DE ANIMAE IMMORTALITATE On the Immortality of the Soul

Theophrastus. they would not taste right to many, things which nevertheless did not displease not only the ancient Peripatetics, Theophrastus and his followers, but were so pleasing to Albert the Great that, with a few changes, he honored them in his book on the origin of the soul as a very strong demonstration. And before him, they were so esteemed by Philoponus in his commentaries on the first book of Aristotle’s On the Soul that he attempted to gather this demonstration into himself—that is, the one which we transcribe, translating word for word from the Greek into Latin. The soul is self-moving; what is self-moving is always moving; but this is immortal; therefore, the soul is immortal. But also Themistius, although he does not agree that motion properly belongs to the soul, nevertheless thinks that Aristotle says almost the same thing, if one wishes to take "motion" in place of "act." He also thinks that other arguments of Plato agree and correspond with the arguments of Aristotle, especially those which Aristotle embraced in the Eudemus (which is a dialogue on the soul). Not only does Themistius himself mention this in his Paraphrase, but Simplicius does so as well in his expositions, so that we may notice that my uncle, Ioannes Picus, did not take up an unbearable burden on human shoulders when he promised the concord of Plato and Aristotle in this matter as well. Nor shall I bring forth arguments explained elsewhere from divine justice. Nor shall I bring forth the testimonies of divine eloquence, and the experiences of those who have returned to life and helped living men after death—experiences which Aristotle himself uses as most true for proving the soul's immortality so far as it pertains to wing-borne help and revelations after death.