Opuscula psychologica, theologica, daemonologica
After the judgment of the thoughts, an exact discernment of how the thoughts happen to be, whether they are good or otherwise but imagination is the
to divide for us, by the established terms, the sesquitertian ratios into both the sesquioctave ratios and the leimmata, we would have stopped at thes
having split it, he bent each one into a circle, bringing them together middle to middle with each other like a chi, having joined 7 them both to them
left, or rather the one is an image of mind, the other of soul. And in the soul itself, the right is that which is turned toward the intelligible thin
regarding the explanation of the Platonic psychogony, this we now discharge for you as a kind of debt. For Plato's statement that the division of thes
and of exegesis. And there is a letter of mine placed among my books that has traced out and carefully examined the meaning in the sayings. But it is
a ruler drives a team of two then of the 14 horses, one of them is noble and good and of such stock, but the other is from opposite stock and is oppo
a body from one of the seeing things, such that it is able to be extended as far as the stars. But it was better, he says, than to say that the extern
through which it is not swept into material disorder, but is joined to the divine light, holds it in its own place and makes it unmixed with matter, l
of knowledge. For there is something intelligible, which you must understand with the flower of the intellect. And he says that the one in us is twofo
agrees, but among them the salty is more than the drinkable. They say, for example, that every soul is either divine or changing from intellect to min
to be deemed worthy of pardon in repenting. If the soul is a body according to some of the ancients, what is it that contains it? every body is three-
distinction. Two kinds of air according to Aristotle, the vaporous from the exhalation of water and the smoky from the extinguishing of fire. The latt
Plato. Pleasure is not a coming-to-be for coming-to-be is of things that are not, while pleasure is of things that are. And coming-to-be is swift and
is natural, while habit is acquired and taught. Providence is the care for existing things that comes from God. Epicurus says: the blessed and incorr
but such powers are simply and imperceptibly desired. What then? Do we have three souls? Solution: just as the soul, when united to the body, seems to
When this is dimmed they also are dimmed the soul flourishes when this 34 withers. Further, everything desires to preserve its own substrate. If the
actuality, as physicians, others in relation to something, others a double or one-and-a-half ratio. Potentiality is found in substance, as a man in th
concerning form, matter and cause, for example the matter of the celestial bodies is not the four elements, but a certain fifth, spherical one, as be
as knowledge (for knowledge is a transition from defined things to defined things for this reason it is also knowledge, as leading the mind to a stat
this, for indeed the flesh also moves downwards and is none of the elements. Aporia: but matter, that is the element, is not soul, but the form that c
definitions have as their beginning the most general things, as their end the most specific things. If, then, these are finite, so are the definitions
and it acts according to one part and another. It seems to act in these ways as being one. For if it is divided, it is necessary for the parts to be e
the rest, but this is about hot and soft, heavy and light, rare and dense, and many opposites. In humans, the cause of local motion is intellect, in i
is nourished {which} is twofold: either as Matter or as an instrument. And the instrument is twofold: either moving and being moved, like the innate h
is equal in distance to the zodiac signs. Light is not a body. for if it were a body, how would it be possible for it to have instantaneous movement,
we see the introduction of the forms of things seen entering the sight, but how do we see the interval of the air in between? Solution: It is not that
with a violent collision. In soft things no sound is produced, because the air is broken up in their pores and dispersed as in sponges. In things that
a buzzing which is conveyed back to the sense of hearing. Others say that the sound occurring in the ears after the blockage is of the external air th
For instance, fish, not having this, are cooled through their gills. Those that have a windpipe also have a lung. Fish have neither these nor a heart.
