228 Aristotle and his school
Several other passages further confirm the picture that has so far emerged
from the texts. Thus we are told inGen. an. 744 a 30 that in man the
brain has more moisture and is greater than in other animals, because in
man the heat in the heart is most pure (% n n !#
) #). ‘This good proportion is indicated by man’s intelligence:
for the most intelligent of all animals is man’ (# . % (
8
T
* =n) ' )). Here man’s
intelligence is said to be asignof the fine blend of warm and cold, which
again suggests that there is a direct connection between the two. And two
passages inOn Memory and Recollectionvery well illustrate the influence of
bodily conditions of cognitive activity. First, in 450 a 27 ff., memory is said
to take place ‘in the soul, that is, in the part of the body that contains soul’,
as a kind of picture, just as the seal of a signet ring.
This is also the reason why no memory occurs in people who are in [a state of ] great
movement because of disease or age, just as if the movement and the seal were to
fall into water; with other people, owing to the detrition of the [part] that receives
the affection, no impression is made. This is why the very young and the very
old have no memory: the first are in a state of flux because of growth, the others
because of decay. Similarly, neither those who are excessively quick nor those who
are excessively slow [of wit]^76 appear to have a good memory: the former are moister
than they should be, the latter dryer: with the former, the appearance does not
remain in the soul, with the latter, it does not take hold.It may be objected that this passage is about memory, and therefore not
about an activity of the intellectual but of the sensitive part of the soul whose
physical substrate is not at issue (although it is striking that Aristotle seems
to present the soul as an extended entityinwhich things are going on and in
which surfaces are present which should receive the impression of the phan-
tasm; again, Aristotle only refers to these physical aspects when discussing
variations or even deviations: what the ‘normal’ physical components of
a successful act of memory are is not explained). However, it also refers
to the physiological conditions of quick-witted and slow-minded people,
excessive states that are related to an undue predominance of moisture or
dryness. And the passage as a whole again speaks of typological differences
in cognitive and intellectual behaviour within the human species that are
caused by differences in physiological conditions.
Further on inOn Memory and Recollection( 453 a 14 ff.), this connec-
tion becomes even clearer, when Aristotle is dealing with the difference
between memory and recollection. One of the differences is that while
(^76) That quickness and slowness of wit are meant is indicated byPhgn. 813 b 7 ff.