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Chapter 10 - The Science of Perception in Aristotle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

Sophia M. Connell
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London
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Summary

Aristotle identifies perception as central to all animals, enabling them to fulfill their ends. His biological works clarify his hylomorphic account of perception as a key activity of the soul by providing detailed overviews of types of perception and perceptual organs. Like other bodily organs, these have complex structures comprised of physical components, often in layers, all ultimately involving the four basic elements. I defend a compromise position on scholarly controversies about whether Aristotle can successfully provide a physicalist account of perception. Briefly, the answer is “yes and no.” His biological works, along with “chemical” works, do give physical accounts of perceptible features like colors and tastes, as well as of the organs (and parts) capable of registering them. However, because of his teleological views about nature, such accounts must be “top-down” and are never purely reductive or translatable into structural accounts like those of the atomists. Finally, we must remember that perception is crucial to the behavioral success of the animal as a whole within its environment. Perceptual “experience” in our modern sense does not occur in any organ but rather in the body as a whole, and more centrally in the heart and blood vessels.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Guide to Further Reading

Polansky, R. 2007. Aristotle’s De Anima (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Shields, C. 2016. Aristotle’s De Anima. Translated with an Introduction and Commentary. Clarendon Aristotle Series (Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Ross, G. R. T. 1906. Aristotle, De Sensu and De Memoria. Text and Translation, with Introduction and Commentary (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Ross, W. D. 1955. Aristotle: Parva Naturalia (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Ackrill, J. L. 1972–1973. “Aristotle’s Definitions of Psuchê,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 73: 119133.Google Scholar
Everson, S. 1995. “Proper Sensibles and Καθ ̓ Αὑτά Causes,” Phronesis 40(3): 265292.Google Scholar
Everson, S. 1997. Aristotle on Perception (Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Gregorić, P. 2007. Aristotle on the Common Sense (Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Marmodoro, A. 2014a. Aristotle on Perceiving Objects (Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Modrak, D. K. 1987. Aristotle: The Power of Perception (University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Burnyeat, M. F. 1992/1995. “Is an Aristotelian Philosophy of Mind Still Credible? (A Draft),” in Nussbaum, M. and Rorty, A. O. (eds.), Essays on Aristotle’s De Anima (Oxford University Press), 1526.Google Scholar
Burnyeat, M. F. 1995. “How Much Happens When Aristotle Sees Red and Hears Middle C? Remarks on De Anima 2.7–8,” in Nussbaum, M. C. and Rorty, A. O. (eds.), Essays on Aristotle’s De Anima (Oxford University Press), 421434.Google Scholar
Caston, V. 2005. “The Spirit and the Letter: Aristotle on Perception,” in Salles, R. (ed.), Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics: Themes From the Work of Richard Sorabji (Oxford University Press), 245320.Google Scholar
Sorabji, R. 1971. “Aristotle on Demarcating the Five Senses,” The Philosophical Review, 80: 5579 [J. Barnes, M. Schofield, and R. Sorabji (eds.) 1979. Articles on Aristotle. Volume 4: Psychology and Aesthetics (London: Duckworth), 76–92].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeland, C. A. 1992. “Aristotle on the Sense of Touch,” in Nussbaum, M. C. and Rorty, A. O. (eds.), Essays on Aristotle’s De Anima (Oxford University Press), 227248.Google Scholar
Johansen, T. K. 1996. “Aristotle on the Sense of Smell,” Phronesis, 41(1): 119.Google Scholar
Johansen, T. K. 1997. Aristotle on the Sense Organs (Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Kalderon, M. E. 2015. Form Without Matter: Aristotle and Empedocles on Colour Perception (Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Furley, D. 1989. “The Mechanics of Meteorologica IV: A Prolegomenon to Biology,” in Furley, D., Cosmic Problems: Essays on Greek and Roman Philosophy of Nature (Cambridge University Press), chapter 12.Google Scholar
Gill, M. L. 2014. “The Limits of Teleology in Aristotle’s Meteorology IV.12,” History of Philosophy of Science 4(2): 335350.Google Scholar
Lennox, J. 2014. “Aristotle on the Emergence of Material Complexity: Meteorology IV and Aristotle’s Biology,” HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 4: 272305.Google Scholar

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