the sense organs of touch, it is clear for every sense organ is both separated and known. Aristotle speaks of the senses both as one each and as many
Aristotle in On the Soul : if sensation ceased, the sense-organ would also cease. But if the second is not, neither is the first. Sensation and sense-
Some add also a sixth, the attentive [faculty], as when a man says, I perceived, I thought, I opined. To this part they also add the activities of t
We can say ten, but not indeed opine it, so that opinion is not up to us. But neither do we imagine what we wish for we see at night what we do not w
in the case of children, the one according to state, and the one in act, as the one governing all things or the one entering from without. Plato says
theoretical versus the practical. The theoretical corresponds to a vision discerning of forms, while the practical corresponds to a vision not only kn
organs. Moreover, at night the nutritive faculty is more active, but the locomotive faculty is not at all. A difficulty: the vegetative faculty produc
simpler, or rather the things inherent in the matter, into which the matter is also divided, which are also prop[erly] called its elements. I say then
he hints that it is not completed from both of the things mixed, but is produced in the union of the soul and the body, not by the soul itself giving
closing the senses, so as to know unknowingly the transcendent substance of that which is. For according to their own opinions, the philosopher who ha
he himself will also pardon his own student for the apparent 78 opposition to him and others will come here again to bear witness for us, the philoso
it grows and is naturally constituted to decay, must in every way grow along with and decay along with the other in a connate manner for that by whic
a demonstration, so also the soul in an infant's body and a more imperfect one, if it were in another, perfect body, would immediately have shown its
I shall use the argument. In what do you say virtue is inherent? or again, is it superimposed on the formless and incorporeal and uncompounded nature,
Porphyry has philosophized in harmony with this. For in discussing the soul, he says: “Just as insomniacs, by the very act of wanting to sleep and wat
have they cast off? Perhaps those who hold the contrary opinion will vex us with these things. But their objection is like a spider's web, which will
to have received watchwords from the first father, nor that they possess the fullness of many bosoms, nor would I accept that they stand before the bo
both the Sibylline and the Orphic ones, and those according to which the Berytian Bulls came to be and Amous the Egyptian, and Socrates and Plato (for
of the bonds by which they were bound, and after this, turning their minds upward, they will approach God. And if the account told about the Sibyl wer
has the front part? What then do you think? a mind scattered in so great a size is from this cause for him both slack and weak, and the soul is simply
would remember any of the things here. But as many of the souls as were allotted to more humble portions and their whole mind has not been snatched aw
Let us not altogether reject the analogy of the eye in the case of the soul, let it be and be called a more precise substance of the soul but if some
The manner of the entry of souls, and likewise of their release or separation from hence, both are most difficult or hard to explain for of the first
but by such powers the soul is led like some kind of thing moved by another, being drawn towards whatever the leaders happen to lead it, but then rath
For that which is according to reason, knowledge is readily at hand, but that which is contrary to reason, is so because it has received such a nature
of beasts, but perhaps the matter which reason has shown not to exist. Therefore our bodies will be resurrected, and there will be nothing to prevent
fitting and gluing it to that by means of a suitable analogy, not placing the rational and intellectual substance into any of the animals for this is
