ABSTRACT
Nutrition and reproduction are enumerated by Aristotle in Book II of his work On the Soul, together and on the same line with basic mental functions (sensory, psychomotor, and thought); while today we consider those two more as biological. Yet, in a broader sense, one can speak of them as psychosomatic—see, for instance, psychogenic anorexia, bulimia, and impotence. The ancient philosopher explains his categorization on the fact that nutrition through food maintains life, and life exists in beings possessing a soul. Without nutrition, it is impossible for a being to grow, mature and, lastly, decay. In spite of the inclusion of nutrition among the mental functions, it seems that Aristotle kept some reservations. At one point, he explicitly states that the faculty of self-nutrition could be separated from the rest, but not they from it. To that thought, he was led by the fact that “nutrition is the only ‘psychic’ potentiality which plants possess”.
