Aristotle on the matter of mind 229
memory also occurs with other animals, recollection is confined to man, be-
cause recollection is ‘like inference’ (`
!), because it clearly
involves searching and deliberation. This, however, does not mean that it
is an incorporeal process:
That the affection [i.e. recollection] is something physical and that recollection is
a search for an image in something of this [i.e. physical] kind, is indicated by the
fact that some people are disturbed whenever they cannot recollect, even though
they keep their attention fixed, and when they make no more effort, they recollect
nonetheless [i.e. the recollective process keeps going on]. This occurs especially
with the melancholics, for they are particularly moved by images. The reason why
they have no control over their recollective activity is that just as people are unable
to stop something they have thrown away, likewise the person who recollects and
chases something sets something physical in motion, in which the affection takes
place. This disturbance particularly occurs with those with whom there happens
to be moisture around the perceptive place, for this [moisture] does not easily stop
when set in motion, until the object sought turns up and the movement runs a
straight course... Those who have large upper parts and those who are dwarfish are
less good at memorising than their counterparts because they have much weight
on their perceptual faculty, and their movements cannot remain in their original
condition but are scattered; nor can they easily run a straight course in recollecting.
The very young and the very old have poor memories because of the movement:
the latter are in a state of decay, the former in rapid growth; and small children are
also dwarfish until they have advanced in age.Again, the thesis (that recollection is a physical process) is demonstrated
with a reference to adisturbancein the act of recollection. The word
is used in a context which deals with mental concentration, and also the
melancholics make their appearance; reference is made to moisture around
the ‘perceptive place’; and in the following section, which again deals with
special groups, dwarfs, the very young and the very old are mentioned. So
we have a rational process (although Aristotle, perhaps significantly, does
not say that it is an affection of the intellectual part of the soul) which takes
place in a bodily part and which is susceptible to influences and disturbances
of bodily conditions. Again, it remains unclear what the normal physical
conditions for a successful operation of recollection (searching ‘along a
straight course’, ( )^77 are.
The passages that I have discussed clearly suggest that, according to
Aristotle, bodily conditions can be of influence on intellectual activities
(^77) On this expression see above, n. 61. It is also used inGen. an. 781 a 2 and b 12 to refer to the
transmission of sense movement outside the body (from the perceptible object to the perceiving
subject); cf. alsoPr. 934 a 17.