are generated from these powers alone, for this reason, having abandoned the others, they divided the substance of the soul into these alone. But if y
it is in fourths, when one might contemplate these both in the third order of the intellectual virtues and in the fourth of the paradigmatic virtues,
and so interpreting the Platonic opinion, but they do not seem to me to have grasped the precise meaning of his doctrine. But if I shall clarify for y
and with nothing separating them, it is necessary for the one to be ordered, and the other to order and the one which is ordered has its form divided
what is hard and resistant in them has been smoothed out by me. But what follows from this must be attributed to them alone for, proposing to speak a
proceeds from it and returns to it.” Then indeed he works out the point by division. For if it only remained, it would in no way differ from its cause
in our sacred writings, neither a whole soul nor any whole nature, apart from the partial ones, has been dogmatically established1. I for my part reje
by the energy, then also the substance is perfected according to it, and these things stand in each other according to one energy. For he who does not
having a life activated according to intellect and reason the psychic is defined according to reason 124 and takes care of divisible souls the physi
tormenting them. But there are, they say, both on earth divine daimons and in the air, guardians of the animals there, and <in> the water, extending t
make it superior to the confusion of life, but, if possible, may you not even leave behind in the terrestrial world the very body which you have put o
cast under your mind: for there is no plant of truth on earth» that is: do not busy your mind with the great measures of the earth, as the geographer
Gregory by reason and contemplation leads the soul up to the more divine things by reason that is according to us, the more intellectual and better,
such a lion-bearing fount of heaven and the stars, but the ruling part of its own existence conceals the vision of them. Chaldaean Oracle. From all si
often appearing, they feign the semblance of some goodness towards the one being initiated. Chaldean Oracle. The soul of mortals will draw God into it
they can. Whence everything they say and show is false and insubstantial for they know existing things through forms but that which knows future thi
and fear is the holding back of his goodness towards us for the sake of the economy. Chaldean Oracle. The Father snatched himself away, not even enclo
they are possessed by passions. Therefore, it is necessary for these also to receive their part of the whole judgment and, having been filled up with
for it is higher than being venerated, than being uttered, and than being conceived. A Chaldean Oracle. The Iynges, being conceived by the Father, the
an unknown password, spoken and unspoken. And they often bring the soul down 148 into the world for many reasons, either through the shedding of its w
of truth and of love. After which are the demiurgic fountains, such as that of the ideas, according to which the cosmos and the things in it have shap
enclosing the triad towards itself and they call these also intelligible. After these, another order of the intelligible and at the same time intelle
to the setting [sun], and the pit to the one just at mid-heaven. And thus, gently separating the membrane of the liver, [which is placed] upon the org
parts of philosophy is necessary. For according to moral philosophy it is necessary to assume that not all things are and come to be by necessity, but
knowledge and sees not only the essences themselves, but also their powers and their activities, both those according to nature and those contrary to
he acquired. For even before the birth of both, God knew that the one would be good, and the other would turn out bad and this knowledge is an unchan
from the one who knows, and it revolves around the thing known and is made like the one who knows. I mean something like this: the knowledge of the so
