Page:Eight chapters of Maimonides on ethics.djvu/32

12 or parts. There are five parts to the human soul: (1) the nutritive ; (2) the perceptive ; (3) the imaginative ; (4) the appetitive, and (5) the rational. Other beings are spoken of as having these powers, but they are essentially different from those of man, whose soul, as the bearer of human properties, is not the same as that of other creatures, as the horse, the ass, or the eagle.

The nutritive part of the soul has seven powers, or properties: (1) the power of attraction ; (2) the power of retention ; (3) the power of digestion ; (4) the power of repelling superfluities ; (5) the power of growth ; (6) the power of propagation, and (7) the power of differentiation between the nutritive humors and those to be repelled.

The perceptive part consists of the five senses, seeing, hearing , smelling , tasting , and feeling.

The imaginative part is the power of retaining impressions of objects even when they do not perceptibly affect the senses, and of combining them in different ways, so that the imagination constructs out of originally real things those that never have nor can exist. The Mutakallimun overlook this truth as regards the imagination, which they make the corner-stone of their philosophical system.

The appetitive part is the power to long for a thing or to shun it. From this there results the seeking after or fleeing from a person or thing; inclination and avoidance; anger and satisfaction; fear and bravery; cruelty and compassion, and many other qualities (, accidents) of the soul. The organs of this power are all parts of the body.

The rational part is the power peculiar to man by which he understands, thinks, acquires knowledge, and discriminates between proper and improper actions. This manifold activity of the rational part is both practical and speculative. The practical activities are partly mechanical and partly intellectual. The speculative activities are the powers of man by which he knows things which, by their nature, are not