Transformations of the Soul: Aristotelian Psychology 1250-1650

Aristotles De anima shaped philosophical debates far beyond the Middle Ages and gave rise to a number of theories about the nature of the soul, its various functions and its relation to the body. The ten contributions to this book, a special issue of the journal Vivarium, examine some of these theories in the period between Albertus Magnus and Descartes. They pay particular attention to the question of how the metaphysical status of the soul and its parts was explained, and analyze Aristotelian accounts of cognitive activities such as perceiving, imagining and thinking. The ten case studies focus both on defenders of the Aristotelian paradigm and on its critics, arguing that one should not look for a moment of break with Aristotelianism, but for various stages of transformation.