they fabricate. For I too had a certain little man, ignoble in soul, but by no means the least of storytellers to him, at any rate, such phantoms pre
closing the senses, so as to know unknowingly the transcendent substance of that which is. For according to their own opinions, the philosopher who has become practical ought to have put on such a body, and the theoretical another, and the theurgic, as they themselves say, a spherical and astral one. Therefore, just as here the different condition of the soul of those who have philosophized did not alter the nature of the body, so neither will the age to come alter the instrument, nor will the soul be unsuited to its own original formation and tabernacle, but the body will have its form unalterably, and it will be a vehicle suited to the soul for the comprehension of the most ineffable things. A discourse on the soul by the most blessed monk and hypertimos Michael Psellos This letter is composed for you with diligence, most learned soul; wherefore from what we have in memory, we make for you a brief response to the questions asked. You asked, therefore, whether the soul is given to the body perfect in its substance, or whether it dwells in it more imperfectly, and is perfected with it as it is perfected, and grows with it as it grows. And under each of these two parts, like a scorpion under a stone, a certain absurdity lies hidden. For if we maintain that the soul is perfect even in infants, how is it that newborns do not perform the same activities as the perfect? But if we were to say the soul is imperfect in imperfect bodies, you say that this very thing is absurd, that the soul is not infused into the body as perfect. Having inquired into these things dialectically and persuasively, O good one, you commanded us, having collected the opinions on the problem from both the philosophers of antiquity and our own men, to set them forth in a letter. 77 To which we respond both clearly and quickly that, as far as I know, neither the teachers of the Greeks nor the wise men and philosophers of our own wisdom have manifestly treated of this. And the reason is that this is beneath the inquiry of philosophical men and those knowledgeable of the truth. For the question of when the soul enters the body has been investigated by many others of old and indeed has been earnestly studied especially by Porphyry, and among our own, by Gregory of Nyssa and many others, along with many other noble problems concerning the soul; but whether the soul grows with the body or not, none of the ancients has yet deemed worthy of even a brief discussion. But since this is also being investigated by the more recent, and has indeed now been proposed as a problem, come let us too philosophize about this, from what the ancients both believed and held concerning the soul and what true reason suggests. I think, then, since there are many and different parts or powers of the soul, that this has been asked by you concerning the rational soul; for concerning the vegetative and the animal soul, I think no one would dispute on account of infants. Growth, both Aristotle and the other wise men, most numerous and greatest, say is a kind of motion, just as also decay, which is its opposite. Motion being spoken of in four ways, or rather in three, as he more skillfully articulated in the Physics, no one is ignorant of what the motion of bodies according to place is; and that according to quality they name alteration; and that according to quantity is growth and decay. And let this be so for now; but the same Aristotle in the same Physics demonstrated that everything that is moved is a body, and that nothing incorporeal nor indivisible is by nature moved. And all the natural philosophers after him accepted this, Alexander and Porphyry and Ammonius, and further Damascius and Simplicius and Priscian, and after them the most industrious John, and before all of these Theophrastus the successor of Aristotle and the rest of the chorus of natural philosophers. But if we should also recall that the divine Plato said this to Aristotle concerning physical and corporeal motion, perhaps
