164 l/-25 to l/-32
by themselves when a presentation occurs which stimulates the impulse.
... 3. But the rational animal has reason too in addition to the power
of presentation. Reason judges the presentations and rejects some and
admits others.
Origen On Prayer 6.1 (= SVF 2.989) [11-26]
Of things that move, some have the mover external to them as do
soulless things and those held together by he xis [condition] alone. And
those things that move by nature or by soul sometimes also move not as
beings of this sort, but in a manner similar to those held together by
hexis alone. For stones and sticks, [i.e.,] things which are cut off from a
vein of metal or have lost the power to grow, are held together only by
hexis and have their motive power external to them. And the bodies of
animals and the moveable parts of plants which are shifted by someone
are not shifted qua animal or plant, but in a manner similar to sticks and
stones which have lost the power to grow .... After those, second are
those objects moved by the nature or the soul within them, which are
also said to move 'from themselves' by those who use words in their
stricter senses [i.e., the Stoics]. Third is the motion in animals which is
termed motion 'by itself. I think that the motion of rational animals is
motion 'through themselves'. And if we deprive an animal of motion 'by
itself it is impossible to go on thinking of it as an animal. Rather, it will
be similar either to a plant moved only by nature or a stone carried along
by an external agent. And if the animal is aware of its own motion, this
animal must be rational, since we have called this motion 'through itself.
Simplicius Commentary on Aristotle's
Categories 1b1 p. 306.19-27 (=SVF 2.499)
[11-27]They [the Stoics] say that the differences between kinds [of motion]
are: [I] moving 'from themselves', as a knife has the ability to cut because
of its special structure (for the doing is carried out in accordance with
its shape and form); [2] and the activation of motion 'through oneself,
as natural organisms and curative powers carry out their action: for the
seed is sown and unfolds its proper [rational] principle and attracts the
matter nearby and fashions the principles in it; [3] and also doing 'by
oneself, which in general terms is doing by a thing's own impulse. But
another sense [4] is doing by a rational impulse, which is called action.
And [5] even more specific than this is activity according to virtue.