εἰ μηθὲν μάτην ποιεῖ ἡ φύσις. ἕνεκά του γὰρ πάντα ὑπάρ χει τὰ φύσει, ἢ συμπτώματα ἔσται τῶν ἕνεκά του. εἰ οὖν πᾶν σῶμα πορευτικὸν μὴ ἔχον αἴσθησιν, φθείροιτο ἂν καὶ εἰς τέλος οὐκ ἂν ἔλθοι, ὅ ἐστι φύσεως ἔργον· πῶς γὰρ θρέ-434 ψεται ; τοῖς μὲν γὰρ μονίμοις ὑπάρχει τοῦτο ὅθεν πεφύκασιν. § 4 οὐχ οἷόν τε δὲ σῶμα ἔχειν μὲν ψυχὴν καὶ νοῦν κριτικόν, αἴσθησιν δὲ μὴ ἔχειν, μὴ μόνιμον ὄν, γεννητὸν δέ. ἀλλὰ μὴν οὐδὲ ἀγέννητον· διὰ τί γὰρ οὐχ ἕξει; ἢ γὰρ τῇ ψυχῇ βέλτιον 5 ἢ τῷ σώματι. νῦν δ' οὐδέτερον· ἡ μὲν γὰρ οὐ μᾶλλον νοήσει, τὸ δ ̓ οὐθὲν ἔσται μᾶλλον δι' ἐκεῖνο. § 5 σῶμα μὴ μόνιμον ἄνευ αἰσθήσεως. οὐθὲν ἄρα ἔχει ψυχὴν ἀλλὰ μὴν εἴγε αἴσθη σιν ἔχει, ἀνάγκη τὸ σῶμα εἶναι ἢ ἁπλοῦν ἢ μικτόν. οὐχ οἷόν τε δὲ ἁπλοῦν. ἁφὴν γὰρ οὐχ ἕξει, ἔστι δὲ ἀνάγκη κ 10 § 6 ταύτην ἔχειν. τοῦτο δὲ ἐκ τῶνδε δῆλον. ἐπεὶ γὰρ τὸ ζῷον σῶμα ἔμψυχόν ἐστι, σῶμα δὲ ἅπαν ἁπτόν, ἁπτὸν δὲ τὸ αἰσθητὸν ἁφῇ, ἀνάγκη καὶ τὸ τοῦ ζῴου σῶμα ἁπτικὸν εἶναι, εἰ μέλλει σώζεσθαι τὸ ζῷον. αἱ γὰρ ἄλλαι αἰσθήσεις δι ̓ ἑτέρων αἰσθάνονται, οἷον ὄσφρησις ὄψις ἀκοή· 15 ἁπτόμενον δέ, εἰ μὴ ἕξει αἴσθησιν, οὐ δυνήσεται τὰ μὲν φεύγειν τὰ δὲ λαβεῖν· εἰ δὲ τοῦτο, ἀδύνατον ἔσται σώζε § 7 σθαι τὸ ζῷον. διὸ καὶ ἡ γευσίς ἐστιν ὥσπερ ἀφή τις τρο 4345 2. τὸ ὅθεν πέφυκασιν Bekk. Tor. γὰρ ἕξει Bekk. Trend. Tor. 5. γὰρ οὐχ ἕξει TUVWy. of sense-perception, if, as we hold, nature produces nothing without a purpose, all natural objects existing for some end, or being the concomitants of objects which exist for some end. Now, if a body were supplied with faculties of movement, but did not have the power of sense-perception, it would be destroyed, and would not attain its end, which it is nature's work to realize. For how, we may ask, will such an organism provide food for itself? It is only those which are stationary that have their food supplied them from their place of origin. Nor, indeed, is it possible that a body should have soul and discriminating reason and not possess sensation, if it be capable of motion and produced by generation. Nor indeed, for that matter, will it make any difference if it be actually unbegotten. For, for what end would such a body be without the faculty of sense? It could only be because its absence would be better for it either as regards its soul or as regards its body. But, as matter of fact, the absence of sense could not possibly contribute to either. The soul will not understand the world better because it is deprived of sense: and the body will not be any more a body because it is without the sensitive capacities. No body, therefore, not being stationary, possesses soul, without at the same time adding on the faculties of sense. If, however, it possess the faculty of sense, its body must be either simple or compound. It cannot, however, be simple: because in that case it would not have the sense of touch: and this it must necessarily possess. This, in fact, is evident from the following considerations. Since the animal is a body possessed of soul, and every body is tangible: it follows, since the tangible is perceived by touch, that the body of the living animal must be also endowed with the sense of touch, if the animal is