ABSTRACT

The psuchê or animator is that part or feature of an animate being which endows it with life; and since the primary signs of life are cognition and mobility, the psuchê is the source of knowledge and the source of locomotion. That gives a formal or functional account of psuchê; but it leaves us to ask what the psychic nature consists in: what sort of thing is it that provides us with life? is it the same sort of thing in men, in animals and in plants? where (if anywhere) is it located in the body? is it separable from the body?