174 Aristotle and his school
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The excellence of this part [i.e. the vegetative part] of the soul seems to be common
to all living beings and not peculiar to humans; for it is generally believed that
this part and this faculty [nutrition] is particularly active in sleep, and that the
difference between a good and a bad person is least evident in sleep (which is why
people say that for half of their lives, there is no difference between happy people
and miserable people; this is a reasonable conclusion, for sleep is a kind of inactivity
of that [part of the] soul in virtue of which it [the soul] is called good or bad),
unless in a certain way, and to a small extent, certain sense-movements penetrate
to [the soul during sleep], and in this way the dream images of good people are
superior to those of common people.
The possibility envisaged here towards the end in the clause ‘unless in a
certain way...’ is precisely what Aristotle is exploring in much greater
detail in his investigations of sleep and dreams in the two works already
mentionedOn DreamsandOn Divination in Sleep(see esp. 463 a 21 ff.),
and in the workOn Sleep and Wakingwhich precedes them.^16 Yet, as we
shall see later, these treatises make it clear that the connection between
what we perceive in the daytime and what appears to us in sleep is rarely
straightforward or direct (euthuoneiria), and often dreams are confused as a
result of physiological turbulence that disturbs the transmission of sensory
images in the body ( 461 a 9 ff.). And the tentative way in which, in the
Ethicspassage, the possibility of a connection between waking and sleeping
life is introduced ( % A #C 1
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not suggest that Aristotle attached great relevance to it in the context of his
moral philosophy.
2 the context of aristotle’s treatises on
sleep and dreams
In order to appreciate Aristotle’s approach to these issues better, it is impor-
tant to consider the context in which his views on dreams are expounded.
(^15) Some MSS read here instead of#C.
(^16) Although these three treatises are presented in the preface ofOn Sleep and Wakingas parts of one
continuous investigation and follow on each other in the MS tradition, the precise relationship
between them poses considerable problems. See van der Eijk ( 1994 ) 62 – 7.