to be able to maintain itself. For the other senses, such as smell, sight, and hearing, perceive their objects through the medium of other substances: but if an animal, when it came in contact with different substances, were not to have the sense of touch, it would not be able to avoid some and take others: and under these circumstances it would be impossible for it to preserve itself. Hence taste is, as it were, a sort of touch: for it is applied to nutriment: and nutriment is a body that can be φῆς γάρ ἐστιν, ἡ δὲ τροφὴ τὸ σῶμα τὸ ἁπτόν. ψόφος δὲ καὶ χρῶμα καὶ ὀσμὴ οὐ τρέφει, οὐδὲ ποιεῖ οὔτ ̓ αὔξησιν οὔτε 10 φθίσιν. ὥστε καὶ τὴν γεῦσιν ἀνάγκη ἁφὴν τὸ τοῦ ἁπτοῦ καὶ θρεπτικοῦ αἴσθησιν εἶναι. ἀναγκαῖαι τῷ ζῴῳ, καὶ φανερὸν ὅτι οὐχ εἶναί τινα, διὰ αὗται μὲν οὖν οἷόν τε ἄνευ § 8 αφῆς εἶναι ζῷον. αἱ δὲ ἄλλαι τοῦ τε εὖ ἕνεκα καὶ γένει ζῴων ἤδη οὐ τῷ τυχόντι, ἀλλὰ τισίν, οἷον τῷ πορευτικῷ 25 ἀνάγκη ὑπάρχειν· εἰ γὰρ μέλλει σώζεσθαι, οὐ μόνον δεῖ ἁπτόμενον αἰσθάνεσθαι ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀποθεν. τοῦτο δ ̓ ἂν εἴη, εἰ διὰ τοῦ μεταξὺ αἰσθητικὸν εἴη τῷ ἐκεῖνο μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ § 9 αἰσθητοῦ πάσχειν καὶ κινεῖσθαι, αὐτὸ δ ̓ ὑπ ̓ ἐκείνου. ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ κινοῦν κατὰ τόπον μέχρι τοῦ μεταβάλλειν ποιεῖ, 30 καὶ τὸ ὦσαν ἕτερον ποιεῖ ὥστε ὠθεῖν, καὶ ἔστι διὰ μέσου ἡ κίνησις, καὶ δὴ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον κινοῦν ὠθεῖ οὐκ ὠθούμενον, τὸ δ ̓ ἔσχατον μόνον ὠθεῖται οὐκ ὦσαν, τὸ δὲ μέσον ἄμφω, πολλὰ δὲ μέσα, οὕτως ἐπ ̓ ἀλλοιώσεως, πλὴν ὅτι μένοντα 435 ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ τόπῳ ἀλλοιοῖ, οἷον εἰ εἰς κηρὸν βάψειέ τις, μέχρι τούτου ἐκινήθη, ἕως ἔβαψεν· λίθος δὲ οὐδέν, ἀλλ ̓ ὕδωρ μέχρι πόρρω. ὁ δ ̓ ἀὴρ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον κινεῖται καὶ ποιεῖ καὶ πάσχει, ἐὰν μένῃ καὶ εἰς ᾖ. διὸ καὶ περὶ ἀνα-5 κλάσεως βέλτιον ἢ τὴν ὄψιν ἐξιοῦσαν ἀνακλᾶσθαι, τὸν ἀέρα πάσχειν ὑπὸ τοῦ σχήματος καὶ χρώματος, μέχρι περ οὗ 26. οὐ] οὐδὲν TUX. || μόνον om. ΤΧ. 30. τοῦ] του Tor. 435a 1. 27. αἰσθάνεσθαι] σώζεσθαι TWΧ. μένοντα VWX. Trend. μένοντος Bekk. Tor. • 6. κλάσθαι Bekk. touched. On the other hand, sound and colour and smell supply no nourishment, nor do they cause either growth or dissolution. Taste, therefore, it follows, must be a kind of touch, because it is the sense which perceives the tangible and nutritive. These two senses, then, of taste and touch are indispensable conditions of animal life: evidently, in fact, the animal cannot possibly exist without the sense of touch. The other senses are directed towards higher ends than mere existence, and do not belong to any class of animals whatever, but only to some particular species of animal. Thus, for example, they must be possessed by the animal capable of forward movement, because the animal, if it is to be preserved, must be able to perceive an object, not only when brought into immediate contact with it, but also when it is some distance from it. Now, this is only possible in case it have the power of perceiving through some intervening medium, this medium being affected and