OF ELEMENTARY COGNITION FROM ALCMAEON TO ARISTOTLE BY JOHN I. BEARE, M.A. FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN UNIVERSITY ELAND STANFORD JUNØR OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS S PREFACE MOST readers know the difficulty as well as importance of the de Anima and Parva Naturalia of Aristotle; and any genuine assistance would be welcomed by students who desire to master them. A great deal has been done by editors and others for the elucidation of the former of these works and, indirectly, of the latter, so far as they involve metaphysics, or psychology in its higher reaches. No one, however, has been at the pains to glean and put together systematically, from Aristotle himself and his predecessors, whatever may explain or illustrate the parts of his writings essentially concerned with empirical psychology. The results of this, it should seem, would be useful not only to students of ancient Greek psychology, but also to readers who, perhaps knowing and caring little about Greek, might yet desire a clear and objective, even if brief, account of what was achieved for the psychology of the senses by the ancient Greek philosophers. The purpose of this book, within the limits defined by its title, is to present such an account; and it will rightly be judged according to the degree in which it fulfils its purpose. Among its most competent critics will be the student who may test its usefulness in connexion with the many passages on the interpretation of which it directly or indirectly bears. To such critics and others its author leaves it; confiding less, however, in the merits of his work than in the fellow-feeling which all scholars, as well as students of philosophy, have for one who honestly grapples with their common foe, rò ȧoapés, in whatever form this may present itself. The books used or consulted are named in the list given |