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Headword: Archê
Adler number: alpha,4093
Translated headword: principle
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
[Meaning something that is] efficient; formal; final. Aristotle says that the soul is like a principle of animals, inasmuch as [it is] efficient, formal, and final; for these are the principles in the strict sense. Now [sc. a principle can be understood] as "efficient" because the soul sets in motion the animal with its wish alone, and requires no leverage; [sc. and it can be understood] as "formal" because the soul itself endows with form the animal and animate things altogether. For the animate forms are said to be this very thing [sc. animate][1] because they have soul. In fact, the more excellent component in each natural thing is its form; and the soul is the more excellent component in the animate things. And [sc. a principle can be understood] as "final" because the body is for the sake of the soul, for the body exists for the sake of something and the soul is that for the sake of which [something exists].[2] Hence the structural organization of animals is also, in one way or another, in view of the peculiar character of the soul in each thing. However the soul of animals is a principle which is rather distant, while nature is a proximate [principle]. But of things necessarily following the soul, some accompany it and others accompany the animal as a whole (I mean, that is, the compound of life[3] and body). And some things are affections of the soul, such as intellection (for this is something peculiar to the soul), but other affections (such as "to perceive", "to have images or presentations", "to be wroth", "to have appetites" and anything else of that sort) are common to both of these components. He used to say that the five genera (substance, sameness, otherness, motion, rest) are the principles of all existing things. And he said that these genera are not like those of the Peripatetic philosophers (such genera being distinguished by each other, and some trace of the subordinate genera and forms extends from each), but as pervading genera going through all the existing things. For the substance according to which the being of each thing is (what it is) is in all the things. And sameness is that in virtue of which we are (what we are) from a single principle of the existing things. And we also have otherness, since the existing things are a multiplicity as well; and where there is multiplicity, there is otherness. And within the domain of all the existing things there is motion as well. I mean "motion", not "incomplete activity", but the effective or actual motion of each thing. For all the things contain a proper activity, even the inanimate things themselves. In fact, such things produce heat or cold to what is associated with them, or make them moist or dry, or produce some other effect of this sort. And the rest is considered in all the cases, for the things which are in perpetual motion also partake of rest, and rest is not only to be present with regard to the wholeness but also to remain itself in the perpetual motion. Therefore, the things in motion remain either always or during a certain time and, in accordance with this itself, they partake of rest.
Greek Original:
Archê: poiêtikê: eidikê: telikê. ho de Aristotelês phêsin, hoti hê psuchê hoion archê tôn zôiôn estin, hôs poiêtikê, eidikê, telikê: hautai gar eisin hai kuriôs archai. hôs men oun poiêtikê, hoti hautê kinei to zôion monêi têi boulêsei kai ou deitai mochleias tinos: hôs eidikê de, hoti autê estin hê eidopoiousa to zôion kai haplôs ta empsucha. legetai gar ta empsucha eidê auto touto einai kata tên psuchên: to gar kreitton en hekastôi tôn phusikôn eidos estin hekastou: kreitton de en tois empsuchois hê psuchê. hôs telikon de, hoti autês heneka to sôma: esti gar to men sôma heneka tou, autê de hou heneka. hothen kai hê diorganôsis tôn zôiôn allê kai allê pros tên idiotêta tês en hekastôi psuchês. all' hê men psuchê tôn zôiôn porrôterô archê, hê de phusis prosechês. tôn de ex anankês hepomenôn têi psuchêi ta men autêi akolouthei, ta de holôi tôi zôiôi, legô dê to ek tês zôês kai sômatos. kai ta men tês psuchês pathê hê noêsis: touto gar autês idion: ta d' alla pathê, to aisthanesthai, to phantasiousthai, thumousthai, epithumein kai ei ti toiouton, koina esti tou sunamphoterou. hoti pente genê elegen einai archas pantôn tôn ontôn, ousian, tautotêta, heterotêta, kinêsin, stasin. genê de tauta elegen ouch houtôs hôsper ta para tois Peripatêtikois, hatina diêirêtai hup' allêlôn kai aph' hekastou seira tis ekdidotai tôn hupallêlôn genôn te kai eidôn, all' hôs dia pantôn tôn ontôn diêkonta. esti gar en pasi kai ousia, kath' hên hekastou esti to einai: kai esti tautotês, katho ek mias tês tôn ontôn esmen archês. echomen de kai heterotêta, epeidê kai plêthos esti ta onta: hopou de plêthos, ekei heterotês. esti de kai kinêsis en pasi tois ousi: kinêsin de legô ou tên atelê energeian, alla tên energê, tên hekastou. panta gar echei oikeian energeian, kai auta ta apsucha: ê gar thermainousin ê psuchousi ta parakeimena ê hugrainousin ê xêrainousin ê allo ti toiouton poiousi. kai hê stasis de epi pantôn theôreitai: kai gar ta aeikinêta staseôs metechei, ou monon to tên holotêta hestanai, alla kai auto to menein epi tês aeikinêsias stasis esti. katho oun menousi ta kinoumena ê aei ê epi tina chronon, kat' auto touto staseôs metechei.
Notes:
For this headword see already alpha 4092. The present entry is extracted from John Philoponus, Commentary on Aristotle's de anima (25.32-26.12, 27.3-7, 74.34-75.15 Hayduck).
[1] That is, "animal" or "living being".
[2] That is, the soul is an end for the body. See the note at tau 282.
[3] "Life" must mean here the same as soul.
Keywords: definition; philosophy; zoology
Translated by: Marcelo Boeri on 10 January 2000@16:07:01.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (added note; cosmetics) on 25 August 2002@11:05:06.
David Whitehead (another x-ref; another keyword; tweaks and cosmetics) on 23 April 2012@07:24:36.
David Whitehead (coding; cosmetics) on 1 September 2015@03:25:28.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation) on 27 November 2015@00:05:42.
Catharine Roth on 27 November 2015@00:21:37.
Catharine Roth on 27 November 2015@00:31:01.

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