Commentary on Aristotle's "On Sense and What Is Sensed" and "On Memory and Recollection"

279 Pages·2005·0.84 MB·English

by  Thomas Aquinas

Commentaries on Aristotle’s
On Sense and What Is Sensed and
On Memory and Recollection
)_
THOMAS AQUINAS IN TRANSLATION
EDITORIAL BOARD
Kevin White, The Catholic University of America, Editorial Director
Jude P. Dougherty, The Catholic University of America
Thérèse-Anne Druart, The Catholic University of America
David M. Gallagher
Jorge J. E. Gracia, State University of New York at Buffalo
Timoth Noone, The Catholic University of America
John F. Wippel, The Catholic University of America
David J. McGonagle, The Catholic University of America Press
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Commentaries on
Aristotle’s On Sense and What
Is Sensed and On Memory
and Recollection
)_
translated with introductions and notes by
Kevin White and Edward M. Macierowski
The Catholic University of America Press
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2005
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standards for Information Science—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?–1274.
[In Aristotelis libros De sensu et sensato, De memoria et
reminiscentia commentarium. English]
Commentaries on Aristotle’s “On sense and what is sensed”
and “On memory and recollection” / translated with an
introduction and notes by Kevin White and Edward M.
Macierowski.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(Thomas Aquinas in translation)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8132-1379-7 (cloth : alk. paper)—
ISBN 0-8132-1382-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Aristotle. De sensu et sensibilibus. 2. Senses and
sensation—Early works to 1800. 3. Aristotle. De memoria et
reminiscentia. 4. Memory (Philosophy)—Early works to 1800.
I. White, Kevin, 1952– II. Macierowski, E. M., 1948– III. Title.
IV. Series.
B444.T4613 2005
121’.35—dc22
2003023086
“In consulting the excellent commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas on
the Parva Naturaliaof Aristotle, I was struck at once with its close resem-
blance to Hume’s Essay on association. The main thoughts were the
same in both, the orderof the thoughts was the same, and even the illus-
trations differed only by Hume’s occasional substitution of more modern
examples. I mentioned the circumstance to several of my literary ac-
quaintances, who admitted the closeness of the resemblance, and that it
seemed too great to be explained by mere coincidence; but they thought
it improbable that Hume should have held the pages of the angelic Doc-
tor worth turning over. But some time after Mr. Payne, of the King’s
mews, shewed Sir James Mackintosh some odd volumes of St. Thomas
Aquinas, partly perhaps from having heard that Sir James (then Mr.)
Mackintosh had in his lectures passed a high encomium on this canon-
ized philosopher, but chiefly from the fact, that the volumes had be-
longed to Mr. Hume, and had here and there marginal marks and notes
of reference in his own hand writing. Among these volumes was that
which contains the Parva Naturalia, in the old Latin version, swathed
and swaddled in the commentary afore mentioned!”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia literaria, Chapter V
)_

CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments •ix
COMMENTARY ON ARISTOTLE’S
ON SENSE AND WHAT IS SENSED
Translated by Kevin White
Translator’s Introduction•3 Chapter 10•88
Prologue•14 Chapter 11•95
Chapter 1•23 Chapter 12•102
Chapter 2•31 Chapter 13•109
Chapter 3•39 Chapter 14•117
Chapter 4•45 Chapter 15•125
Chapter 5•53 Chapter 16•136
Chapter 6•61 Chapter 17•143
Chapter 7•67 Chapter 18•150
Chapter 8•74 Notes•159
Chapter 9•79
COMMENTARY ON ARISTOTLE’S
ON MEMORY AND RECOLLECTION
Translated by Edward M. Macierowski
Translator’s Introduction•169 Chapter 5•210
Chapter 1•183 Chapter 6•216
Chapter 2•189 Chapter 7•223
Chapter 3•196 Chapter 8•229
Chapter 4•205 Notes•235
Bibliography •261

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
If there are two people, one of whom writes one part of a book and the other
another part, then “we wrote that book” is not literally correct, but a synecdoche,
inasmuch as the whole stands for the parts.
Summa theologiae III, Q.67, a.6, ad 3
The present volume consists of English translations of the commen-
taries by Thomas Aquinas on the first two books of Aristotle’s Parva nat-
uralia: De sensu et sensatoand De memoria et reminiscentia.The translations
are based on the critical edition of the commentaries published by René-
Antoine Gauthier, O.P., in 1985 in Volume 45.2 of the Leonine Commis-
sion’s edition of Aquinas’s opera omnia.Gauthier’s edition includes criti-
cal texts of the Latin versions that Aquinas had of the Aristotelian
works, as well as an informative introduction in French and valuable
notes to the text in Latin. It is hoped that the present translations may
be useful to readers interested in Aquinas’s thought, in the history of
Aristotelianism, or in important pre-modern discussions of sensation
and its objects and of memory and recollection. In imitation of the Leo-
nine format, the words of the Aristotelian text that are repeated in the
commentaries have been italicized. The translators would like to express
their gratitude to the Leonine Commission for its kind permission to use
the Leonine text.
A possible source of confusion should be clarified. In the dominant
traditional ordering of Aristotle’s works, De sensu et sensato,the sequel to
De anima, is followed by De memoria et reminiscentia. Aquinas accepted
this ordering and followed it in his commentaries on the three works.
Toward the beginning of his commentary on De sensu et sensato,however,
apparently under the influence of Averroes, he characterizes De memoria
et reminiscentia as the second “treatise” of the “book” De sensu et sensato
(see pp. 17, 24 below), and Gauthier’s edition accordingly presents a
single commentary on two treatises of one book. But at the beginning
ix