set in motion. by the object of sense, while the sense itself in turn is affected by the medium. [We may illustrate by the manner in which movement is communicated.] That which produces local movement continues its effect until it makes a change and the original agent in propulsion causes another object to propel, the movement being effected through the intervening object: and just as the first object that moves propels without being propelled, whereas the last member in the chain is propelled only and does not propel, while the middle links (of which there may be many) are both propelling and propelled, so also is it with the alteration [involved in sense-perception], excepting that the alteration is effected without change of position. Thus, if one were to plunge anything in wax, the wax would be moved so far as one plunged it: a stone under similar treatment would not be moved at all, and water would be so to a still greater degree. Air, on the other hand, is moved to the greatest possible extent, and both impresses and is impressed so long as it continues still and remains a whole. And thus, also, to touch upon the theory of "repercussion," it is better to suppose that the air is affected by the colour and the form, so long as it remains unbroken (and it is so over every smooth surface), than that the visual ray after ἂν εἷς ᾖ. ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ λείου ἐστὶν εἷς· διὸ πάλιν οὗτος τὴν ὄψιν κινεῖ, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ τὸ ἐν τῷ κηρῷ σημεῖον διεδίδοτο μέχρι τοῦ πέρατος. 10 XIII. Οτι δ ̓ οὐχ οἷόν τε ἁπλοῦν εἶναι τὸ τοῦ ζῴου σῶμα, φανερόν, λέγω δ ̓ οἷον πύρινον ἢ ἀέρινον. ἄνευ μὲν γὰρ ἁφῆς οὐδεμίαν ἐνδέχεται ἄλλην αἴσθησιν ἔχειν· τὸ γὰρ σῶμα ἁπτικὸν τὸ ἔμψυχον πᾶν, ὥσπερ εἴρηται. τὰ δὲ ἄλλα ἔξω γῆς αἰσθητήρια μὲν ἂν γένοιτο, πάντα δὲ τῷ 15 δι' ἑτέρου αἰσθάνεσθαι ποιεῖ τὴν αἴσθησιν καὶ διὰ τῶν μεταξύ· ἡ δ ̓ ἁφὴ τῷ αὐτῶν ἅπτεσθαί ἐστιν, διὸ καὶ τοὔνομα τοῦτο ἔχει. καίτοι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα αἰσθητήρια αφῇ αἰσθάνεται, ἀλλὰ δι ̓ ἑτέρου· αὕτη δὲ δοκεῖ μόνη δι' αὐτῆς. ὥστε τῶν μὲν τοιούτων στοιχείων οὐθὲν ἂν εἴη σῶμα τοῦ ζῴου. οὐδὲ το δὴ γήϊνον. πάντων γὰρ ἡ ἁφὴ τῶν ἁπτῶν ἐστὶν ὥσπερ μεσότης, καὶ δεκτικὸν τὸ αἰσθητήριον οὐ μόνον ὅσαι διαφοραὶ γῆς εἰσίν, ἀλλὰ καὶ θερμοῦ καὶ ψυχροῦ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπτῶν ἁπάντων· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τοῖς ὀστοῖς καὶ ταῖς θριξὶ καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις μορίοις οὐκ αἰσθανόμεθα, ὅτι γῆς 15 ἐστίν. καὶ τὰ φυτὰ διὰ τοῦτο οὐδεμίαν ἔχει αἴσθησιν, ὅτι 435 γῆς ἐστίν· ἄνευ δὲ ἁφῆς οὐδεμίαν οἷόν τε ἄλλην ὑπάρχειν, τοῦτο δὲ τὸ αἰσθητήριον οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε γῆς οὔτε ἄλλου τῶν § 2 στοιχείων οὐδενός. φανερὸν τοίνυν ὅτι ἀνάγκη μόνης ταύτης στερισκόμενα τῆς αἰσθήσεως τὰ ζῷα ἀποθνήσκειν· οὔτε γὰρ 5 ταύτην ἔχειν οἷόν τε μὴ ζῷον, οὔτε ζῷον ὃν ἄλλην ἔχειν ἀνάγκη πλὴν ταύτης. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὰ μὲν ἄλλα αἰσθητὰ ταῖς ὑπερβολαῖς οὐ διαφθείρει τὸ ζῷον, οἷον χρώμα 15. αἰσθητικά VW. 22. αἰσθητήριον] αἰσθητικόν γ. b |