedocles’ verses explicitly state: 'For by earth, we see earth, by water, water, / By ether, divine ether, but by fire blinding fire, / By love love, and strife by baneful strife', directly expressing the 'like by like' principle for both elements and powers like love and strife.
• Aristotle says 'in the same way Plato in the Timaeus generates the soul from the elements, since like is known by like, and things are composed of the elements', making the epistemic principle the rationale for the soul’s elemental composition.
• In On Philosophy, Plato (as reported) holds that the animal-itself is composed of the Idea-itself of one, length, breadth, and depth, and 'the other things in the same way', extending the same structural principle.
• Another Platonic account ties cognitive powers to numbers: 'understanding is the one, scientific knowledge the two... belief is the number of the plane, and perception that of the solid', and 'the numbers, though they are the Forms themselves and the starting-points, are nevertheless generated from the elements'.
• He adds that 'some things are discerned by understanding, others by scientific knowledge, others by belief, others by perception—and the numbers are the Forms of these', so soul’s cognitive capacities correspond to a hierarchy of numbers/forms rooted in elemental structure.

Source Quotes

37 But understanding—in the sense of wisdom—appears not to belong to all | 404 b 5 | animals, or even to all humans. 38 Those, then, who have looked to the movement of what is animate took the soul to be what is most capable of moving things, whereas those who looked to knowing and perceiving beings said that it was their starting-point or starting-points, some positing a plurality of these, | 404 b 10 | others one of these. Thus Empedocles says that it is composed of the elements, each of these also being soul.

38 Those, then, who have looked to the movement of what is animate took the soul to be what is most capable of moving things, whereas those who looked to knowing and perceiving beings said that it was their starting-point or starting-points, some positing a plurality of these, | 404 b 10 | others one of these. Thus Empedocles says that it is composed of the elements, each of these also being soul. He says: For by earth, we see earth, by water, water, By ether, divine ether, but by fire blinding fire, By love love, and strife by baneful strife. 39 | 404 b 15 | And in the same way Plato in the Timaeus generates the soul from the elements, since like is known by like, and things are composed of the elements. 40 And similarly in On Philosophy it was determined that the animal-itself is composed of the Idea-itself of the one and the primary length, | 404 b 20 | breadth, and depth, and the other things in the same way.

He says: For by earth, we see earth, by water, water, By ether, divine ether, but by fire blinding fire, By love love, and strife by baneful strife. 39 | 404 b 15 | And in the same way Plato in the Timaeus generates the soul from the elements, since like is known by like, and things are composed of the elements. 40 And similarly in On Philosophy it was determined that the animal-itself is composed of the Idea-itself of the one and the primary length, | 404 b 20 | breadth, and depth, and the other things in the same way.

39 | 404 b 15 | And in the same way Plato in the Timaeus generates the soul from the elements, since like is known by like, and things are composed of the elements. 40 And similarly in On Philosophy it was determined that the animal-itself is composed of the Idea-itself of the one and the primary length, | 404 b 20 | breadth, and depth, and the other things in the same way. 41 Further, this has also been put in another way: understanding is the one, scientific knowledge the two (for it proceeds in a single way {7} toward one thing), belief is the number of the plane, and perception that of the solid.

40 And similarly in On Philosophy it was determined that the animal-itself is composed of the Idea-itself of the one and the primary length, | 404 b 20 | breadth, and depth, and the other things in the same way. 41 Further, this has also been put in another way: understanding is the one, scientific knowledge the two (for it proceeds in a single way {7} toward one thing), belief is the number of the plane, and perception that of the solid. 42 For the numbers, though they are the Forms themselves and the starting-points, are nevertheless generated from the elements.

41 Further, this has also been put in another way: understanding is the one, scientific knowledge the two (for it proceeds in a single way {7} toward one thing), belief is the number of the plane, and perception that of the solid. 42 For the numbers, though they are the Forms themselves and the starting-points, are nevertheless generated from the elements. 43 And | 404 b 25 | some things are discerned by understanding, others by scientific knowledge, others by belief, others by perception—and the numbers are the Forms of these. 44 On the other hand, since the soul seemed to be both capable of moving things and, in the aforementioned way, capable of knowledge, some thinkers generated it from a combination of both and declared the soul to be a self-moving number.

Key Concepts

• whereas those who looked to knowing and perceiving beings said that it was their starting-point or starting-points, some positing a plurality of these, | 404 b 10 | others one of these.
• Thus Empedocles says that it is composed of the elements, each of these also being soul. He says: For by earth, we see earth, by water, water, By ether, divine ether, but by fire blinding fire, By love love, and strife by baneful strife. 39 | 404 b 15 |
• And in the same way Plato in the Timaeus generates the soul from the elements, since like is known by like, and things are composed of the elements.
• And similarly in On Philosophy it was determined that the animal-itself is composed of the Idea-itself of the one and the primary length, | 404 b 20 | breadth, and depth, and the other things in the same way.
• Further, this has also been put in another way: understanding is the one, scientific knowledge the two (for it proceeds in a single way {7} toward one thing), belief is the number of the plane, and perception that of the solid.
• For the numbers, though they are the Forms themselves and the starting-points, are nevertheless generated from the elements. 43 And | 404 b 25 | some things are discerned by understanding, others by scientific knowledge, others by belief, others by perception—and the numbers are the Forms of these.

Context

I.2’s discussion of theories that derive the soul’s nature from its cognitive function, especially the 'like is known by like' principle in Empedocles and various Platonic constructions.