μύσας τὰς αἰσθήσεις, ὥστε ἀγνώστως γνῶναι τὴν ὑπερφυῆ τοῦ ὄντος οὐσίαν. ἐχρῆν γὰρ κατὰ τὰς αὐτῶν δόξας πρακτικὸν μὲν τὸν φιλόσοφον
γεγονότα τοιόνδε ἀμπίσχεσθαι σῶμα, καὶ θεωρητικὸν ἕτερον, καὶ θεουργὸν οἷον αὐτοί φασι περιφερὲς καὶ ἀστρῷον. ὥσπερ οὖν ἡ
ἐνταῦθα διάφορος τῶν φιλοσοφησάντων κατάστασις τῆς ψυχῆς οὐκ ἠλλοίωσε τὴν φύσιν τοῦ σώματος, οὕτως οὐδὲ ὁ μέλλων αἰὼν ἀλλοιώσει
τὸ ὄργανον, οὐδὲ ἡ ψυχὴ ἀκαταλλήλως ἕξει τῷ ἐξ ἀρχῆς οἰκείῳ αὐτῆς πλάσματι καὶ σκηνώματι, ἀλλ' ἀναλλοιώτως μὲν ἕξει τὸ σῶμα
τοῦ σχήματος, προσφυὲς δὲ τῇ ψυχῇ ὄχημα ἔσται πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀρρητοτάτων κατανόησιν. Τοῦ μακαριωτάτου Μιχαὴλ μοναχοῦ καὶ ὑπερτίμου
τοῦ Ψελλοῦ λόγος περὶ ψυχῆσ Κατὰ σπουδήν σοι τὸ γράμμα συντίθεται, φιλολογωτάτη ψυχή· ὅθεν ἐξ ὧν ἐν μνήμῃ ἐσμὲν σύντομόν σοι
πρὸς τὰ ἠρωτημένα ποιούμεθα τὴν ἀπόκρισιν. ἐζήτησας οὖν τελεία κατ' οὐσίαν ἡ ψυχὴ τῷ σώματι δίδοται ἢ ἀτελεστέρα μὲν αὐτῷ
ἐνοικίζεται, τελειουμένῳ δὲ συντελειοῦται καὶ αὐξανομένῳ συναύξεται. ἑκατέρῳ δὲ τουτωνὶ τῶν τμημάτων οἷον ὑπὸ λίθῳ σκορπίος
ἀτοπία τις ὑποκάθηται. εἰ μὲν γὰρ τελείαν σώσομεν τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ τοῖς βρέφεσι, πῶς οὐχὶ καὶ τὰς αὐτὰς τοῖς τελείοις ἐνεργείας
ἐνεργοῦσι καὶ τὰ ἀρτίτοκα; εἰ δὲ ἀτελῆ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐν τοῖς μὴ τελείοις φαίημεν σώμασιν, ἀλλ' αὐτὸ δὴ τοῦτο ἄτοπον εἶναι φῄς,
τὸ μὴ οὐ τελείαν ἐγκαταμιγνύναι τῷ σώματι τὴν ψυχήν. ταῦτα, ὠγαθέ, σὺ διαλεκτικῶς ζητήσας καὶ πιθανῶς ἐκέλευσας ἡμᾶς συναγηοχότας
τῶν τε τῆς παλαιότητος φιλοσόφων καὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων ἀνδρῶν τὰς περὶ τοῦ προβλήματος δόξας ὑφηγήσασθαι δι' ἐπιστολῆς. 77 Πρὸς
ὃ σαφῶς τε ἅμα καὶ ταχέως ἀποκρινόμεθα ὅτι φανερῶς περὶ τούτου ὅσα ἐμὲ εἰδέναι οὔτε οἱ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐπραγματεύσαντο παιδευταὶ
οὔτε οἱ τὴν ἡμετέραν σοφίαν σοφοὶ καὶ φιλόσοφοι. καὶ τὸ αἴτιον, ὅτι χεῖρον ἢ κατὰ ζήτησίν ἐστι τοῦτο φιλοσόφοις ἀνδράσι καὶ
τοῦ ἀληθοῦς ἐπιστήμοσι. τὸ μὲν γάρ, πότε εἰσκρίνεται τῷ σώματι ἡ ψυχή, καὶ ἄλλοις τῶν πάλαι πολλοῖς ἐζήτηται καὶ δὴ καὶ Πορφυρίῳ
μᾶλλον ἐσπούδασται, τῶν δὲ ἡμετέρων τῷ τε Νυσσαεῖ Γρηγορίῳ καὶ ἑτέροις πολλοῖς καὶ ἄλλα τὰ περὶ ψυχῆς πολλὰ καὶ γενναῖα προβλήματα·
τὸ δὲ συναύξειν ἢ μὴ συναύξειν τῷ σώματι τὴν ψυχὴν οὐδείς πω τῶν πάλαι οὐδὲ λόγου βραχέος ἠξίωσεν. ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο τοῖς
νεωτέροις ζητεῖται καὶ μέντοι καὶ προβέβληται νῦν, φέρε τι περὶ τούτου φιλοσοφήσωμεν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφ' ὧν οἵ τε παλαιοὶ καὶ περὶ
ψυχῆς ἐδόξασαν καὶ ἐπρέσβευσαν καὶ ὁ ἀληθὴς ὑποτίθησι λόγος. οἶμαι δὲ ἄρα πολλῶν καὶ διαφόρων ὄντων μορίων ψυχῆς ἢ δυνάμεων
περὶ τῆς λογικῆς καὶ τοῦτο ψυχῆς ἐζητῆσθαί σοι· περὶ γὰρ τῆς φυτικῆς τε καὶ ζωϊκῆς οὐδεὶς ἂν οἶμαι διαμφισβητήσοι τῶν βρεφῶν
ἕνεκα. Τὴν αὔξησιν ὅ τε Ἀριστοτέλης οἵ τε ἄλλοι σοφοὶ καὶ πλεῖστοι καὶ μέγιστοι κίνησίν τινα λέγουσιν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὴν φθίσιν
τὴν πρὸς ταύτην ἀντίθετον. τετραχῶς δὲ τῆς κινήσεως λεγομένης, ἢ μᾶλλον τριχῶς, ὡς ἐκεῖνος ἐν τῇ Φυσικῇ διήρθρωσε τεχνικώτερον,
ἣ μὲν τίς ἐστι κατὰ τόπον κίνησις τῶν σωμάτων οὐδεὶς ἀγνοεῖ· τὴν δὲ κατὰ τὸ ποιὸν ἀλλοίωσιν ὀνομάζουσιν· ἡ δὲ κατὰ τὸ ποσὸν
αὔξησίς τε καὶ φθίσις ἐστί. καὶ τοῦτο μὲν οὕτω κείσθω τὰ νῦν· ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ Φυσικῇ πᾶν μὲν τὸ κινούμενον
σῶμα εἶναι ἀπέδειξεν, οὐδὲν δὲ ἀσώματον οὐδὲ ἀμερὲς πεφυκέναι κινεῖσθαι. καὶ τοῦτο πάντες οἱ μετ' αὐτὸν προσήκαντο φυσικοί,
Ἀλέξανδρος καὶ Πορφύριος καὶ Ἀμμώνιος, ἔτι δὲ καὶ ∆αμάσκιος καὶ Σιμπλίκιος καὶ Πρισκιανός, καὶ μετ' αὐτοὺς ὁ φιλοπονώτατος
Ἰωάννης, πρὸ δὲ τούτων ἁπάντων Θεόφραστος ὁ Ἀριστοτέλους διάδοχος καὶ ὁ λοιπὸς τῶν φυσιολόγων χορός. εἰ δὲ καὶ τὸν θεσπέσιον
Πλάτωνα περὶ τῆς φυσικῆς τε καὶ σωματοειδοῦς εἰρῆσθαι τοῦτο τῷ Ἀριστοτέλει κινήσεως ὑπομνήσομεν, τάχ' ἂν
