On the Soul (De Anima) with Simplicius Commentary

are subject to a twofold division. For some of them are rational, and others are irrational. And each of these powers is again divided in a twofold respect. For of the rational powers, some are vital and orectic Pertaining to the faculty of appetite or desire. (or pertaining to appetite), while others are gnostic Pertaining to knowledge or cognition.. In a similar manner, the irrational powers are also divided. Again, the rational and gnostic powers of the soul receive a triple division. For one of them is opinion, another is dianoia Discursive reasoning; the faculty of moving from premise to conclusion., and another is intellect.

Opinion, therefore, is concerned with the universal that is found in sensibles Objects perceptible to the senses.; since it has a knowledge of this. For it knows that every man is a biped, and that all color is the object of sight alone. Furthermore, it knows the conclusions of the dianoetic energy, but has no knowledge of the causes of those conclusions. For it knows that the rational soul is immortal, but it does not know why it is immortal, because that is the province of dianoia. But it is the province of opinion to know only that it is immortal. Hence, opinion is that power which knows the universal in sensibles and the conclusions of the dianoetic energy; whence, also, opinion is well defined in the Sophist of Plato as the termination of dianoia. For the dianoetic power syllogizing Using logical deduction. that the rational soul is immortal, opinion, receiving this conclusion, only knows that the soul is immortal. But dianoia is that power which completes, as it were, a certain path by passing from propositions to conclusions—from which it also derives its name. Thus, for instance, dianoia investigates why the rational soul is immortal. Afterwards, beginning from things more manifest, it passes on to the object of investigation, and says that the soul is self-moving. That which is self-moving is always moving; but this is immortal; the soul, therefore, is immortal. And this is the employment of dianoia. Hence, it is the discursive or evolved energy of reason, and when unperverted, it is that power of the soul which reasons